Goin' Bowling

LAPS

2012-01-14T15:07:00.000-07:00

Our work at the Bishop's Storehouse has slowed down quite a bit since Christmas. This is a good thing for one reason because that means that maybe people are working and not needing help. But it's also a bad thing, because now we are just sitting around getting fatter. I've been trying to figure out some things we can do to pass the time, and Thursday I came up with the idea that I could walk laps in the warehouse, so I did 6 laps before I had to come back in and help with some orders. Today I mentioned it to another lady who is a misisonary there and she told me about a pedometer app that I could download on my cell phone. I downloaded it and we did almost a mile today. We zig-zag up and down all the aisles to make it longer. Thursday I was just going around and around and it was making me dizzy. :0+ My pedometer app counts my steps as well as tells me how far I 've walked and tells me how many calories I've burned, which today was sure not nearly enough. It beats sitting......

JUST STOP IT, NEWT!

2012-01-10T11:02:00.000-07:00

The Republican Party is such a farce right now. The main goal should be banding together to defeat Obama in the next election. Instead we have candidates behaving like spoiled children who are mad because they didn't "win the game". Problem is, instead of taking their marbles and going home, they are trying to stay in the game by stamping their feet and just crying harder. Why, if you were truly concerned about the Republican party beating Obama would you , instead of realizing you can't win because your numbers are too low, attack another fellow Republican? Shouldn't you do the honorable thing - like Michelle Bachman - and bow out and put your support behind one who does have higher statistics? The other thing I can't understand is why no one in the Republican party can stop Newt Gingrich from acting like the boy who didn't get picked to play on the team and is throwing a tempter tantrum. Someone please stop him before he competely destroys the entire Republican Party!

TOO CRAFTY

2012-01-08T18:06:00.000-07:00

I have decided that I will never be bored, and indeed I never am. I have so many craft projects going and so many more waiting to be done that I will probably never do some of them. I'm a person that can never just sit and watch tv, so I am usually doing some kind of needlework, or doing something on my laptop, or even doing a crossword puzzle while I'm watching tv.

I always have big ideas when Christmas is coming, but after the last 2 years of trying to get one idea of a craft project done for Christmas, and failing for 2 years, I have finally come to the conclusion that I can NEVER count on doing a craft at any time after November 1st, and maybe even October 1st. So one of my New Year's Resolutions is to do these craft projects now and actually finish them! We'll see if I get them done. I need to though, because I have many more ideas waiting.....

THE PIZZA MAN

2011-12-30T20:34:00.000-07:00

I was tending my 2 grandsons (2 1/2 and almost 4) while their parents and 2 older sisters went to see the movie, "Tin Tin". In fact the almost 4 year old was given the choice of going to see the movie or staying with Grandma and he chose to stay with Grandma. :0) At one point I had to go to the bathroom, so used the one just off of the kitchen. I had the door locked, but could hear the 2 1/2 year old in the kitchen. I wondered what he was doing when all of a sudden I heard him talking. He was saying, "I need pizza! I need pizza!" When I came out of the bathroom, he had the refrigerator open. I guess he never found the pizza in there (because there wasn't any) because when I came over to him and asked him what he wanted, he said he wanted a drink of koolaid, which I gave him. He never mentioned pizza again.

BELIEVE

2011-12-28T17:32:00.000-07:00

Babs & StaceGhost gave me this sheet music for Christmas, so I've been playing it and trying to learn it. I love not only the melody, but the words to the chorus.

Believe in what your heart is saying
Hear the melody that's playing.
There's no time to waste,
There's so much to celebrate.
Believe in what you feel inside and
Give your dreams the wings to fly.
You have everything you need
If you just believe.....
If you just believe...
If you just believe...
Just believe...
Just believe...

A BED FOR AN AMERICAN GIRL

2011-12-24T22:22:00.000-07:00

The week after Thanksgiving, my daughter called us and asked my husband if we would make this for our granddaughter's 8th birthday. We got very busy and designed it, he made it, and I made the mattress, bedding, nightgown, and look very closely and you'll see an eye mask to match the nightgown. We took it with us to Texas a week and a half later when we went for our granddaughter's birthday and baptism.

This is for her American Girl doll.

A SCARY DESCENT

2011-12-13T21:09:00.000-07:00

We took another trip to Texas this last weekend to go to our granddaughters 8th birthday and her baptism. We had to work at the Storehouse on the Thursday that we left, so just thought we'd work until it closed at 3pm and then drive to Lubbock to spend the night. Since we had to bring in a present that we made our granddaughter so we could find a box for it, they knew we were planning on leaving that day. They told us to go ahead and leave, so we actually were able to leave about an hour and a half earlier that we thought we would. We stayed in Lubbock that night and drove onto Dallas the next day. We had a great visit with our daughter and her family. We were going to go visit my husband's mother on our way home and spend Monday night in her town, but when we called her Monday morning, she was not feeling well so we ended up just stopping by for about an hour and dropping off Christmas presents. We had also left Dallas late that morning because we had to run by Rockler, my husband's favorite store (woodworking) so he could pick up some Christmas presents for himself from me. :0) We didn't leave his mom's until about 3pm. It's about a 7 1/2 hour drive home from her house.

We were a little concerned because we started running into fog almost immediately and ran in and out of fog, some of it pretty heavy, all the way to about 2 hours from our town. By the time we got off the state highways and onto the main interstate, it was raining, but that was better than fog. Weather conditions got worse the further we went. We knew we'd probably run into snow at one place that is a higher elevation and we were correct, but a few miles down the road it changed back to rain. We could see that the fields all still had snow in them. As we left the last town before ours, it started to snow. This was not a good sign. We started our ascent up the last hill before our descent down the canyon and the snow increased, turning into what I termed as a blizzard. It was snowing really hard and the snowflakes were really big. We passed the sign that is supposed to flash when the highway is closed, but there were no lights flashing. Just then we looked ahead and there were about 5 highway patrols cars ahead with their lights on. I mentioned to my husband that they must be closing the highway, but that was not the case. As we got closer we saw a Fed Ex semi jack-knifed with the trailer laying on it's side across 2 lanes of traffic. We had to slow down to about 20 miles an hour and go around it on the shoulder. Once around the wreck, the snow got harder and the highway was quickly covered. We could see directly in front of us and about 20 feet, but that's it. We couldn't see the white line on either the center or the sides of the road. There was a brown path (from them sanding the highway) that we followed, but all the cars were single file. There was us, another car and 2 diesels. The other car exited later but the 2 semi's continued to follow us. It got harder and harder to see and by this time we had started down the canyon. We were only doing about 40 mph (and we really shouldn't have been going that fast) and at first had the diesels right on our bumper. Finally he pulled back - probably when he had to gear down, but he would still catch up with us every once in awhile. The worst part was it seemed to take forever and I never thought we would get out of it! I was leaning forward trying to help my husband see. Every time the semi would get close to us, we thought he might try to pass us. One time my husband tried to pull over to the right and almost immediately I heard the tires run onto the rumble strips, so I told him that was the edge of the road and not to go any further. Finally, finally, finally the road started getting better and then finally the snow changed back to rain and the highway cleared completely and we continued to drive in the rain on down the canyon into our city. As we looked back in our rearview mirrors, we noticed that it was ONLY us and the 2 semis that came down the mountain. It made me wonder if they had turned on the flashing sign after we went through, because we sure didn't see anyone else as we drove into the city. That was one of the scariest things I have experienced. I never want to experience it again, but I am so thankful that the Lord watched over us and kept us safe and gave my husband the patience and skill to get us safely down that mountain highway.

When we went to Texas at Thanksgiving, we drove back in high winds and sandstorms all the way. This time it was fog and blizzards. I think we're going to stay home for awhile...:0)

I KNOW MY FATHER LIVES AND LOVES ME TOO....

2011-11-30T21:36:00.000-07:00

There is a children's song that says:
"I know my Father lives and loves me too
The Spirit whispers this to me and tells me it is true,
And tells me it is true."

So lastly, to end my month of Gratitude, I am thankful for my Heavenly Father and the knowledge that He knows me personally and cares about me. I recently read a book called, Divine Signatures by Gerald Lund. In this book he writes about the blessings that the Lord gives us and that some of them are so tailored to us and our circumstances that it was as if the Lord signed His signature to it. When this happens, it is a tender mercy to us to affirm that the Lord knows who we are and what we are going through. I've had a few of these in my life.

Sometimes we might have to sing the children's song above to ourselves, or at least say the words over and over to remind ourselves that the Lord does love us. When we are going through a trial it is particularly hard to remember that the Lord loves us. We even may "curse God" and wonder why He is putting us through this. But next time this happens to you, stop and very carefully look around and listen. You might find some things in your life at that time with the Lord's signature on them; proof to you that He does indeed know what you're going through, and proof to you that He also does indeed love you very much.

I know this, and I'm very thankful for that knowledge.

THESE ARE A FEW OF MY FAVORITE THINGS

2011-11-30T21:11:00.000-07:00

Today I'm thankful for "favorite things". We love to have our favorite things around us. We even get a little OCD about our favorite things. I thought I'd just make a list of my favorite things and just let you wonder about why they are my favs. :0) Some may be repeat subjects from past gratitude posts:
- my piano
- hoodie jackets
- jeans
- mens white quarter socks
- my Dallas Cowboy t-shirt
- my stuffed weird animal collection
- my bed
- pumpkin cookies
- Nutella spread
- my truck - Ford F150
- the scriptures
- blue malva shampoo
- jergens lotion
- Harry Potter
- any other good book
- my kitchenaid mixer (red)
- spiral notebooks
- Pentel pens
- New Mexican food
- dark chocolate
- my husband
- my children
- my grandchildren
- road trips
- fall (the season)
I'm sure there's more, but that's all I can think of for now.

THIS LAND IS YOUR LAND, THIS LAND IS MY LAND.....

2011-11-28T22:36:00.001-07:00

Today I'm thankful for living in this great country! I never realized exactly how priviledged we are to live in the US until I lived in and visited other countries. I also never realized how that we have a more varigated landscape than other countries. Foreigners have never seen things like the Grand Canyon, Yosemite, Yellowstone, etc. I heard a story yesterday about a man who was visiting another state and he met a man from that state. The man who lived in the state asked the visitor what he had seen during his visit. He mentioned a national landmark and the man who lived there said he had never been there. The visiting man could hardly believe that this man who had lived in this state all his life had never been to the national landmark. The man asked the visitor what state he was from and he told him. The man said that he had been to that visitor's state and had gone to a national landmark there. The visitor ashamedly replied that he had never been to that landmark in his own state. It makes me think of all the places in my own state that I haven't been to yet. It also makes me think of people who always want to go visit another country, but I wonder how much of this country they have seen? My husband and I have traveled around to a lot of places but there is so much more of this US that we would like to see, I hope we do.
"The world is a book and those who do not travel read only one page." - St. Augustine

2011-11-27T19:49:00.000-07:00

I realized that I had not posted one of my gratitude drafts, which is why I have two postings today.

Today I'm thankful for my grandparents. I have been thinking about them because my husband and I go to a geneology class on Sundays.

I didn't know my paternal grandfather. He died when I was a baby. I only knew my paternal grandmother slightly. I only have 4 memories of her. My grandmother lived with us the last couple years of her life because she was a heart patient. She would let me come in her room and stand on a chair to look in the box that was attached to the top of her chest of drawers. It had all kinds of things in it, none of which I can remember. I do remember that when you opened it, it had a strong medicinal odor. Another memory I had of her was standing outside her bedroom door and watching her hold my baby brother, Sticks, and talk to my other brother, Twist. She loved my brothers and it was obvious to watch her. The third memory I have of her is the paramedics taking her to the hospital after she had a heart attack. We were at church and got a phone call from the babysitter who was watching over her. The last memory I have of her is looking at her in her coffin at her funeral.

The grandparents I did know were my mother's parents. We visited them every year of my life (that I remember) in the summer. We would leave the week after school got out in June and not come back until August. My favorite memories of grandma are seeing her in her apron cooking at the woodstove, or down by the clothesline gathering clothes off the line. I loved going there eating her homemade bread, homemade butter, homemade jam, and skimming the cream off the cow's milk to put on top of my slice of homemade bread with butter and jam. This is where we ate the bread and milk for dinner (see Daily Food post). When I was younger we washed clothes in her ringer washer and hung them on the line, had to use the outhouse - which was scary if you had to go out at night. Grandma used to get us to weed the garden, but I was only allowed to weed the onions or carrots, since I couldn't distinguish a weed from a plant on the other plants. :0)

My grandfather was the biggest teaser I have ever known. He was always teasing me or someone else. I finally learned to try to get him back or make him think his teasing had no affect on me. I think I was actually closer to my grandfather than I was to my grandmother. Without going into details, I just want to say that he gave me some advice once, and I didn't follow it. I felt really bad about it and it bothered me for several years, until I fixed it and obeyed his advice. I miss him.

DAILY FOOD

2011-11-27T19:27:00.000-07:00

Since we just had Thanksgiving, I'm thankful for food. I think today I'm thankful for my favorite foods. One of my favorite things to eat when I was a kid was a cold roast beef sandwich with butter on one of the slices of wheat bread and mustard on the other slice, with lettuce and a piece of cheese. To make this the greatest meal, you had to have a glass of chocolate milk to go with it. :0)

This is going to sound gross to people who have never had this, but I also loved to eat bread and milk when I was a kid. We had this a lot, as it was my parents favorite also. It always tasted the best at my grandparent's house, because then you could go down to the garden and pull up a green onion or a white icicle radish to go with it. When I got married I never ate it again. My husband just didn't get it. But he introduced me to something I liked better than bread and milk - Cornbread and milk. Most definitely better.

My absolute favorite foods is New Mexican food with green chile. When I lived in Texas I loved the Tex-Mex food, but New Mexican food is even better than that! My favorites are cheese enchiladas, tamales, chile rellenos and sopapillas. Yum.

Pies have to be my most favorite dessert. My great aunt was one of the best pie makers! She was famous and even ran a restaurant with her husband that served her famous pie. I would save my money so that when we went to my grandparents for vacation, I could go to her restaurant and buy her Sour Cream Raisin Pie. My mouth waters just thinking about it! My mother-in-law is the next best pie maker. She excels in Pecan Pie, Coconut Cream Pie and Chocolate Pie.

A GRATEFUL HOLIDAY

2011-11-26T19:31:00.000-07:00

We went out of town for the Thanksgiving holiday to visit my mother-in-law and my husband's sisters and families. I published 2 posts while I was gone so now I have 3 to catch up on.

The first thing I am thankful for is my mother-in-law and the fact that she is one of the best cooks I have known in my life. She has been a profound influence on me in my life and has helped me want to be a better cook. This is saying a lot for someone who really is not that fond of cooking. I know I fall very, very short of ever being able to cook as well as her, but I have made an even stronger effort because of her influence. Here is a picture of our Thanksgiving spread. You can't see the turkey from here because this is only Counter #1. There is also Counter#2 and Stove #1. :0)

The next thing I am thankful for is the safe drive we had both to my mother-in-law's and back home. Coming home the wind was blowing so incredibly hard it was unbelievable! And let me just tell you right now, that with the drought Texas has been experiencing, it is just a dust bowl. So we drove through sandstorm after sandstorm as we drove down the highways and passed unplowed fields. Some places were almost zero visibility. That was really scary. We stopped right at the edge of Twist's town to get some gas and when I went into the store to use the bathroom, I could hardly walk upright the wind was so strong. Sorry we didn't stop Twist, it was only 9:30 am and we were afraid conditions would just worsen as the day went on, so we just kept going.

Last, I am thankful for my husband's family I love all 3 of my sisters-in-law and my 3 brothers-in-law very much. We have a lot of fun when we go there, and especially at Thanksgiving. For almost at least 30 years, if not more, my sisters-in-law and I would do a craft after Thanksgiving dinner, while the guys and my mom-in-law watched the games. We have made some pretty cool stuff and some pretty crazy stuff, but we have also had so much fun doing it! Now that we all have grandkids, and their kids and grandkids are visiting, this has died out. I think it mostly died out when we went to Ireland. But it was fun while it lasted. Now we have a new activity that is just as fun: This year we hit all the antique stores in town! There are 2 boutiques we go to first and then we go to 4 antique stores. What a surprise we found when we saw that they had turned the old grocery store on main street into another antique store. It is a really big one too and full of lots of cool stuff! This year my husband and one brother-in-law also went to the antique stores. They were looking for antique tools, but didn't find any they wanted. This was after they had gone to the sale at the tractor store first. Another of our favorite things to do when we are there is to play "Spinner". It is such a fun game, and is really an easy-going game, so you can laugh and talk and have fun while you're playing. I tried to play it here with some friends. I don't know if they just needed to play it some more, or if they were just too serious on winning the game. Regardless, it didn't come across as much fun to them. :0+

THANKSGIVING

2011-11-25T09:04:00.000-07:00

Today I'm thankful for Thanksgiving!! :0)

TEXAS

2011-11-21T19:49:00.001-07:00

Today I'm thankful for being able to live in Texas for 30 years of my life. I lived in 3 different cities during those 30 years. I love Texas. I loved living there and spending my teenage years there. We moved there when I was 14. Texas has a love for their state and a love for their country unlike any other state I've ever been in, and I miss that now that I'm not living there. Even though I lived in Texas for 30 years, I had never been to visit the Alamo until this year. It was great seeing the Alamo and the San Antonio Riverwalk and learning about Texas history. If I ever decide to live in another state besides the one I live in now, I'm moving back to Texas.

FOR HEALTH AND STRENGTH

2011-11-21T19:36:00.000-07:00

There's a children's song that says: "For health and strength and daily food, we praise thy name, O Lord".
Today I'm thankful for my health. I'm basically a pretty healthy person. A few years ago I had both of my knees replaced. It sort of surprised a lot of people that I had that done, because most people didn't know that I even needed the operation (which I don't know how they could have thought that.) My knees were okay until I fell one night at a wedding reception at church. Someone had spilled a glass of water and my son-in-law was on the floor wiping it up. As I walked in he put up his hand and said, "Be careful, there's water on the floor!" He really didn't even get that sentence out and I had slipped and fell on one knee with the other leg stretched out in front of me. It wasn't so much the water that made me slip, as it was my shoes. I had experienced problems with those shoes before slipping on even a slightly damp floor and should have thrown them away, but they were such comfortable heels that I never did. Anyway, from then on I had problems with my right knee. About a year later I was helping with a church service project. We were digging up fence posts and I was helping. I stepped wrong and stepped in a hole and twisted my left knee (the one that had stretched out straight when I fell at the wedding reception). That did it for my left knee. After that all I wanted to do was sit down. If I went anywhere, I would constantly be looking for anywhere to sit down. I couldn't stand for more than 5 minutes without being in pain. But all of this didn't really slow me down. I still continued to work as a volunteer at our LDS temple where I would have to stand for long periods of time. I only worked 2 days a week, and would usually spend the day after working at the temple resting up.

I remember right after I had twisted my left knee by stepping in the hole, we had booked an Alaskan Cruise. It was a 14 day trip - the first 10 days was on land going all over Alaska and Canada. We wouldn't get on the cruise ship until the 11th day. We rode on buses, river boats, trains, yachts, more buses, steam engine trains, more boats and more buses. Everyday was different and every day was torture. We would stop when we were on the bus from time to time so everyone could get off and stretch their legs. I didn't want to get off, but they would make me. I would get off for 5 minutes and would be the first person back on the bus. We walked everywhere and even when we got on the ship. It was a torturous trip.

My knees got worse and worse. I had to use a cane, and after several years, I started having shoulder problems from leaning on the cane too much. I started having back problems and had got to where I couldn't even stand up straight. I had been seeing an orthopedic surgeon all those years, but he didn't want to do knee replacement until I was at least 60 years old. He had already done the laproscopic surgery on both knees, where they go in and scrape your kneecap, but it hadn't worked on either knee. One day I went in to see my doctor and I told him I had reached my limit. I told him that I knew that he didn't want to do surgery until I was 60, but that I felt 90 NOW! I told him my shoulder hurt from leaning on the cane all the time, I literally could hardly stand up straight, etc., and I wanted the surgery now. He reminded me that you can only have knee replacement twice and each knee only lasts 8-15 years (max). I told him I didn't care, that I was tired of acting old now and even if I had to be in a wheelchair when I was 80, I wanted both my knees replaced now. And besides, I told him, by the time I needed a 2nd replacement, medical science would have something new.

Anyway, I did it. It was hard, but I'm so glad I had it done. It gave me my life back. I'm still slow getting up and down. I go up the stairs even slower, but I get up there. I also remember thinking back when I was so crippled up, that the Lord couldn't use me in that condition and that I really needed to have the operation. Well, he's using me now! :0)

A THANKFUL WEEKEND

2011-11-20T19:16:00.000-07:00

Since I wasn't able to post on Friday or Saturday, I'll catch up on those first:
I'm thankful for Fall! I love fall - it is my favorite time of year! I love the fall colors and I even love to see the leaves on the ground. I see people who hurry to rake up their fall leaves, but I love to leave them at least until they get crunchy, because it's just part of Fall! We usually love to take a "Fall Leaf" drive, but we just never had the time to do it this year. Even if we're really busy, we usually can just drive up the back of the mountain, but this year we didn't even do that.

I remember when I was a kid I used to love to rake up the fall leaves and jump in the piles. What kid doesn't love to do that? I always had to pay for it though, because that much close contact with fall leaves would always trigger an allergy attack.

Another thing I'm thankful for is the internet. I know the internet has it's bad points, but there is some really good stuff out there. We live in a time when we have all kinds of information right at our fingertips. I love to be able to "talk" with my family on our family chats every Sunday. It's also fun to email my sisters several times a day if we wish! We keep talking about doing a "Sister Chat". We used to do one, but when we went to Ireland I had to bow out since I was already getting up at 2:45am once a week for family chat while I was there. This week I made a recipe that I had found on the internet - "Despicable Me Cupcakes" !! We had a birthday party for Stace-Ghost on Saturday night, and I made her a cake and Despicable Me Cupcakes for my grandkids. I learned that I am NOT a cake decorator. But I tried! Here's how you do it:
Make yellow cake cupcakes and use a silver cupcake liner. When they are cool, frost them with white frosting. Cut a Twinkie in half and spread a little frosting on the cut end and press onto the cupcake. Using only white Smarties for eyes (gotta find something else, there is only 1 or 2 white ones per package!) - stick on with frosting. You'll have to buy black food coloring because black doesn't come in a normal mixed package of food coloring. I tried mixing colors to make black but could only get to gray and that didn't look good. Tint the rest of the icing black and pipe around the smarties for "glasses" and put a small dot of black icing in the middle of the Smartie for the eyeball. Then pipe a mouth. Remember that some of the Minions only had one eye. :0)

And finally, I'm thankful for my bed! I love my bed! It especially felt good this week when we would work so hard (being the week before Thanksgiving) at the Storehouse and have tired and aching muscles. And after 3 days of being there this week, by Saturday night when we went to bed we could hardly move. We have a Sleep number bed. My number is 35. :0) One week I was having shoulder problems with my right shoulder and after I had lain in bed for a few minutes that night, I reached over and let it down to 30. Aaaahh! If the power ever goes out for an entire night we're sunk though. :0+ It does need power to stay inflated. I think it can stay inflated for several hours, but I'm not sure how long. We also love our down alternative comforter! I used to think I loved electric blankets, but my comforter beats that hands down! We stayed in a hotel once that had a down comforter and we were sold, We bought one when we got home from that trip. When we went to Ireland we bought one there. We loved it even more than the one we had at home, so when we came home we brought it with us and gave our other comforter to Babs and Stace-Ghost. We used to have our bed in front of our tv in our bedroom, but I could never watch a movie without falling asleep, so we rearranged our bedroom so we could put 2 recliners in front of the tv instead. We figured since we spend 1/3 of our lives in bed, we would get the kind of bed that would be the most comfortable. :0)

HARD WORK

2011-11-17T20:33:00.000-07:00

Today I'm thankful for Hard Work. This might sound weird, but sometimes I just really like doing hard work. Today we worked pretty hard at the Storehouse. We did 34 orders. That's like twice our regular numbers. We hardly sat down all day. I like doing hard housework too. My favorite outfit to wear to do housework is a pair of capris (winter or summer), t-shirt, crocs, a fanny pack with either my IPod in it, or my Walkman so I can either listen to music cds or Harry Potter while I'm working. If I'm not listening to either of those, I get my phone and put it in the fanny pack and put my headset on and talk on the phone to one of my daughters. If I'm talking on the phone, or listening to music or HP, it doesn't even seem like I'm working.

I've got a hard project I want to start right after Christmas. I'm going to strip the cabinets on the big island bar in my kitchen and paint it a barn red. Then I'm going to sand down the butcher block top and restain it a darker color. Then....depending on how hard it was to strip that, I'm going to strip all the other cabinets in the kitchen and restain them. :0P I also want to get new hardware for the cabinets. Right now it's just making me tired thinking about it...

WOODWORKING

2011-11-16T16:57:00.000-07:00

Today I'm thankful for my husband's talent of woodworking. He's always wanted to learn this craft and it's just been in the last almost 10 years that he's pursued it. That's one of the reasons we moved to the house where we live now, so he could have a woodshop. Anyway, he's having a lot of fun with it and now that he's retired it gives him something to do. :0) After we came home from Ireland, he was so happy to be able to get back in his shop. One day I went out to his shop to talk to him and he said, "You know, I need to find something for you to do in my shop so you can be out here with me." I told him that I appreciated the fact that he wanted to be with me, but truthfully I had other things I needed to do. :0P He's taken several classes and watched lots of videos to be able to learn how to do this. Here's a couple pictures of projects he has done:

This is a desk he made for Gilbert Girl. The two bottom drawers on each side are file drawers. Since she does the books for her husband's business, she needed a new desk. Her other one was falling apart.

These are 2 nightstands my husband made for one of our guest rooms. He was just wanting to do a project to practice and he was the one who suggested making nightstands. They turned out so well I want him to make new end tables and a coffee table for my living room sometime. But I have to "get in line" because some of my other kids have already put in their orders. :0)

This is my Great Grandmother's buffet. My mom says she thinks it actually was my Great Great Grandfather's and he gave it to my Great Grandmother. My husband didn't make this, but he

restored it.

SUNSHINE

2011-11-15T12:23:00.000-07:00

Today I'm thankful for sunshine! I live in a very sunny part of the US. We have an average of 278 days of sunshine a year, with an average temperature of 70 degrees in spring and fall, 90 degrees average in summer and 50 degrees average in winter. About 6 months before we moved here, I was driving around in the city where we lived and it was incredibly hot and humid. I thought,"Can't we live somewhere where the weather is better than here?" Six months later we moved here where I think we have absolutely perfect weather.

I remember when we lived in Ireland we didn't get to see the sun that often. May and June there are the
sunniest months with an average of 5-6 hours a day of sunshine. December is the dullest month, with only 1 hour a day of sunshine. So I missed my sunshine!

I looked up the benefits of sunshine on the web. Here they are:
- Vitamin D from the sun with works with calcium to strengthen bones
- Helps us sleep better by resetting our internal clocks
- Gives us healthier skin and helps clear acne, eczema and psoriasis
- Some people can get Seasonal Affective Disorder from living in places that don't have much sunshine
- Stimulates appetite and helps with digestion
- Inhances immune system
- Encourages healthy circulation and stimulates the production of red blood cells
- Sunshine is a healing agent
- Helps balance hormones (! Who knew?)
- Improves function of liver
- Can lower arthritic pain levels
- Treatment for jaundice
-Can help lower blood cholesterol levels
-Can kill viruses, bacteria and mold on skin
-Regular amounts can help build up against UV exposure

There you go! Get out in the sun! :0)

HARRY POTTER

2011-11-14T19:25:00.000-07:00

Ok, maybe you think this is funny, but today I'm thankful for Harry Potter. Or maybe I should be thankful for JK Rowling and her awesome imagination. We watched our new Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows Part 2 dvd last night. I've loved reading the books, listening to the books on cd, listening to the movie soundtracks on cd, and watching the movies - both in the theaters and on dvd.

I've often thought what it would be like to have not only an imagination like JK Rowling, but also her writing talent. See? More reason to tell your kids or grandkids stories you make up! I guess another thing I'm thankful for concerning Harry Potter, is Jim Dale. He narrates all the Harry Potter cds. He has the greatest voice! How would it be to have a job where all you did was read books? Pretty cool.

Thanks JK and Jim!

HOME

2011-11-13T22:10:00.000-07:00

Today I'm thankful for my home. I love my home. For me, a home is a place to get away from the world. I think Jane Austen said it best in Emma, where she says, "There is nothing like staying at home for real comfort." I've found that since my husband retired, I probably stay home far more than I did before. I'd just rather be here. I love to travel and always enjoy our trips, but the best part is coming back home.

Lately I've been seeing that I have way too much junk in my home. In fact, really ever since I got home from Ireland I have felt that. So I have methodically been keeping a box in one of the bedrooms and whenever I run onto something that I think I can really live without it goes into the box. Then when the box gets full it goes to Goodwill.

Today I had the opportunity to get rid of 3 stuffed animals (all that I could part with at this time). I have what I call my "Weird Animal Collection" which is stuffed animals, but not your normal teddy bears. Today I parted with my Alaskan Moose, Monkey, and my Possum. :0) Together with a backpack, a tote bag, and about 5 children's books, I gave them to a little girl at church who is starting a collection for CYFD. I thought it was a good cause.

I've also donated a bunch of my music to our Stake Choir. I told the choir director that I'd do that every time she decided to do one of my songs. (I have a whole lateral file drawer full of choir music that I have bought. See? Too much junk...

I'm getting ready to start a big project. I'm going to strip the finish off of my big island bar and paint it a barn red. I may get it all stripped and chicken out on the barn red, but I'm definitely stripping it to see how hard it is to do. My sister-in-law redid all her cabinets and said it wasn't as hard as she thought it would be. I want to refinish all the other cabinets, but I just keep thinking it'd look cool if the island was barn red. I thought about painting all the cabinets an off-white. I had a friend who just did that to her kitchen, but I really don't think I'd like it and I don't think it'd go with the rest of the house. I may not get to it until after Christmas, but who knows? I'll let you know.

Be it ever so humble......

MY BROTHERS & SISTERS AND NEW FRIENDS

2011-11-12T15:40:00.000-07:00

Well, I skipped yesterday so I'll do "catch-up today"...

MY BROTHERS & SISTERS:
I am thankful for my brothers and sisters. I have 3 brothers and 3 sisters: Inklings, Joyce, Twist, Stick, Delirious, and Mr. Giggles. I never knew Joyce, because she was born and died before I was born. But even though I never knew her, she has been an influence for good in my life.

Twist lives closest to me and it was his visit yesterday that prompted me to write this. He, his wife and son stayed with us last night on their way to the Missionary Training Center in Provo, Utah where his son will begin his mission for 2 years to Bolivia. It was fun to have them come through and visit. We went out and ate Mexican food and then went back to the house and just sat and talked (my favorite thing to do) since Elder Missionary can't watch tv now that he is an official missionary.

All of us try each year to get together in the summertime at the home of our parents, to visit, attend reunions, fish and play. We have a lot of fun and have all gotten to the point where almost all of our kids are now grown. We also have a family chat each Sunday night. Our parents don't join us on the chat since they don't have internet.

I'm so glad we all make the effort to be close, there are way too many families who don't even have contact with their siblings. I'm also glad that we have so much fun together. We're always laughing and joking with each other. My husband dubbs us "frustrated comedians". So be it!

NEW FRIENDS:
I think there's a quote that says: Make new friends, keep the old. That may be true, but today I'm thankful for new friends. We have a group of new friends that we have made at the Storehouse. A couple people in that group are old friends that we are reaquainting with. Some days we are so busy we are practically bumping into each other trying to fill orders. Then come the moments when no one will come in for like an hour or so. Then, out comes the needlework - I do embroidery, 2 ladies crochet and one knits. Other days like today we might pull out our cell phones and listen to different ringtones, or play trivial pursuit, that is an app on one guy's phone. Other new friends are our repeat patrons who come in a couple times a month.
Being with these new friends is kind of a different experience. Maybe it's because we all know we're there for a purpose. :0)

THE STOREHOUSE

2011-11-09T18:31:00.001-07:00

Today I'm thankful for the opportunity my husband and I have to work in the Bishop's Storehouse. The reason I say this today is because tomorrow is Thursday and that's one of the days we go (the other day being Saturday). The Bishop's Storehouse is like a grocery store without the cash registers. It's a place that people from our faith can go to get groceries, if they are having hard times. In payment, they can come work in the storehouse with us sometime, or do other things like clean the church building. We work with a group of really great people who have become our friends.

When we first started, there were afternoons when we didn't have many people come in, so us women would pull out our needlework. The past couple of weeks we've been so busy that we haven't had time to do much needlework. Must be a sign of hard times.

I think it's fun to work in the Storehouse. We process fruits and vegetables by putting them in plastic bags in increments of 5 pounds for the apples, oranges and potatoes, and 1 pound for carrots. Then we just help fill the people's orders when they come in. Sometimes someone will come in with several orders for different people in their ward. One time we were really busy and almost everyone was already helping someone. A lady came in with 3 orders. Three of us each took one, and we all did them alone. Most of the time we have either the person who the order belongs to or another Storehouse person helping pull the order. I thought it was great fun to do the order by myself because then I could let my OCD kick in and put stuff in boxes EXACTLY the way I want it. :0D

About a week ago I was going through a personal hard time and had been quite depressed for a few days. I just want to say here that this was strictly a personal matter and had nothing to do with my marriage, my husband or any of my children. That Thursday morning when I was putting my makeup on to get ready to go to the Storehouse, I was really feeling bad and you know, it's really hard to put makeup on when you can't stop the tears from falling from your eyes... Anyway, I worried that I wouldn't be able to pull it together to make it through the day at the Storehouse. But, when I walked through that door, it literally felt like the Lord just lifted that burden right off of my shoulders and I not only never thought about it again while I was there, I actually had a really nice day.

I'm so thankful for this inspired welfare program and for the opportunity my husband and I have to be a part of it.

BOOKS

2011-11-08T14:03:00.000-07:00

Today I am thankful for books. I love to read and I love books of almost any kind. I really think the person who helped me develop a love for reading was my fourth grade teacher, Mrs. Sydow. She moved up to 6th grade and I got her again that year. I loved it when she would read a book to us in class. I loved her voice and the way she read. Do teachers even do that anymore? I remember her reading, The Wheel on the School, and The Wind in the Willows. But the books she read that I loved the absolute most were The Little House on the Prairie books. She started with reading us, On the Banks of Plum Creek, and that did it for me. I went to the library and checked out every single book in that series and read them all. Other books I read and loved growing up were The Black Stallion series and the Big Red books, the Nancy Drew series and the Trixie Belden series. When I got to junior high, I had an English teacher whose name I can't remember, who told us that instead of reading The Scarlet Letter that year, which is when everyone read it, we were going to read, Rebecca. It is still one of my favorite books, and I still haven't read The Scarlet Letter. Some other books that I have loved is, Gone With the Wind, Jane Eyre, all of the Victoria Holt books, Secret Garden, Little Women, A Tree Grows in Brooklyn, The Education of Little Tree, The Book Thief, all of the Harry Potter series, the Narnia books, all of John Grisham's books, Pride and Prejudice, My Cousin Rachel, and many, many more too numerous to mention. If I were all alone and had the choice of watching a good movie on tv or reading a good book, it would be the latter, hands down.

Books to the ceiling,
Books to the sky,
My pile of books is a mile high!

GRANDCHILDREN

2011-11-07T15:56:00.001-07:00

"Grandchildren are God's way of compensating us for growing old." - Mary H. Waldrip

Today I am thankful for my grandchildren. I have 9 grandchildren - 3 boys and 6 girls ranging in ages from 2 to 18. Six of my grandkids live here in the same town as me and the other 3 live in a neighboring state.  Using their middle names I'd like to tell you about my grandkids, from oldest to youngest.

Timothy is 18. It's hard to believe he's not only that old, but he is now taller than both his dad and his grandfather. He's planning on going on a mission for our church next fall when he turns 19. He is still in high school and will graduate next May. He is currently captain of his team of "Minutemen" that assist the cheerleaders in his school.

Betty is 15 and made it on the Drill Team this year. It's fun to see Betty and Timothy "almost" working together at the football games. They do argue at times like brother and sister, but they ride to school together (Tim driving), and help their mom out by tending their little sister after school.

Hope is turning 14 next month. She is a counselor in her Beehive class presidency at church and is on the school yearbook staff. She loves to be involved and like Betty and Tim, is a big help to her mother with her brothers and sister. She is always telling me about books she has read, because she knows I like the same kinds of books she does.

Marlene is turning 8 next month. This is her first milestone in life as she will be baptised. We are hoping to be able to fly up for that weekend. If Mickey Mouse had a blond girlfriend instead of Minnie, it would be Marlene. She has a little Minnie Mouse voice. Think Minnie Mouse with a Southern accent. :0) Her favorite thing to do when I visit is put on a fashion show for me in her dress-up clothes.

Grace is 6 and right now is feeling the gap between herself and Hope. Luckily she has her two brothers and it is obvious how much she loves them by watching her play with them. Grace loves tablets of paper and pens and pencils. Grace will fill tablets and tablets of paper with her writing and drawing. Her favorite game to play at Grandma's is "Restaurant" where she and Marion each get a tablet of paper and a pen and take my "order" for dinner.

Marion is also 6 and she and Grace have so much fun together when they come to Grandma's house.  If Grace isn't here, Marion can always entertain herself and never seems bored.  She loves to dance and has taken lots of dance classes. She loves to show me her latest dance step that she is working on.

Andrew is 3 but will be 4 in February. He is a quiet boy who always seems to be thinking. He loves his brother and sister Grace. He also loves trains and cars and is fascinated by anything to do with them. If I look at him, I think he is what his Grandpa must have looked like at that age, but then I remember that in the pictures I have of his Grandpa at the same age, his Grandpa is as blond as can be. :0)

Abigail just turned 3 this summer. Just think of Tinkerbell. That is who Abigail looks like. Her Grandpa calls her "Minnie Mite" because she is so petite. I love it when she comes to tell me something, because she just jabbers away so serious and I can only understand about half of it. She is saying words, but she jabbers so fast I can't catch them all. When she is really serious and jabbering away, you'd think she was Italian since she uses hand jestures so much. :0)

Bond is 2 1/2 and is always smiling. Sometimes he reminds me of my brother, Stick, when Stick was little, because he smiles so much. He is a happy little boy who loves to follow Andrew around.  It's so funny, because he calls Andrew by his (Bond's) nickname. If you say, "No, that's not his name, his name is Andrew," he gets upset and says his own nickname again. He is convinced they both have the same name, because if you ask him his own nick-name, he says it right.  Bond loves trains and cars and especially planes.

These are my grandkids. I love them very much and are very thankful that the Lord let me be their grandmother.

MUSIC

2011-11-06T19:34:00.000-07:00

Today I am thankful for music. Music is a big part of my life. I play the piano and organ and I played the organ for church today. Hymns are one of my favorite things to play. I left almost an hour early for church so I could practice my Christmas music on the organ that I'm playing for the Ward Choir. I'm not great on the organ, but I'm okay and I actually fool a lot of people into thinking I'm better than I really am. :0) I was also a choir director twice - a total of about 10 years. That was a really fun calling. The second time was my music education. I was a co-director with another lady who helped me to learn a lot more about music, since I don't have a formal education in that. I miss not doing that anymore but maybe someday.... In the meantime I'm trying to regain my piano talent that lessened when I spent a year and a half in Ireland without playing much. I love music - playing, singing, leading and listening. What would we do without music in our lives?

A MONTH OF GRATITUDE

2011-11-05T15:20:00.000-06:00

I've been seeing people posting things that they're thankful for on Facebook, so I decided to follow suit on my blog. Since this is already the 5th day of the month, I'll have to do catch-up. Hopefully I'll find the time to post every day, but if not, I'll catch up the next day.

So for the first 5 days of November, here are 5 things that I'm thankful for:

1) My Husband. Lately I've felt so thankful for the opportunity we have to be retired and to be together everyday. You'd think after 41 years of marriage we'd be tired of each other, but I love to be with him. I love to just watch him work around the house, working in the yard, and in his wood shop. We have a lot of fun and he is truly my soul mate.
2) My Children. I have 5 children - 3 girls and 2 boys, born in that order. I am so lucky to be able to live by 3 of them: Gilbert Girl, Rintor, and Babs. My oldest daughter lives one state away - roughly 12 hours driving time, and my other daughter lives 2 states away. I remember when my kids were little, women would call me to see if we could "share" babysitting. I told them I didn't need a babysitter. They asked me what I did when I wanted to go to the store? I told them I took my kids with me. I loved to take my kids to the store. I expected them to behave, and for the most part they did. Oh sure, I remember having times when someone didn't behave - then we promptly left the store. We didn't have a lot of money to go do things when they were little, but I want them to know that I enjoyed their company and loved just being around them no matter what we did, and that goes the same for now. I would rather be around my children than anyone else (other than my husband). I love them and love to be with them. I enjoy talking with them and am interested in their life and the things they do. They are all great people and I am very proud of them.
3) My Faith. I am thankful for my faith in God and Jesus Christ. I am proud to be a member of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints and to have been raised as a Mormon. I honestly don't know how people get through life without a faith in God. My faith has sustained me through the many trials I have in my life, it gives me hope to get through these trials, hope for a life after this one. I know the Lord has helped me many, many times in my life and I feel his Spirit daily.
4) My Parents. I'm so thankful for my parents. They are good people who were great examples to me. I'm thankful for the life I had growing up. Thankful for my parent's testimonies that influenced me to be a better person. I'm thankful for the things they taught me in my life and for the wonderful childhood I had.
5) Me. I'm thankful for who I am. I know I have a long way to go, but lately I've just been glad to be me. I'm thankful for the life I have and even for the trials that have made me who I am. More than once this week, I've thought that I have a great life and I'm thankful for it.

ANTIQUED

2011-10-26T19:48:00.000-06:00

My mom and dad gave me this buffet about a year ago. Mom said it belonged to my Great Grandmother and possibly even to her father. That means it's at least 100 years old if not older. It sat in our garage for at least 6 months, but my husband finally got around to it and here is the result. He had to stain it quite a bit darker than I had wanted it because of an ink stain on the top of the buffet that he couldn't get out. It still has the original mirror. We also replaced the hardware with some styled after that age. It looks really nice and these pictures don't quite do it justice.

TELLING IT LIKE IT IS...

2011-10-22T20:55:00.000-06:00

HOT DOGS AND S'MORES

2011-10-18T10:46:00.000-06:00

The other night we had a cookout with our kids and grandkids. At my last pack meeting I bought roasting forks so the scouts could cook marshmallows and make S'mores, and that gave me the idea to have a family cookout so the kids could cook their own hot dogs and then have S'mores for dessert. We have a free-standing firepit. We actually have an outdoor fireplace also, but the firepit is easier for the kids to get to. I think at first they thought it was great fun, but then they complained about smoke in their eyes and the fire too hot, etc. I thought it was great fun! They also thought they could just stick their hot dog in the fire for 3 seconds and it would be done. I think they had more fun roasting the marshmallows because they didn't take as long, and also because of the reward of the S'more afterwards. The adults had either steaks, brats, hamburgers or hot dogs, even though I totally forgot about the hamburgers until we were almost ready to eat and then we hurried and cooked them. I think I still miscounted and didn't cook all the hamburgers that were ordered and someone ate something else instead. Oh well. We kept the fire going and after it got dark, I got out some glow bracelets I had bought at Michaels for $1.00 and we made necklaces for everyone. They had fun chasing each other around in the dark and throwing their necklaces up in the air. One of my grandson's complained to me that he couldn't throw his up as high as his sisters could. I told him it didn't matter how high it went, and to just have fun throwing it. He thought about it a second and ran off to throw it some more. My grandkids on the east side of town wore their costumes over so we could see them. My oldest granddaughter said she would put her costume on after dark, which she did. She wore a black jumpsuit - long sleeved with a hood. It was battery-operated and when she turned it on, a stick figure lit up. The light up stick figure was all the way as big as she was - the legs went all the way down her legs, the arms all the way down her arms and the head went up around the hood. It looked really cool! All in all, it was great fun, even though we all reeked of smoke afterwards. :0)

TRICK OR TREAT

2011-10-10T22:13:00.000-06:00

LAST DAY OF BALLOON FIESTA

2011-10-10T11:49:00.001-06:00

I heard the balloons going over my house so went out on my balcony to take these shots.

Yesterday (Sunday) was the last day.

PENMANSHIP

2011-09-30T11:36:00.000-06:00

A week or so ago, we received a thank-you note at the Bishop's Storehouse from a lady who had come for assistance with her groceries. She wrote a beautiful thank-you to us, but the other thing that was so beautiful about her note was her handwriting. She had absolutely beautiful handwriting! She came in to the Storehouse again yesterday and I was talking to her about her note and telling her what beautiful penmanship she had. She said she was a Fine Arts major and she also said her grandmother had beautiful handwriting.
We talked about how note writing, is almost obsolete and especially thank-you notes, and even more rare is an actual hand-written thank-you note sent through the mail. Too often we email, facebook, or twitter or thanks, if we even remember to do that at all.

Reading her note reminded me of my fourth grade teacher who was always on me about my handwriting. She lectured and lectured me and would make me even redo some papers I handed in. She always told me that I had nice handwriting if I would just slow down to write, and she was right. Well, I don't know how nice it really is, but it is horrible if I'm in a hurry. I also was reminded of my Dad's brother who had incredibly beautiful handwriting. Although I don't think he wrote in cursive, he printed it. I remember a letter my dad got from him and when I saw it, it looked like caligraphy, but not quite. It was a work of art in itself.

It makes me wonder if writing things by hand will become obsolete in the future? Maybe. But maybe it will turn into some kind of art. We'll go to the art museums and there on the wall will be framed sheets of letters in beautiful handwriting. :0)

HP7-2

2011-09-15T16:21:00.000-06:00

While I was working at the Storehouse today, a young man, his brother and sister (all young adults) came in to get an order for their family. He told me that he had just submitted his papers to be a service missionary and was hoping he would get to come work at the Storehouse. I told him I hoped he would too and told him how much fun it was. From there we started talking about different subjects as we "shopped". We discussed movies we'd seen recently and he asked me if I had seen the last Harry Potter movie (silly question). I told him I had and he said that he hadn't seen it yet. I told him that my husband and I had just gone to the dollar show last week to see "Super 8" (great movie!) and that we had seen a preview for the last HP movie, which meant it was coming to the dollar show. He was so excited! I told him that I told my husband that I had decided that I wanted to go see it one more time on the big movie screen before being forced to only watch it on dvds from now on. His brother walked up just then and his brother said, "I kind of got tired of all the Harry Potter." I looked at him and said, "Tired of Harry Potter! I'd never be tired of Harry Potter!" Silly boy......

WORKING AT THE BISHOP'S STOREHOUSE

2011-09-01T16:12:00.000-06:00

We started working at the Bishop's Storehouse today. We started by taking a tour of the facilities and then watching several videos. It was very interesting to me to see what the Church Welfare program is all about, and I thought I knew everything. I'll have to blog more about this some other time.

There are about 14 of us that work there. Sometimes there's more. We have one lady who is there because she is our cook. She cooks us lunch everyday. Today we had Green Chile -Sour Cream Chicken Enchiladas, Salad, carrot sticks, zuchinni and squash fried with onions, tortillas and bananna bread for dessert. They had bottles of water and your choice of soda, one of which was diet coke (with the caffeine) which made my husband happy. :0) (and it was diet cherry coke too!)

We filled 14 food orders today. I guess the thing that struck me the most today was the amount of organization that goes into the Church Welfare system. Everything is very organized, very neat and tidy. The other thing that sort of struck me was the look on the people's faces when they came in with their papers - strained, fearful, hard, unsmiling....and the relaxed smiles on their faces when they left.

I WANT TO BE A MISSIONARY NOW...

2011-08-31T11:27:00.000-06:00

My husband and I have been asked to serve a service mission for our church for the next year. We will be working 2 days a week at the Bishop's Storehouse, where people who are in need can come to get groceries. They then pay back those groceries by working in the Storehouse themselves. We start tomorrow. We've known about this for about a month and have been waiting for the paperwork to go through. We will be released from our other callings as soon as they find replacements for us. This means in my case, giving up my Cubmaster position, of which I have been in only a short 8 months. I feel sad at giving up this position since I was finally at the point where I was feeling like I actually knew what was going on now. I also feel sad at losing the relationship with the other Cub Scout leaders and the Cub Scout boys themselves. I have enjoyed getting to know them very much. It has really been an education to me to be in this position and has been one of the hardest callings I have ever had, not because the work was hard, but because I had no clue how to do it and I felt like I had been put on another planet when I got put in.

At the same time, I look forward to what this new position will bring, since I have come to learn that no matter what you do in the church, it is always an education and an adventure.

I'VE GOT MUSIC... WHO COULD ASK FOR ANYTHING MORE?

2011-08-29T16:36:00.000-06:00

When we went to Ireland, I took one of my radio/cd players. My husband assured me all we would need to do would be to plug it into a voltage converter before we plugged it into the outlet. We bought a converter and plugged it in and it promptly blew up. Well, at least it blew out a part. We didn't throw it away, but saved it, as my husband assured me he could fix it if he could get a part. Sometime after we got back to the states he ordered a part for it online. It wasn't a bad price - $20. It took about 6 months to get that part however, but I can't remember why since it was so long ago. The other day we got the part and today my husband put the new part into the radio/cd player and voila! It works! Yay! Now I can have music in my kitchen again!

"DANGER! DANGER, WILL ROBINSON!!"

2011-08-18T21:07:00.000-06:00

I have a new Droid Incredible HTC2 phone and I love it. I love all the apps you can get for your phone, but I've decided that someone needs to come up with a new app. I know that with most phones you can set certain rings for certain people who call you, so you'll know by just that ring who is calling. The app I want is one that can read the mood of the person that is calling. If that person is calling because they are stressed out, need money, mad at you, or are just having a bad day and want to vent to you, then a little cartoon robot - like the one from "Lost in Space" appears on your phone and says, "Danger! Danger, Nene! Do not answer!"
:0D

PRACTICE, PRACTICE, PRACTICE

2011-08-13T10:47:00.000-06:00

For the past week and a half I have been trying to learn 8 piano pieces for a choir performance that is a week from this coming Sunday. I did have 9 pieces, but just yesterday the other pianist (who is also one of the two choir directors, and is a pianist on the 10th number), decided she would play it. These are not extremely hard songs, but they do have a few challenging parts. So I've been practicing everyday for about an hour and a half. Some interesting things have happened...
First of all, I have had some shoulder problems in the past due to a torn rotator cuff on my right shoulder. Playing the piano too long would always aggrevate it. I have to admit that it is sore, but not as bad as I thought it would be after a week and a half of playing an hour and a half every single day. I really think it is helping my shoulder.
The Second interesting thing that has happened has been that I was pretty rusty before. For the last 3-5 years I have cut down on my choir accompanying due to other involvements and have only been playing hymns for church services. In fact in the last 3 years I have only been playing hymns and nothing extra. It's been very self-gratifying to feel my talent slowly (and I do mean slowly) coming back. I know it will take many, many more weeks (and months) of practice to get back to where I was before.
The Third interesting thing is that it amazes me that on the more difficult parts of the songs, even though I have mastered some places and almost mastered others that I first had difficulty with, that there are still a few places that I am really having problems. I've sat and played one line 5 times and 5 times made the same mistake. So I play the right hand over and over and over. Then I play the left hand over and over and over. Then I play them together again and STILL make the same mistake! I get my handy pencil out and mark the note - labeling what it is- then play it again. Then I play it right. So I play that page over again. AGAIN I make the mistake! Back to the right hand over and over and over... Then the left.....
Another trick I found out thanks to my good friend Dixie, is to just get out your handy-dandy-white-out pen and just take out a few notes. :0)
So maybe with a whole lot more practice, maybe a little more white-out, a bit of faking here and there, and if I can get it - a lot more nerve, maybe I can pull this off. Because no matter how hard you practice, if you can't overcome the nerve thing, you're pretty much screwed anyway. Why did I agree to do this again???
I think I can....I think I can.....I think I can................................

BEATING THE HEAT AT SIX FLAGS

2011-08-04T17:10:00.000-06:00

I went to Dallas last Thursday and took 3 of my granddaughters who live here. We went to stay with my daughter and her husband and 3 kids (boy and 2 girls). I don't care how you drive it -Hwy 287 out of Amarillo, or I-40 through Oklahoma - that is one long drive to Dallas! It took us 12 hours.

The day after we got there we all went to Six Flags! It was so much fun! If you want to feel like a kid again, you really need to go to an amusement park! It had been really hot before we got to Dallas, with temps around 108, but starting with the day we went to Six Flags and throughout the weekend while we were there, it was only 100-101. Still, that is plenty hot! The day we left, the temperature went back up and even higher to a scorching 112! When we got in the park we split up - the teenagers going with my son-in-law to ride the scarier rides and my daughter and I taking the 3 little girls to Loony Toon Land. My son-in-law rode a few rides with the teenagers until they got to one of the rides that he got sick on and then he sat out for awhile. :0)

After we had been there a couple of hours, we were really feeling the heat, so we decided to buy the refillable cup they sell for $15.99. Yes, that is a lot to pay for a drink, but we really got our money's worth. My daughter bought one and shared it with her little girl and I bought one to share with my other 2 granddaughters. We first filled it with Powerade and that REALLY helped us feel better! Then we decided it was time for a water ride, so we went on the log ride. We got splashed a little, but not enough, so then we decided to go for the big one and went on AquaMan (see picture above). On that ride, you get in a flat boat with about 10 or more other people and it takes you up a steep incline, around a curve and then straight DOWN! As it comes down, it hits the water hard and splashes a huge wave up and into the boat and completely soaks everyone in the boat! It was so funny! Then when you get out of the ride, you walk up to the bridge where (if you want to) you can stand and wait for the next boat to splash down. When it does, the huge wave also comes up onto the bridge and completely soaks whoever is standing up there. It's so popular to do, that they have an employee there to make sure everyone stands to the back of the bridge to make sure the wave doesn't knock you down. One problem though - don't wear tennis shoes. If you do, then you have to walk around with soaking wet socks and shoes. I had to take my shoe off and POUR the water out of it. Flip flops would have been much better. They do sell flip flops at the shops though, probably for that reason. The AquaMan ride was so much fun that we rode it again several hours later. :0) As long as we stayed wet, we weren't hot. They also had lots of misters to spray you as you walked by them.

The other rides we rode were: The Gunslinger (you sit on a swing that swings you way up and around - we rode that twice too), The Tea Cup (we let the little girls ride this alone), The Hot Air Balloon (I passed on this one), The Mini-Mine Train (I wished I hadn't ridden this one - I lost one of my diamond solitare earrings on this ride! :0+ ), The Roaring Rapids (another water ride where we got soaked - it was fun and we rode this with the bigger kids and had a boat all to ourselves). I rode this one with the girls that I can't remember what the name of it was - it was like a big bus that went up and around. My daughter and the girls rode the Parachute drop, but I passed on that one also. We also went to the Loony Toons show which was kind of corny, but funny all the same. We didn't get to the park until about 1:30 and stayed until after 9pm.

On the way out we bought souvenirs. Two of the little girls bought light sabers and the other one bought a Superman cape. We also bought a light-up tiarra for one's little sister, and 2 light up noisy space guns for the other girl's brothers.

So now I wonder if anyone could possibly have found, and turned in, my earring? I guess a phone call won't hurt....

GOODBYE HARRY.....

2011-07-27T20:14:00.000-06:00

My husband and I got up this morning and went to the 10am showing of Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows - Part 2. It was totally awesome! The weird thing is, I started crying at the beginning of the fight scene. I think, because I knew it meant that the Harry Potter movies were almost over....

My daughter-in-law, StaceGhost, got to go to the Harry Potter World at Universal Studios in Orlando. She brought me back a Griffindore bookmark and some Bertie Botts Every Flavored Beans! She also brought us some Pumpkin Juice to taste. It was pretty good, although I would have liked it better if they had cut the sugar a bit more.

THEN YOU STAND...

2011-07-11T15:18:00.000-06:00

I had an open house at my home Saturday night for some friends of mine who just finished a 2 year mission to the Phillipines. We set up 4 tables with chairs in the backyard, but a dust storm blew in, so when we first started no one could go outside. After about 30 minutes and maybe 60 drops of rain, it stopped, so we went out and got 3 of the tables and pulled them underneath the patio cover (which runs almost the length of the house) so people could sit under there if it started to rain again (it didn't). We had tons of people in the house and all they did was stand and talk. Just. Stand. I had two rooms of couches and nice soft chairs inside, and three 6' tables with chairs outside, but people just stood in the kitchen and at the entrance to the kitchen. Now granted, the food was in there, but once you get something to eat, don't you want to sit down? I do. I did have some people go sit at my dining room table, and several people went outside finally and sat down, but the original group just kept standing in the kitchen. I didn't get it.

MURDER MYSTERY

2011-07-08T17:16:00.000-06:00

We have a flat-roof house - southwest style. So occasionally my husband has to get out there and blow all the leaves, pine needles, pine cones, etc. off the roof. The other day when he did it, he also blew out the canalies (rain spouts so the rain water will run off the roof). He didn't realize that a dove had built a nest in one, so when he blew it out it blew out her nest that had 2 babies in it. He felt really bad and didn't know what to do, so he went to the garage and got a shallow bucket thing (low and wide) and "built" a new nest and put the baby birds back in (he used gloves so as not to get his scent on them). Then he put the new "nest" bucket in a tree close to the canalie. We were worried that the mother would not find her babies and/or would not accept the new nest, but she did. I kept telling myself that I should go take a picture of them because they were so cute, but I never did. A couple of times when we accidentally walked too fast towards the tree, she would fly out in a hurry, fly to the ground and flutter around on the ground pretending to have a broken wing. I guess that was to draw our attention to her so we would not attack her babies. :0)

The next afternoon my husband accidentally walked too fast towards the tree (he'd only done it one time before). Sure enough she flew out and did her broken wing routine. Then another dove (the father?) flew down to the grass with her. He walked around beside her while she continued to pretend to be hurt. Then they flew up onto the wall and sat a few minutes, then flew off. We sat outside for about 45 minutes and never saw her come back, so we were worried about her.

The next morning, we sat down to breakfast and my husband looked out the patio door and said, "Uh oh!" He said there were feathers all over the patio. We went out to look and sure enough, there were no birds at all in the nest. We looked all over for them and didn't find them. What we did find though was a pile of tiny feathers, tiny feathers all over the patio, and with the tiny feather pile were some larger feathers. So we figured that the mother must have come back sometime last night, and in the night something must have gotten all of them. :0( There were no bodies, so whatever got them carried all of them off. The only thing I could think of is that something - our neighborhood Hawk or our neighborhood Owl - must have gotten them and killed them and carried them off. Maybe he did one at a time, or maybe killed all of them and carried them all at once. We'll never know, but we also know he visits our yard for the tasty baby bunnies. He has killed the babies and left them in the yard and we don't know why he did that either. Did he kill too many and couldn't eat them all? Was the bunny bigger than he could carry? Who knows? And we don't know if it's the Hawk or the Owl. We've see both, and we know the Hawk loves to come sit on our fence or in one of our trees.

Well, that's the Circle of Life.....

SILENCE YOUR CELL PHONES, NO TALKING DURING THE MOVIE...

2011-07-06T21:13:00.000-06:00

I just had to post this story about my little grandson. He and his family took a trip to California a couple of weeks ago. On their way home, he and his brother (brother is 3 and he is 2) were watching a movie on the dvd player. I can't remember the movie, but it was one of their favorites, like "Toy Story" or "Cars". His 6 year old sister kept talking about something, like what she was seeing out the window, or stuff they had done in California. Finally, he turned to her and yelled, "NO TALKING!"

He cracks me up!

CHOLESTEROL

2011-06-27T21:33:00.000-06:00

For our Father's Day celebration, we had a cookout and barbecued hamburgers, hot dogs and brats. The kids mostly wanted hot dogs and everyone else mostly wanted hamburgers, so we had a couple of packages of brats leftover. I told my husband to cook all of them and then we could freeze them. He and I ate one for lunch a couple of days in a row and then I put them in the freezer. The 3rd day I asked him what he wanted for lunch. He said he wanted another brat. I said, "Don't you think you're pushing it with your cholesterol by eating brats for lunch 3 days in a row?" He said, "No, it doesn't raise your cholesterol if you eat them for lunch."

Who knew???

CAFFEINE FREE

2011-06-22T16:32:00.000-06:00

I went for my breast sonogram today. As usual, they said everything is okay. (I've been doing this the past 4 years). They're safe for another year! :0) But....I decided 2 weeks ago to give up diet cokes. I know my breasts have several cysts, and I've come to the conclusion that caffeine affects cysts. You may disagree with me, but I've done the experiments - drinking lots of diet coke, and then cutting back drastically. I've seen the difference and I think the caffeine makes them worse. It's been harder than I thought. I tried caffeine free diet coke, and to tell you the truth, I'd rather drink water than drink that. Pretty gross. In the meantime I've tried diet 7UP (pass), diet cherry 7UP (ok but not great), dark cherry Fresca (better than diet cherry 7UP), and Sparkling Ocean Spray Cranberry Juice (pretty good), and Sparkling Ocean Spray Blueberry/Pomegranite Juice (also pretty good). Good old ice cold H20 is the best, but when I really get a craving, I try one of the above. And every once in a great while, I do have a diet coke. But you know what? As time goes by, it doesn't seem as satisfying as it did when I was addicted to them. So I think as time goes by I will crave them less and less. A few years ago - I think it was about a year or two before we went to Ireland - I gave up diet cokes (caffeine). But since my husband is a diet coke addict, I slowly got back on them. But not this time. It will be really interesting to see if all the cysts in my breast clear up, or not. Another interesting thing - since I've given up diet coke, my husband has cut back drastically. He's drinking all the substitutes I mentioned above, but is still drinking diet cokes too. Who knows? Maybe someday he'll kick it competely!

APRICOT JAM

2011-06-20T19:11:00.000-06:00

My husband and I picked all the apricots off of our tree this morning and I made 18 pints of jam. We still left a few on the ground for the rabbits and squirrels to enjoy. In fact when I went back out to the tree for a few more, the squirrel was running off with an apricot in his mouth! I even gave 2 gallon-size ziplox bags of

apricots to a friend who also made jam. After I made these, I was glad that I had given them to her. :0P

YOU CAN BE IN MY BAND...

2011-06-17T16:35:00.000-06:00

Watch this - this is incredible!! Somebody tell me if there's a way I can adjust my settings so it will show the whole picture better.

YEARLY MAMMO

2011-06-17T16:20:00.000-06:00

I had an interesting experience the other day. Last Tuesday I had to go get a mammogram. Just my yearly thing. As I walked into the waiting room after signing in, I was surprised to see a man sitting there playing classical guitar music. As I sat there waiting my turn to be called, I wondered what this guy's story was. Did they hire him to try to make the mammogram experience a bit less stressful? Did his wife, or mother, or sister have breast cancer, or maybe died of breast cancer, and this waer,s his way of helping others? Did he just need a place to "practice" his classical guitar in front of a live audience? Whatever his story was, I was glad he was there, because it was so soothing to just sit and listen to his music. When he finished his first number, I thought, "Should we clap?" But no one did, so I didn't either. But as I listened to him play song after song and felt my body just relaxing more and more, I finally felt like I should say something. The next time he finished a song where he paused for a minute, I thanked him for his beautiful music and told him it was very relaxing. He made a comment about how wonderful the 1960's and 1970's composers were of the music he had been playing. I knew a lot of the songs he was playing and the words to those songs went through my mind as he played them. When my name was called, I went back into the dressing room to disrobe and put a gown on, and realized that his guitar music was piped in back there. I got to sit there for about 10 more minutes listening to him play. I don't know if I got my music term right or not, but when I say classical guitar, I mean he didn't strum it, and they weren't Spanish songs. He just picked each note. I hope you understand what I mean.

COMMENTS FROM A 6 YEAR OLD

2011-06-13T16:31:00.000-06:00

When we went on our recent trip to Texas, my 6 year old granddaughter was not happy. I think she was afraid that we were going away for a long time, like we did when we moved to Ireland. I saw her a day or so before we left for Texas and I assured her that we were only going to be gone for 11 days. She said, "Not for a long time?" and I said, "No." When we got back from our trip, they came over to see us. When they left that night, as she walked ou the door she said, "And don't ever go away again!" :0)

Last night they all came over and she saw our suitcases sitting in the foyer (still not put in storage). She looked at me accusingly and said, "What are those for?" I told her I hadn't put them up yet. She said, "Good."

Today she told me what she wants to do when she grows up: She is going to work at the Rainforest Cafe and drive an orange Lambrigini with purple flames on it. Wow! Who knew you could make enough money working at the Rainforest Cafe to drive a Lambrigini?!!

MORE PICTURES :0)

2011-06-09T11:04:00.000-06:00

Dee Ice asked for the pictures of us "at the Alamo", so I thought I'd give you the whole set. Disregard what looks like a faded streak on my shirt - it's not faded and is actually brand new. Their camera mistake, and yet we still bought them. :0+

OUR GET-AWAY

2011-06-08T11:20:00.001-06:00

My husband and I have been out of town for the past 11 days visiting around Texas. We started out by going to our niece's wedding. It was a beautiful wedding and reception and we were glad to be able to be there and to visit with family.

We next went to the small town where my husband's mother and 2 sisters live. We stayed there for a couple days visiting. It was nice to see his mom looking so healthy after her scare with her 2nd bout of colon cancer in February. She lost 100 pounds during that time but she's doing really well now and she really looks fantastic!

Next we headed to Fredricksburg, on our way to San Antonio. My husband used to go to Fredricksburg and take his scouts so they could go climbing at Enchanted Rock. He always wanted to go to the Admiral Nimitz World War II Museum there, so that is why we went. What we didn't know is that they were about to close. We had no way of knowing how much stuff there was to see. This is the greatest museum of World War II I have ever seen. They had 4 war planes, a jeep, a submarine, and a tank. Outside they had the top part of the sub and some big guns. We spent an hour in there and had only gotten started when the lady came walking through to tell us they were closing. She told us we could come back tomorrow and our tickets would still be good, but we told her we had reservations in San Antonio and couldn't change them. We went on to San Antonio, and decided to come back 3 days later, on our way to Dallas. We got up early that Friday morning and headed back to Fredricksburg and spent 3 1/2 more hours in the museum and even then we had to hurry through to see it all. I wished what they'd really do is give everyone a wheelchair and go through so we could read everything there is to read and listen to everything there is to listen to. It's hard to stand that long but it was so interesting! We had hoped that they would honor our tickets even though it was 3 days later, but they wouldn't, so we had to buy tickets again. I really thought that was not fair since we had not been able to see it all because they were closing at 5, and we had made the effort to come all the way back there again. I wanted to ask him, "Really? You really can't let us just use these tickets?" So - another $12 apiece to see it.

When we were finally able to tear ourselves away (and after we went and spent some money at the gift shop) we headed to Dallas to visit our daughter and her family. We had a lot of fun with them and as always, wished they lived closer to us. It was so hot and humid in Dallas, it was a reminder to us of why we love Albuquerque. While we were in Dallas my husband wanted to go to the Bass Pro Shop. That was really fun! It's almost like a mini amusement park in itself! We took my 7 year old granddaughter and she loved it. She hung out with grandpa because she told my daughter and I that we were "too boring" because all we were looking at was clothes and bags. :0) She and Grandpa went and checked out the boats and she got to climb in them and then they went to shoot the guns (electronic), and watch the fish in the huge tanks. They tried to see if she could go fishing, but they only did it at 11am and we had missed that. We even ate lunch there.
Later that afternoon we went to Cabella's but it wasn't near as much fun as the Bass Pro Shop. Later we found out that there was an even bigger Bass Pro Shop north of Dallas. We'll check that one out next time we go.

We had so much fun in San Antonio. Even though I lived in Texas for 30 years, I had never been to San Antonio. We went to the Alamo and to the Texas Ranger Museum. We spent an hour at the Alamo and 2 hours at the Texas Ranger Museum. I know most people like to go to Fiesta Texas or Sea World when they go to San Antonio, but believe it or not we had no desire to go to either one. We also went to the Tower of the Americas. We first went into this 4D movie about San Antonio. If you don't know what a 4D movie is, it's like a 3D movie - you wear the glasses and see everything in 3D, but you also get to experience things like the jerks and bumps you would feel if you were in the helicopter you're seeing on film. Your chair gets bumped back and forth, and it will through you to one side then another, then back, then forward. One part was showing a rattlesnake and when he hissed at the camera, you felt air blow out of the back of your chair onto your neck. That was pretty freaky. Then when he's slithering away (and in the film he comes towards you), you feel more air blow around your legs and it really feels like his tail swished you. My husband couldn't feel it because he had long pants on, but I felt it and it creeped me out more than the air on my neck! Then they showed Sea World and when the whale splashed in the film, water sprayed out into our faces. I have to admit it was quite a bit cheesey, but sort of funny. We rode this elevator that is on the outside of the building up to the observation deck. It has a big window and you can see out as you go up. On the observation deck, you can stay inside or go down a few steps and go out on the deck. It still has windows that come down to the railing, but you can feel the wind through the railing. Walking around on the observation deck really made my vertigo act up and finally I had to go back inside. There is a restaurant on the floor just below the observation deck, but it's pretty expensive. We declared ourselves "Total Tourists", when we bought the picture they took of us before going into the elevator. When we came down, we went to look at it, and it's us with 3 different backgrounds: Us in San Antonio at night, us in front of the Alamo, and us at the Riverwalk. Same photo of us, different backgrounds. Then they also give you a picture of the Tower of the Americas at night.

The rest of the time in San Antonio we just spent going down the riverwalk. We took the boat tour the first night and that was really nice (but hot). The next day we bought all day boat taxi tickets. That was the smartest thing we did. We should have bought them the day before, because they are good for 24 hours from the time you buy them. Then we could ride the boat taxi to wherever we wanted and get off and eat or shop and then get back on the boat and ride to the next place. The second day my feet were really killing me after walking for an hour at the WWII museum and walking up and down the riverwalk. I had meant to bring tennis shoes, but forgot them, so all I had was flip flops. They are good leather flip flops that are comfy to walk in, but you just can't walk all day in them. I can't buy shoes in a regular shoe store because my feet are too big, so I had gone looking at the mall at men's shoes but just didn't want to spend that much money on them. We were resting at the food court and I looked across and saw a Crocs store, so we went there an I bought a pair of crocs. They really saved my feet!

Even though we had a lot of fun on our trip, we're glad to be home. And we had a nice surprise when we got here and found out the septic tank had gone down to 1"! We had put a half bucket of bacteria in the morning we left. So I was able to do a much needed batch of laundry yesterday. That and our showers only caused it to go up to 3", so I'm doing another batch of laundry today!

These photos are out of order, so sorry!

Getting ready to go to the 4D movie at the Tower of the Americas.

One of the river barges - this particular one is the river tour, not the taxi, but the taxi looks the same but has flags on the back.

On top of the Tower of the Americas. PS. We're wearing hats because it was so hot and sunny!

Mariachis at the riverwalk cafe we ate at.

Looking down the riverwalk.

At the fountains outside the Tower of the Americas.

At same fountains.

THE RAPTURE

2011-05-18T21:06:00.000-06:00

The other day I read an article in our local newspaper. It was about the "Rapture". Evidently there is a guy who is an atheist and not only does he not believe in God, he also does not believe in the Rapture. But I guess what he does believe in is making money. He has a business for people who DO believe in the Rapture. What he advertises is that if YOU are going to be Raptured, what is going to happen to your pets, your livestock and other animals? Who will feed them? Who will take care of them? This is what his business offers. All you have to do is pay him $250 and he will have someone come to your house within 24 hours and feed and water your animals. That way, when you are Raptured up to heaven, you will be able to be trouble free, knowing that your animals will be taken care of for as long as you are gone. What a guy! Some people think of everything! Rapture in peace! :0)

ANOTHER SEPTIC UPDATE

2011-05-13T16:06:00.000-06:00

I think our septic tank is finally really draining. It's been lower this week than any other week - between 12-13". Yesterday I actually did a load of dishes in the dishwasher. Of course I had to use the "Eco" dishwashing detergent my husband ordered for me online, but I was surprised how well it cleaned the dishes. We haven't had to shower at Amber's for over a week, and that's really been nice. I've practically had to sit on my husband to get him to keep waiting. Every day before it started draining good, he'd say we just needed to dig a new leech field. I kept telling him that we had an agreement to wait until the end of May. Glad we waited now. Hope it keeps this up! A few more inches and I'll be able to wash clothes at home instead of going to the laundromat! Woo-hoo! :0)

TRIALS, AFFLICTIONS, AND BURDENS....OH MY!

2011-05-10T11:28:00.002-06:00

I have a twisted mentality. Many of you may have already come to that conclusion. This last week we've had our share of, shall we say, "drama" in our life. When you get that much going on, you have to resort sometimes, to a sense of humor even though the situations are not humorous in the least degree. One day I was contemplating the trials we were going through and all of a sudden several phrases from the scriptures starting coming to my mind. These were scripture phrases that described the trials and afflictions we may encounter in our life. I actually started laughing as I remembered some of these. This led to me searching my scriptures via the topical guide to find all the phrases that describe trials, burdens and afflictions. Here's my list:
- Not even feel them on your back
- More than you can bear
- Fiery trials
- Supported in your trial
- Trial of affliction
- Affliction shall be but a small moment
- Comfort in my affliction
- Afflictions in the wilderness
- All manner of afflictions
- Sore afflictions
- Great afflictions
- Joy in my afflictions
- In the day of mine afflictions
- Yoke of affliction
- Burden upon my shoulders
- Cannot feel afflictions on your back
- Visited in mine afflictions
- Famine and afflictions
- Time of my affliction
- Notwithstanding my afflictions
- Many afflictions
- In the midst of my afflictions
- Grievous burdens
- Burden of Babylon
- Heavy burdens
- False burdens
- One another’s burdens
- bread of affliction
- water of affliction
- one day rest from all your afflictions
- bear with those afflictions
- because of my afflictions
- mine afflictions were great above all
- in the furnace of affliction
- communicate with my affliction
- patient in afflictions
- remembering mine affliction
- affliction shall not rise up the second time
- the affliction of our fathers
- in the land of my affliction
- bound in affliction
- add affliction to my bonds
- great were their afflictions
- endure afflictions
- suffer afflictions
- our light affliction
- a great trial of affliction
- affliction in the day of their calamity
- much affliction in the wilderness
- yoke of affliction
- tremendous affliction
- burdens grievous to be borne
- the yoke of his burden
- great trial of affliction
There you go.... :0)

MOTORCYCLE CRAZY

2011-05-03T11:46:00.000-06:00

I had lunch with a couple of my daughters yesterday. On the way back home I was driving north up the freeway and noticed a guy on a motorcycle that was weaving in and out of traffic. He caught my eye because he was a bit eratic when he was weaving in and out. We reached a straight stretch and I saw him look back over his shoulder at a pickup truck, then he changed lanes to the far left lane. The truck changed to the same lane. I noticed that there was no one in front of the motorcycle. Then he made his move. He stood up on the pedals and lifted his right leg over the motorcycle and then stood on the pedal (or whatever). He then changed feet, so his right leg was on the pedal - his body still being on the left side of the motorcycle. He is still doing 65 mph down the freeway and his hands are still on the handlebars. Then he leans down a bit towards the front of the cycle and lifts his left leg perfectly perpendicular to the motorcycle. It is sticking straight out at a 90 degree angle. He drives like that for a few seconds (still at 65 mph), then he puts it back down, changes his feet again so his left foot is on the pedal, and then puts his right leg back over the motorcycle and then sits down. Then he immediately changes lanes across 3 more lanes of traffic and exits on the big interchange to another freeway going west. I was also taking that interchange, and was about 4 cars behind him, but by the time I got down off of the overpass onto the freeway,he was gone. He must have taken the first exit. I have no idea where the pickup truck went . I wondered if someone in the pickup truck was video-taping his motorcyle stunt for either YouTube or one of those stunt TV shows? It was a bit scary, but it was quite impressive!

HOW WINDY IS IT?

2011-05-01T21:21:00.000-06:00

I am so sick of wind. Sick. Of. It. However in trying to not complain and whine, I thought of another time that it was so windy - The Dustbowl, or "The Dirty Thirties". I looked The Dustbowl up on Wikopedia and found some interesting info. The Dustbowl was from 1930-1936 (and 1940 in some areas). It was basically caused by a severe drought coupled with decades of farming without crop rotation. The dust blackened the sky reaching all the way to the East Coast. Much of the soil ended up in the Atlantic Ocean. The dust storms were called, "Black Blizzards" or "Black Rollers." It affected 100,000,000 acres in Texas, Oklahoma, New Mexico, Colorado, and Kansas. People got so tired of the wind and dust that some people actually went crazy.

The biggest storm was on April 14th, 1935, known as "Black Sunday" and twenty of the worst storms occurred. Visability was reduced to a few feet. The dirt was so thick that a man could get lost a half a mile from his house. Children died of "dust pneumonia", by literally suffocating. Animals would suffocate on dirt, their insides packed with soil. Anyone caught outside dropped to the ground and was in danger of being buried alive. The dirt actually blew all the way to Chicago, where dirt fell like snow.

Last night the wind started blowing like crazy here when we went to bed. It blew ALL night long and continued - in the same strength - all day long today until tonight. Along with that, it snowed here - at least on the east side of town where Gilbert Girl lives. We had some of the weirdest looking clouds in the sky today. But with all the crazy weather going on in the US - tornados, flooding, wild fires - I'll take the wind, even though I'll probably keep complaining about it. :0)

SEPTIC UPDATE

2011-04-30T14:13:00.000-06:00

Ok, first I haved to correct my mistake in my last post. I think it was wishful thinking that I posted that the septic tank had gone down to 9". It hadn't. It had only gone down to 12". But then of course as soon as it went down, my husband had to go put yet more bacteria stuff down it. He didn't put a whole bucket this time, but he did put several packets. So of course it went back up to 15 1/2. So back to Amber's I went to shower.

I think I have finally convinced my husband to NOT put any more bacteria down it when it goes down next time. He has agreed to wait at least a month before putting any more down, providing the level continues to go down.

On the plus side, I only went to Amber's twice this week. My husband has been showering at night here at our house. He says it's okay for him to shower here, because he doesn't "take forever like I do." :0) I also did get to do a big batch of dishes this week.

Another plus: I got my steam mop and used it last weekend. I thought it worked pretty good. I got the one that has 3 steam levels: dust, mop, and scrub. Supposedly you can use the "dust" or "mop" setting on hardwood. I think I'm going to google that and see if it's really ok for your wood floors. I'm wondering though, if over time it will gradually clean my grout better on my tile floor. I think the floor I most like using it on is the bathroom. Makes you feel like it's sanitized. :0)

STARTING TO DRAIN!

2011-04-25T16:03:00.000-06:00

I got to shower at home today! Usually we shower all week at Amber's so we can "save up" to shower on Sunday morning at our house. Every morning, my husband goes to check the septic tank to see if it's gone down. It is never down, so we go to Amber's to shower. This morning, (Monday) he checked it and it was down to 9"! That is the lowest it's been in a long time. The highest was 16 1/2". On Friday it was down to 13". Twist, his wife, daughter, and her fiance came to visit us this weekend. They came on Friday and left Saturday afternoon. I had told them that if they needed to shower while they were here, they'd have to go to one of my kids' houses, but since they were just staying overnight, they opted not to shower on Saturday. Now I feel bad that they couldn't shower while they were here. Sometimes the tank has started to go down and then has gone back up, so we weren't sure if that was the case, or if it was actually going down. My husband said that for a normal level it needs to be at least at 6" before I can wash clothes and dishes in the dishwasher again. BTW, he made a big stick to use as a "dip stick" with markings on it so he can stick it down in the tank to see what the level is. That way he's not just guessing. Wow, maybe this stuff is finally working!

FORTUNE COOKIES

2011-04-18T22:12:00.000-06:00

My husband and I went by Panda Express tonight to pick up dinner to take home. I always get the same thing: A Panda bowl with Kung Pao chicken. He usually gets the 2 entree plate and varies the entrees. I love the fortune cookies. One day I got a fortune in my fortune cookie that was really applicable to what was going on in my life at the time, so I stuck it on my bulletin board with all my family pictures. Since then I have put up all fortunes from our fortune cookies up there.

We've been waiting and waiting for our septic tank to start draining, and even though it really hasn't been as bad on us as everyone thinks it has, we have been hoping and praying that it will start to drain right. I think my husband has been more stressed out about it than I have, mainly because he wonders if he made the right choice to try to clean up the ground, instead of digging a new leech field.

So tonight when I opened my fortune cookie, I noticed that my husband wasn't paying attention to what I was doing. I hurriedly grabbed the pen beside me, turned my fortune paper over, and wrote: "Your septic tank will drain soon". Then I turned to my husband and said, "Do you want to read my fortune?" I handed it to him and he got a chuckle reading it. Then he opened his fortune cookie. His fortune was, "If your desires are not extravagant, they will be granted." :0)

Fingers crossed!

WAITIN' FOR THE DRAININ'

2011-04-14T16:04:00.000-06:00

More on the Septic Saga:
It's gotten so bad this week, we are now showering over at Amber's every morning. Thanks Amber, for the use of your apartment! Frankie and Miss Meow aren't even scared of us anymore! :0)
We think we've figured out that when we put a 5 gallon bucket of stuff in the septic tank, it temporarily clogs it up until the stuff has had time to liquefy. That usually takes at least a week. Yesterday and today it went down a couple of inches, so maybe, maybe, maybe....

In the meantime, I went to the laundromat again today - 6 washers! Multiply that times 17 quarters. That's how much it costs. Of course I'm using the maxi-washers. A lady came in to use one of the triple-washers. She turned to me and said, "How much are these washers?" I said, "What does the number on the panel in red say?" She said, "13." I said, "Then it's 13 quarters." She got a shocked look on her face and said, "I guess it's been way too long since I've been to the laundromat. I thought it'd be like $1.75." She left to go get more money. I wanted to say, "Yeah, that's what I thought too. " :0+

My dishwasher is completely full of dirty dishes and now the sink is filling up. I can't use the dishwasher, but I put them there until I had time to do them. And really, I just don't want to catch the water and throw it all out the back door anymore.

I'm looking hard for the, would you say, perks of all of this. Here's what I've come up with:
- We get to eat breakfast at McDonald's on the way to Amber's every morning. (Of course, we may die of a heart-attack before too long..)
- Since I can't use water to clean the bathrooms, I just use Clorox Wipes! Easy! I'm using baking soda in the toliet. Don't think I'll recommend that for marketing...
- Eating on paper plates, using plastic cups, less dishes. But then, I'm not doing them everyday anyway.
- We're making friends with Frankie and Miss Meow. :0)
- Got a new front-loading washer and dryer.
- Going out to buy a steam mop so I can mop my floors.
- We had the sister missionaries over for dinner last night and served them Dion's pizza, cantaloupe, and lemon pie (in a throw-away pie pan). No slaving over a hot stove!
- Developing more patience. :0)
- We're hanging in there.....

WHO YOU ARE

2011-04-08T12:33:00.000-06:00

I've been thinking alot about this lately and let me first just flat out say that this has nothing to do with any of my children or their spouses. Ok, now that that is out of the way, on with my musings.

Have you ever looked at yourself and said, "This is not who I want to be"? I think we all have good aspirations of wanting to be good people. And who knows, maybe there are people out there who aspire to be bad people. But basically, I at least, have a desire to be a good person.

I do have some habits that I need to work on. One bad habit that I quite enjoy, is saying the word, "hell". I usually say in in the context: "What the hell?" Amber said she even saw a tee-shirt one time that said that. I told her if she ever saw it in my size to buy it and I'd at least wear it for a lounge shirt. See how bad I am? In fact, I'm so bad, that I sincerely doubt if I can ever take that word out of my personal language. But rest assured that I am trying to take other words out. Oh wait, except for the word, "crap". I really do need to work on that one. If I take "crap" out of my language, can I keep, "hell"?

Another thing that I have tried to work on and continue to work on is patience. One time I was a Young Women's counselor and was working on my Young Women's Medallion as a leader. One of the goals I chose to do was to pick a virtue (I picked patience), look it up in the Topical Guide and read all the scriptures on it, then pick one of the scriptures, memorize it, and then work on it in your life. The scripture I picked was in the Doctrine and Covenants: "Have patience in afflictions, for thou shalt have many; but endure them, for, lo, I am with thee, even unto the end of thy days." (D&C 24:8) I thought a lot about it before I picked a patience. I finally decided on patience, because I figured that patience really encompassed the rest of the virtures, if you were patient enough. Sometimes I find myself not being so patient. I say to myself, "Wait, is this the person you want to be? Didn't you want to be a patient person?" And then I try to get back to that patient person that I want to be.

One thing that has been bothering me recently is gossip. And see, here again I can make excuses and say that family gossip is one thing and gossiping about friends and acquaintances is another. I guess what I'm really saying is, I'll work on one thing at a time. :0) More than a few times recently, I have found myself with a group of women who start gossiping about someone. And more than a few times I join right in with them. And then I have to stop and ask myself, "Is this who you want to be?" I think there is a fine line between just talking about someone, such as, "Did you hear about so-and-so" and gossip. A lot of times we are passing information to each other. In my opinion, that is not gossiping. I think it is gossiping, when it turns malicious or ugly, or maybe even when you're complaining about that person, and enjoying it a bit too much. This is one thing that I am thinking a lot about lately, and it is something I have decided to work a bit harder on, because I do know that I do not want to be this kind of person. I've kind of adopted this saying as my motto in this subject: “Treat everyone with politeness, even those who are rude to you - not because they are nice, but because you are.” – Author Unknown. Maybe it should read, "Treat everyone with kindness, even with those who are rude - not because they are nice, but because you want to be. "

Just know, I'm working on it.......

Who are you? Who do you want to be?

SEPTIC SAGA

2011-04-01T18:59:00.000-06:00

On a recent post, Dee Ice asked how my septic tank was doing. Every day my husband was checking it and it still wasn't going down. Thursday afternoon I went to the laundromat to finish up the mountain of laundry I still had (and I still haven't stripped the beds in the 2 guest rooms and washed those sheets!). That day we were talking and decided that we needed to call Amber and ask her if we could get a key to her apartment so we could come over every morning after she went to work so we could start showering over at her apartment. After we talked about this, my husband decided to go check the septic tank for that day. It had gone down 4"!! That is the most it has gone down in one day! So maybe this is finally the turn-around we have been waiting for. When he came in and told me, he said I could shower the next day (which I'm sure everyone around me was thankful for). So now we are wondering if it really is taking effect, or was it just down because neither of us showered that day? Time will tell. We will continue to shower every day and see if it stays down. You know it's getting desperate when you are actually praying for your septic tank.

PERFECT PECAN PIE

2011-03-31T14:19:00.000-06:00

Some of you have requested that I blog my recipe for my pecan pie. This is my mother-in-law's recipe and I just want to tell you that I think she is one of the best cooks I know. She has always inspired me to be a better cook. Every thing she makes is just the best thing you have ever tasted. Here's a funny story:
Every year we would go to my mother-in-laws house for Thanksgiving. My parents lived in either Kentucky, or later Utah and it was too far for us to go for Thanksgiving. My mom-in-law's Thanksgiving dinners were just the absolute best you ever had seen. One year, my youngest son, Rintor was anxiously awaiting Thanksgiving. He had been hearing about his school's Thanksgiving dinner that they served for lunch a week or so before Thanksgiving. The day finally came and he could hardly wait to get to school. That day he came home; he looked a little down. I asked him, "How was the Thanksgiving dinner?" He said, "It wasn't very good. Everyone said it was so good, but it wasn't. It wasn't as good as Grandma's." I told him, "No one's Thanksgiving dinner is as good as Grandma's." :0) Here's her recipe for pecan pie, that I have renamed:
PERFECT PECAN PIE
3 eggs, slightly beaten
2 Tbl. melted butter
3 Tbl. flour
1 tsp vanilla
1/8 tsp salt
1/2 cup sugar
1 1/2 cups lt. Karo syrup
2/3 cup chopped pecans
1 unbaked pie shell
- Beat eggs, blend in butter, flour, vanilla, salt, sugar and syrup. Mix well so sugar can dissolve. Add pecans. Pour into pie shell. Bake in preheated oven at 425 degrees for 10 minutes. Reduce temperature to 325 degrees. Bake 40-45 minutes longer. You can cover the edges of the pie shell with aluminum foil so the edges don't get too brown and uncover them the last 10 minutes. My mom-in-law says she never covers the edges. If you use pecans that you have had in your freezer, make sure they are at room temperature before you add them. If you use a frozen pie crust, make sure it has thawed before you use it. If you have any problem with this setting up, my sister-in-law says to just use 4 eggs instead of 3.

A PERFECT BIRTHDAY?

2011-03-30T11:14:00.000-06:00

For my husband's birthday Monday, I TRIED to get him to do some fun things. Here's what we did (according to what HE wanted to do):

1) Got up and went to McDonalds for breakfast, but went through the drive-thru and brought it home.
2) Went to Home Depot and bought concrete so he could pour a concrete patch over the septic tank (he poured it on Wednesday).
3) Ate leftover hamburger, brats, potato salad, baked beans, and melon from Saturday night's cook-out for lunch.
4) He went out and got the septic tank "prepped" and ready to pour concrete.
5) Went to Hastings and bought "The Tourist" on dvd, plus some good westerns we found on sale for $5.99 and $7.99.
6) Went through the drive-thru of Panda Express for dinner and brought it home and watched "The Tourist". (btw, it was really good!)

That night he told me, "Thanks for making my birthday so nice!" I said, "And here I am feeling bad that your birthday was so boring!" I tried to get him to go to a restaurant but all he wanted was Panda drive-thru! We were also going to go to the movies but there was nothing worth seeing. We had wanted to see "The Tourist" and had several people tell us it was really good, so I decided we should just go buy it - lots cheaper than going to the movies and we got to see something we wanted to see!

Oh, and by the way, I've been having a really hard time for YEARS trying to make a good pecan pie. He always wants pecan pie for his birthday and Father's Day. Every year I make one. Every year it is crap. Finally this year I even prayed about it. I made a pie using the Lion House recipe. Didn't turn out. Finally I thought and thought about it. I finally got the idea that because I was using frozen nuts and frozen pie crust and not letting them thaw out first, is the reason it wasn't turning out. I decided to make one more pie the afternoon we were having our family party. YAY! It turned out PERFECT! I mean P.E.R.F.E.C.T!!!!
I also wondered if something else that had happened had anything to do with it. The recipe calls for 3 eggs. At the grocery store all the large eggs were all cracked, so I bought jumbo eggs. I cracked the first egg, it was a double yolk. I cracked the second egg, it was a double yolk too. The third egg was just a single yolk. Now my sister-in-law says she has problems with my mother-in-law's recipe too and she just adds an extra egg. So now I wonder if the next time I make it I need to remember to not use frozen nuts and pie shells, but to also put in an extra egg?

KINDNESS

2011-03-23T14:42:00.000-06:00

I was called to be a Cubmaster last December. My first Pack meeting was Pinewood Derby. My second Pack meeting was Blue & Gold Banquet. Finally this month is a regular old Pack meeting. The value this month is "Compassion" so I found some quotes on kindness and compassion and I made several into banners to put on the walls. Then I printed the rest on squares of paper and each boy will read one after he gets his earned award or badge. I thought these quotes were so good, I decided to share them:

"Let us always meet each other with a smile, for the smile is the beginning of love." - Mother Teresa

"Spread love everywhere you go. Let no one ever come to you without leaving happier." - Mother Teresa

"Treat everyone with politeness, even those who are rude to you - not because they are nice, but because you are." - Author Unknown

"If you want others to be happy, practice compassion. If you want to be happy, practice compassion." - Dalai Lama

"I always prefer to believe the best of everybody, it saves so much trouble." - Rudyard Kipling

"Kindness is the language which the deaf can hear and the blind can see." - Mark Twain

"Those who bring sunshine to the lives of others cannot keep it form themselves." - James Matthew Barrie

"The best way you can knock the chip off your neighbor's shoulder is to pat him on the back. " - Author Unknown

"You cannot do a kindness too soon, for you never know how soon it will be too late." - Ralph Waldo Emerson

"Kindness,, like a boomerang, always returns." - Author Unknown

"You can't live a perfect day without doing something for someone who will never be able to repay you."
- John Wooden

"Don't wait for people to be friendly, show them how." - Author Unknown

"How far you go in life depends on your being tender with the young, compassionate with the aged, sympathetic with the striving, and tolerant of the week and strong. Because someday in your life you will have been all of these." - George Washington Carver

"Kindness is in our power, even when fondness is not." - Samuel Johnson

"The best portion of a good man's life - his little, nameless, unremembered acts of kindness and love." - William Wordsworth

"Too often we underestimate the power of a touch, a smile, a kind word, a listening ear, an honest compliment or the smallest act of caring, all of which have the potential to turn a life around." - Leo Buscalglia

"Make it a practice to judge persons and things in the most favorable light at all times and under all circumstances." - Saint Vincent de Paul

"There are no traffic jams when you go the extra mile." - Zig Ziglar

"I expect to pass through life but once. If therefore, there be any kindness I can show, or any good thing I can do to my fellow being, let me do it now, and not defer or neglect it, as I shall not pass this way again." - William Penn

FLUSHING IT OUT

2011-03-19T16:02:00.000-06:00

More on the Septic Tank Saga:

My husband ordered 11 five gallon buckets of this bio-safe bacteria for septic tanks. We got it this week and he put 3 five gallon buckets down there yesterday. Next week he'll put 3 more five gallon buckets down and then the 3rd week he'll put the rest. They guarantee this 99%, so I hope it works. He's also been digging more and found the clog in the drainage pipes where it goes to the leech (leach?) field. Big clogs of toliet paper. So it looks like we're going to have to switch paper too. :0+ Maybe my parents' idea of not putting any toliet paper down their septic tank isn't such a bad idea after all. (actually it is a gross idea, so never mind).

In the meantime, we ordered a new front-loading washer and dryer Friday morning and it will be here Monday morning. We got a pretty good deal on it. I got stainless steel. We bought the pedestals that the washer and dryer sit on too. Here's a tip to those of you who have the front-loaders but don't have the pedestals: I guess a lot of people don't buy the pedestals because they are so expensive. (We felt like we were getting such a good deal on the washer that we went ahead and got the pedestals.) Anyway, I was at Home Depot the other day and they had all these LG pedestals on sale for $80. They are regularly $200 or more. They had mostly white and stainless steel, but they had a couple of red ones too. I also heard that Best Buy had some pedestals on clearance too. So check it out! We got a GE washer and dryer. I didn't know if the GE would fit the LG pedestals or not, so I didn't get any from there.

Another good thing is that when we moved into this house and had new tile put in the kitchen, dining and laundry rooms, my husband took off all the baseboards...and never put them back on. One reason he hadn't put them back on is because we kept talking about remodeling our kitchen (but haven't done it yet). Anyway, since we were moving the washer and dryer out today to make room for the new ones, he decided to go to Home Depot and buy new baseboards and put them in the laundry room and bathroom. Woo-Hoo! We also bought some for the living room. The living room has baseboards, but all the other baseboards he has put in the house look so nice, I wanted the ones in the living room changed, since they are just the standard boring baseboards that came with the house. A few months ago he put new ones in Bab's old bedroom and the hallway when we painted that bedroom. Now all we have left to do is the master bedroom and bath, the kitchen, the other guest room, and his office. :0)

STILL FLUSHING $$$

2011-03-08T15:32:00.000-07:00

Well, it's been 2 1/2 weeks since I wrote my last post, "FLUSHING MONEY DOWN THE TOLIET" and we've only taken a baby step. :0+ We put a 5 gallon bucket of bacteria stuff down the septic tank and have flushed packets of it down every toliet almost every day. It's draining, but very, very slowly. Last weekend I tended my grandkids while Gilbert Girl and her husband went away for the weekend. I went to her house on Friday morning so she could leave, and I took most of my wash with me and did laundry all day while I watched the boys and while the girls were at school. That really helped. We are still showering every day, and I have to do a load of dishes at least once a week. Today I had to do another load of laundry. In the meantime, my husband is ordering 10 more 5-gallon buckets. He talked to the guy today and the guy said that if one bucket didn't fix it, then it was in worse shape than he thought. He also said that if we don't get the septic tank going, it will contaminate our water well. By putting the 10 buckets of stuff down it (and they guaranteed it will work 99%) it will basically clean all the soil in and around the septic tank. It's either that or dig a new septic system $$$$$$$$$, or have city sewers put in $$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$.

So some good things and some bad things have come from this. The bad thing is that I am going to have to change a lot of my soaps and detergents. When we got the bacteria stuff, they also sent a sheet with a list of good products to use with septic tanks. I found out that everything I use is bad, such as: We use Dove bar soap and now we will switch to Oil of Olay bar soap. I have been using Cascade or Finish -now I have to switch temporarilly to an eco-friendly dishwasher soap and then once it the septic system starts working again, I can switch back. I use Pine-Sol on my floors and have to switch to Mr. Clean. I have to quit using Oxy-clean in my white laundry. We have to quit using anti-bacterial liquid hand soap and go back to regular hand soap, and get this: they said to use a fruit based soap. Does that mean Bath and Body Works liquid soaps?(woo-hoo!) I'll have to check. Basically I can't use anything with sodium or phosphate or bleach or amonia in it. Thank goodness it did say I can use Murphy's Oil soap still on my wood floors.

Okay, that was the bad. Here's the good :0) : My husband has decided that to help the septic system "get better" faster, we need to use less water. So he said I could go buy one of those front-loading hi-efficiency washing machines. I told him if I bought the washer, I needed to buy the dryer to match, because if I didn't and waited till my dryer went out and then went to buy one, it wouldn't match. So he said ok. :0D

See? Good things come to those who wait....and not whine. :0)

FLUSHING MONEY DOWN THE TOLIET ;0)

2011-02-26T11:22:00.000-07:00

Pick-up Sticks blogged about having water problems in his house (saying he had always wanted an indoor pool :0) ). We are having water problems too, but not in the house. We have a septic tank and ever since we got home from Ireland, it's been running sluggish. We thought maybe it was because we hadn't been putting the bacteria down it to keep the system running right, so my husband has been putting a LOT down it to try to get it going. Nothing was working. When we left for Texas to go take care of my husband's mom after her surgery for 10 days, he put some more down it, hoping that while we were gone so long it would have a good chance to get working. When we got back, it still was not draining fast enough, so we called the pumping company to come pump it out. It still wouldn't drain. We called them again and had them come out and pump it AGAIN and then their sister company (or is it brother company? :0D ) came and stuck one of those snake hoses in it with a router on the end to try to rout out any tree roots or clogs. They did find one clog and got it out, but in the next few days we were right back to it not draining right, so my husband called them AGAIN $$$$$$$$. Then he started thinking that maybe instead of it not draining right, maybe it was just getting too much water. By this time I had stopped doing laundry and hadn't done any in quite a few days, and hadn't run the dishwasher, so he couldn't blame that. Then he started checking the toliets. We have 4 toliets - 3 in the house and 1 in the shop. He found out that the one in the shop and the one in the laundry room were leaking. He fixed the one in the shop with a $10 kit. He bought a $15 kit for the one in the laundry room, and it didn't fix it, so he's going to go back and get another $10 kit and see if the cheaper one will fix it. Hopefully that will do it. In the meantime, he turned the water to that toliet off. Unfortunately before we figured all this out, he went online and ordered some more expensive bacteria $$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$ to put in the septic tank to help the leech field work better. I'm keeping my fingers crossed that one of these things will do it. If not, then the only other answer is to have a new septic system dug.

SUPER

2011-02-23T11:37:00.000-07:00

Inkling's been posting about what she's been making her granddaughters, so I thought I'd show you what I made last week for my grandson's 3rd birthday. I got this pattern online and had to cut it out 3 times before I got it right. :0+ The Superman side reverses to Batman. As you can see, I've updated Batman to the 21st century. In the old comic books, Batman had a blue cape, but since the movies came out, I decided I needed to go with black.

WHO IS PITTACUS LORE?

2011-02-13T11:17:00.002-07:00

I just finished reading a new book called, I Am Number Four. It was a pretty good book and when I finished I was thinking that I couldn't wait until the next book was published. I was curious as to who the author was, since it was obvious that he or she was using a psuedo-name: "Pittacus Lore". I went to www.authortracker.com/, but they were no help of telling me what the author's real name was. So since I know that Google is my Friend, I googled "Pittacus Lore". I found 2 websites. One, a by Leah Raeder (www.leahraeder.com/ ) which then led me to one called, "The Smoking Gun." This website said that I Am Number Four was written by two people: James Frey and Jobie Hughes. They said that James Frey wrote the book, A Million Little Pieces, which was supposed to be about him and his life as an alchoholic, drug addict and criminal. Oprah picked it for her book club once. She thought it was one of the best books she had ever read and even her whole staff was reading it at the same time. She said she would go into work and everyone would ask each other what page they were on. Anyway, I guess Frey admitted that he lied. If you are interested in finding out more about this, go to www.thesmokinggun.com/ and in the search put James Frey or "A Million Little Lies". You can also type in google: Who is Pittacus Lore, and then look for Leah Raeder's blog and click on it. I had trouble typing in her address - it took forever and never went to it, but if you google it first and then click on it, you can go right there. I wondered if her website was too busy?
Now the question is: Do I really want to keep reading this guy's books? My immediate reaction is No.

LIFE IN A SMALL TOWN

2011-02-10T19:04:00.000-07:00

You know you're in a small town when you can go to the local florist shop to buy Watkins products. Got a tin of pepper for my mom-in-law but they were out of vanilla. Told her I get some the next time I'm in town. Gotta love it. :0)

HOW COLD IS IT?

2011-02-03T11:16:00.001-07:00

It's so cold, we had to chop up the piano for firewood, but we only got 2 chords.

It's so cold, if you open the front door of your house, the inside lights will come on.

It's so cold that instead of yelling "Freeze!" the cops just yell, "As you were!"

It's so cold, the Democrats have their hands in their own pockets....

It's so cold, Bill Clinton thought he was standing next to Hillary...

It's so cold, maybe Hell really is freezing over.

(PS. This is a picture from a few years ago. :0) )

THE POWER OF HOPE

2011-01-25T16:47:00.000-07:00

After this conversation below with Gilbert Girl, it made me start thinking a lot. So bear with me while I try to write down and express these thoughts I've had.

The other day I was talking to Gilbert Girl on the phone. She was telling me about the movie she had just watched the night before with her children, "Neverending Story". I've never seen this movie, but she said she was struck with this quote she heard towards the end of the movie:
Atreyu: But why is Fantasia dying, then?
G'mork: Because people have begun to lose their hopes and forget their dreams. So the Nothing grows stronger.
Atreyu: What is the Nothing?
G'mork: It's the emptiness that's left. It's like a despair, destroying this world. And I have been trying to help it.
Atreyu: But why?
G'mork: Because people who have no hopes are easy to control; and whoever has the control... has the power!

I looked up Hope in the dictionary. Here are some things it says about Hope:
- the feeling that what is wanted can be had or that events will turn out for the best.
-to look forward to with desire and reasonable confidence
-to believe, desire, or trust
-to feel that something desired may happen
- hope against hope, to continue to hope, although the outlook does not warrant it

I also looked up hopelessness in the dictionary:
-providing no hope; beyond optimism or hope

- impossible to accomplish, solve, resolve
which basically had the same definitions as despair:
- to lose all hope or confidence

- to lose, give up, or be without hope
But here is one more definition under hopelessness:
-not able to learn or act, perform or work as desired; inadequate for the purpose
This last definition makes more sense when you think of the last line of the quote above:
"Because people who have no hopes are easy to control..."

What is it that we hope for? I can remember as a kid asking my mom what she wanted for Christmas. She would always reply: "All I want is for my children to be healthy and happy." I used to think: "What a lame thing to ask for." But that was before I had children myself.

There is a Scottish proverb that says: "Were it not for hope the heart would break."
I think people who are religious have hope. We hope for a better world. We hope for a life after this one. We hope to be with our loved ones in the next life. We hope to do well in this life.

That's brings me to another quote I found: "Hope is the parent of faith." (Cyrus A. Bartol) So if we have hope, and we do hope, then what? I think it brings us to prayer. We pray to a higher power and ask for help with our hope. After we pray, we have faith that our hope will come about.

What if we have no hope? Remember the last line of the quote? "Because people who have no hopes are easy to control." I think a lack of hope brings despair, depression and a loss of self-worth. I also think that Satan is real and when we have no hope then he can influence us more to be depressed, which can then lead to a whole lot of other things. I think that is why we do need both faith and hope. In the Book of Mormon, Moroni says "Wherefore, if a man have faith he must needs have hope; for without faith there cannot be any hope." (Moroni 7:42)

If you want to read a really good talk about hope, click on this link below:
LDS.org - Ensign Article - The Infinite Power of Hope

Well, those are at least some of my thoughts. Thanks for reading. I'd also like to hear some of your thoughts on hope.

GIRLY ME

2011-01-20T10:29:00.000-07:00

If you're wondering why "Girly Me" hasn't blogged recently, it's because her computer is broken and she is not allowed to get on the internet at work anymore. She's hoping to get her computer fixed with her tax return. In the meantime, I told her she could come over and use my computer any time. Also in the meantime, she won't be blogging. Now you know! :0) She appreciates the concern of everyone who was wondering why she hadn't been blogging!

AHH, BOOKS!

2011-01-18T22:03:00.000-07:00

My husband recently retired. It's been kind of nice to have him around all the time and it's fun to just be able to go do whatever we want to do. But I have to admit that I had to make some adjustments at first.

Every morning when I eat breakfast, I read my scriptures. When my husband worked, he would leave before I ate breakfast, so I always ate breakfast by myself. Now we eat breakfast together. I read my scriptures and he watches me read my scriptures. I keep telling him to get his scriptures and he can read his while he eats, and he does do this some mornings, just not every morning. He renewed our subscription to the newspaper and now he reads that most mornings.

When my husband worked, I also ate lunch by myself (of course). At lunch I would read whatever book I was reading. I would eat my lunch while I read and sit there about an hour while I read. I'm not the kind of person who can just sit and read a book during the day. I have too much to do, or at least I think I do. So I read during lunch, and every once in awhile I go to bed early and read some more, but I usually don't do that because if I'm in bed reading, I get sleepy. So when my husband retired, I wasn't reading any books. I kept trying and couldn't get into them, because I'd only snatch a few minutes of reading here and there.

For my birthday my husband bought me a Kindle. I was so surprised because I hadn't even asked for one. A few days after he bought it for me I went to him and told him that since he bought me that Kindle, then I was going to go back to reading during lunch again. My husband eats his lunch in the den while he watches tv, and I ate there with him after he retired. But now I am back to eating my lunch in the kitchen while I read. I'm averaging about a book a week. It's been so fun and I've read some really great books. Since I started doing this I've read: ON THE STREET WHERE YOU LIVE, HOTEL ON THE CORNER OF BITTER AND SWEET (a REALLY great book!!!), and now I'm reading "THE HELP".

I have 5 books on my Kindle now. I haven't read any of them, because I'm reading all the books I got for Christmas first. Of the 5 books I have on my Kindle, I only paid for 1 of them because the other 4 were free because they were classics! Pretty cool! :0)

DON'T CLICK ON THE LINK - IT'S A VIRUS!

2011-01-11T21:35:00.000-07:00

I'm having some serious computer problems. Quite awhile ago - like several months ago- I got one of those emails that someone sends you, that is a link. And yes, like an idiot I clicked on it and it gave me a virus, or a worm or something. Well it has done some serious damage to my computer and even though I'm still able to use it for right now, it is just a matter of time until the hard drive crashes. My husband called Dell and talked to them about it. Since my computer is only a couple of years old, and since the 2 year warranty just barely expired, they suggested buying an extended warranty and then get it fixed, so that is what we're going to do. We have to wait 3 days for the extended warranty to kick in, and then we are going to take it to the Geek Squad at Best Buy, which is where Dell suggested we take it. I'd like to get it fixed as soon as possible, because at the end of the month I am going to visit my mother-in-law in another state and take care of her after her surgery. I'd sure like to have a computer to take with me. It's interesting, because even though I knew I was having problems, I would never have figured it out if Dell hadn't sent me a download for a computer checkup. I wonder if they knew I was having problems so that is why they sent it. Anyway, after it downloaded, it suggested I do a complete scan, which I did. After the scan it told me that my hard drive was in danger of crashing and I needed to back up all my files.
You know, I don't understand how someone gets their kicks by creating viruses that destroy other people's computers. I know Inklings just had to get their hard drive replaced, and Amber says she has to get her's replaced also. The Moral of this story? Never click on a link that is sent to you unless the person who sent it to you has typed some kind of message to you. The kind of virus I got was just a link in the text of the email and nothing more. There also was no subject in the subject line. After this, I may never click on a link in an email at all!

HYDRATION

2011-01-06T11:27:00.000-07:00

I've got a new volunteer position as a new Cub Master. Kind of weird because I've never met a woman Cub Master before. Yesterday my husband and I went up to our church where one of the other Cub Packs (not ours) were setting up the track for their Pinewood Derby that night. Since this is my first time as Cub Master, and since my husband said he would help me put the track together at the end of the month when our Pack has their Derby, we went up to see how it was done. We ended up helping, of course, and were glad to see how easily the track fits together. They had asked 2 college age boys to come help set up, and these boys had pulled out the big box the track was in, and was in the process of removing stacks of extra chairs with a dolley to another room, when one of the boys bent over and began breathing heavily. I went over to him and patted him on the back and asked him if he was ok. He said "Yes", but kept breathing heavy. I said, "Is it a case of needing some food?" He said, "Yes". Since he wasn't seeming to pull out of it, I suggested to him that we find him some food - no small feat in a church that is not supposed to have food of any kind stored anywhere in the building. He went to the kitchen and I went to one of the nurseries. I found an opened package of trail mix that I know had been there at least 3 months, since I had seen it there when I helped out in the nursery at least that long ago. When I went to find him, he wasn't in the kitchen but was coming back from the other nursery, with no luck. I showed him the trail mix and told him, "No telling how old that is, but if you're desperate..." He did take it and I think did eat at least some of it. I went back to helping put the track together, but about a half hour later heard him telling the Pack Chairman (who is also a woman) that he had almost passed out about 5 times so far. He kept sitting on this chair, acting like he couldn't shake it. A few minutes later I went over to him again and said, "Hey, just tell me what you want to eat, and I'll go get you something." He said he was going to go home and get something (he only lived 2 blocks away) but he was trying to get his head clear so he could make it to his car. His friend was going to drive him home. Then I had another thought. I said, "I wonder if this is a case of just needing hydration." I told him I was going to go get him some water. I went to the kitchen but couldn't find any glasses, so just took a plastic pitcher to the water fountain and put some water in it and took it to him. He acted like "I really don't need this, I need food", but took it anyway. He took a couple of swallows and stopped and said, "Hey, I really think that is helping". Then he drank the rest of it. Probably equal to about a glass of water. When he finished he said that maybe that was part of it as he was really starting to feel better. He went ahead and went on home to get something to eat. I remember watching an Oprah show one time about hydration. The doctor on her show said that sometimes when we feel hungry during the day, we are really just thirsty and we should try drinking a full glass of water before we eat anything. I don't think we really hydrate our bodies enough. We have to remember that when we are hydrating our bodies, we are also hydrating our brains too. I looked this up on the web and it said that some signs that you are not drinking enough water are: Dark urine Dry skin Thirst Hunger Fatigue Here are 11 benefits of drinking water: 1. Helps you lose weight --helps flush out fat, reduces hunger, and is an effective appetite suppresant 2. Natural remedy for headache 3. Helps you look younger with healthier skin 4. Better productivity at work or school- drinking water helps you think better 5. Better exercise - drinking water helps regulate your body temperature and helps you feel more energetic 6. Helps in digestion and constipation - drinking water raises your metabolism 7. Less cramps and sprains - drinking water helps keep your joints & muscles lubricated 8. Less likely to get sick - helps fight against flu, kidney stones, heart attack, and can improve our immune system 9. Relieves fatigue - if your body lacks water, your heart and other organs have to work harder, also helps flush out toxins and waste products 10. Good mood - your body feels good and so do you 11. Reduces the risk of cancer - may reduce the risk of bladder cancer and colon cancer

READER'S DIGEST SCAM

2010-12-22T11:08:00.000-07:00

I received a letter and a check in the mail this week from Reader''s Digest. The letter looked very official and said that I had won the Grand Sweepstakes prize of $150,000.00. At first I really wondered if I HAD won, because a month or so ago, I bought the December issue of the Reader's Digest. I always buy that issue, because I love their Christmas stories. In that issue, was an insert for entering the Reader's Digest contest and it said you could enter online. Since I happened to be sitting on the couch with my laptop, I decided, "Why not?" and entered. Now I never enter contests like that and don't know why I did then, other than just because my laptop was there.

The check that was enclosed, was for around $3500.00 and the letter stated that before you cashed the check, you had to call this number and they would activate the check so you could cash it. The check looked very official and was from a company called, "Texas General Agency, Inc.", that was supposedly located in San Antonio, Texas. It even had a watermark on the back of the check. The thing that first made me suspicious was that the check and the letter had come in a plain envelope - the long kind you would buy at Staples or Office Max. They had typed my address on an address sticker and stuck it on the front. There was no return address. My first thought at seeing the envelope was that it was some kind of advertisement.

I emailed Delirious about it because she is always checking out scams on Snopes. She gave me a couple of web sites to check out. One was a fraud website, and when I went there, they had 4 or 5 entries from people who had gotten the same type letter and check -supposedly from Reader's Digest. That clinched it for me that it was a scam. On that website, one guy had actually called in so they could verify the check. He said that after he did that and cashed the check, then when the check went back to Texas General Agency, Inc., they had his account number and then proceeded to hack into his bank account.

Anyway, everyone beware! If you get a letter from anyone like that in the mail - it's most likely a scam.

Oh, and by the way, just one more reason for me to put on my list to REALLY not enter contests anymore anyway. To me - and I know there are a LOT of you who will disagree with this - entering contests to me is like gambling. Besides, if I won that contest and got a lot of money - then a WHOLE LOT of people really would try to beat down my door and demand to live with me. (See my "I Think I'm Watching Too Much Fox News" blog about my dream. :0) )

ARCHES & CANYONLANDS NATIONAL PARKS

2010-12-20T21:16:00.000-07:00

This summer we went to Moab, Utah for a few days and went to Arches and Canyonlands National Parks. I had never been there and thought it was so cool, I'd love to go back again (and we plan to). Here are some pictures we took:

OVERHEARD AT THE POST OFFICE

2010-12-18T17:21:00.000-07:00

I went to the Post Office today and stood in line for 40 minutes. While I was waiting, someone came up to the lady behind me and I overheard this conversation:

(after greeting each other)
Him: (teasing) "So, are you keeping out of trouble?"
Her: I'm in a "step" program now.
Him: (a little taken aback) "Is it helping?"
Her: It's a little different than the other program I was in.

As in 12 Step Program???? :0+

I THINK I'M WATCHING TOO MUCH FOX NEWS

2010-12-16T12:55:00.002-07:00

My husband watches Fox News. All. The. Time. If we have a movie that has come from Net Flix, he'll watch that. The rest of the time the tv is on Fox News. I seriously think it's starting to affect me. With that in mind.......

Last night I had a weird dream. I dreamed someone rang my doorbell, and when I went to answer it there was a large group of people standing on my porch. They told me that because of the recession they were having a hard time, and because I had (in their words) "lots of money" that they were here to come and live with me. I told them "No!" I didn't have room for that many people. They were pushing and trying to force their way into my house. I finally got the door closed, but they ran around to my other doors and were trying to get in. I fought and fought them, locking doors and windows. Finally they got in a patio door that hadn't been locked. They were laughing and mocking and telling me that NOW they were going to live in my house. I was telling them "No, no no!" Finally I stopped. I knew what to do. I looked at them and said, "Ok, you can live with me, but here's the catch....I'm a MORMON!!! So if you live with me, then you have to go to my church EVERY SUNDAY!" They all yelled, "NOOOO!!!" and ran out of my house and ran away.

Weird, huh? When I told my husband this morning he said, "I think you're watching too much Fox News."

THE STORY OF "O HOLY NIGHT"

2010-12-05T20:06:00.000-07:00

My daughter and I were doing crafts last week and listening to Christmas songs. After listening to "O Holy Night" she asked me if I knew the story behind the song, since I collect Christmas stories. I didn't, so she googled it and we were amazed by the story. I thought I'd share it with you.

In 1847, a parish priest wanted a poem for Christmas mass. He asked his friend, Placide Cappeau de Roquemaure, who was the commissionaire of wines in their small French town. Cappeau was traveling to Paris by coach when he was considering the priest's request. He decided to use the gospel of Luke for his guide. By the time he arrived in Paris, he had written the words to "Cantique de Noel" ("O Holy Night").

Cappeau decided that O Holy Night should not just be a poem, but should be set to music. Since he was not musically inclined himself, Cappeau turned to one of his friends, Adolphe-Charles Adam to help him.

Adolphe-Charles Adam was the son of a well-known classical musician. He had studied in Paris at the conservatoire. He had written works for orchestras and ballets all over the world. But when his friend Cappeau gave him the lyrics to "O Holy Night", he must have had a greater challenge.

Adam was of Jewish ancestry. The words of "O Holy Night" were about a holiday he didn't celebrate and about a man he did not view as the son of God. Nevertheless, he was able to write the beautiful words to "O Holy Night" and the song was performed just three weeks later at a Midnight Mass on Christmas Eve.

"O Holy Night" was wholeheartedly accepted by the church in France at first, but later on Cappeau left the church and became a part of the solialist movement and then church leaders discovered that the composer was a Jew. The heads of the French Catholic church banned "O Holy Night" from their church and declared it "unfit" for their services because of its lack of musical taste and "total absence of the spirit of religion".
Even though it was banned from the Catholic church, the French people continued to sing it and a decade later an American writer, John Sullivan Dwight, brought it to America.

John Sullivan Dwight was an abolitionist who identified with the lines of the third verse: "Truly he taught us to love one another; his law is love and his gospel is peace. Chains shall he break for the slave is our brother; and in his name all oppression shall cease." After Dwight published the English words to "O Holy Night" in his magazine, "O Holy Night" became quickly popular in America, especially in the North during the Civil War.

On December 24, 1906, the first extended broadcast of the human voice was transmitted through the air from Brant Rock, Massachusetts. Until then, the "wireless telegraph" had only carried dots and dashes of the Morse code, but Professor Reginald Fessenden was convinced that it could also carry the human voice.
Using a new type of generator, Fessenden spoke into a microphone: "And it came to pass in those days, that there went out a decree from Caesar Augustus, that all the world should be taxed..."

Imagine the shock of radio operators on ships and wireless owners at newspapers to hear a human voice for the first time in history broadcast across the air! Fessenden was probably unaware of the sensation he was causing. After finishing his reading of the birth of Christ, he picked up his violin and played, "O Holy Night," the first song ever broadcast through radio waves!

THERE'S MAGIC IN THE AIR :0)

2010-11-18T22:50:00.000-07:00

Something is wrong with my husband. I'm serious. I want to look him in the eye and say: Who are you and what have you done with my husband? Yesterday he called me on the intercom and asked me to come to the shop. When I got there, he had several things he wanted me to look at to see if I wanted to keep them, give them to Goodwill, or take them to the dump. This all started a couple of days ago when my husband realized that something was wrong with the expansion tank that goes to our water well. It is located in the shop (has to be inside where there is a heater that can keep it from freezing in the wintertime). He suspected that it had gone out and called the well guys who came out and confirmed his suspicions. After nearly $1,000.00 we had a new expansion tank and a lot more water pressure. :0) Before the well guys came out, my husband decided he needed to clean out the area around the expansion tank. He had to move a shelf, several 50 lb. buckets of wheat (for food storage), and various other things that had been stacked beside it for the past 7 years. This all prompted a strange urge for my husband to "clean out" and "throw away" stuff, so when I got to the shop he already had an entire trash can of stuff he had thrown away! He then decided to take the larger stuff to the dump and completely filled the back of his pickup. He even took the stack of broken lawn chairs and the mountain of styrofoam! He threw stuff away that he has accumulated for the past 40 years! I swear I wanted to feel his head to see if he had a fever. Maybe he was delirious. He took 2 or 3 shelves out of that smaller room where the well expansion tank was and is now building a wall shelf system that will fit neatly in that room to hold his power tools. I don't want to get my hopes up, but maybe this cleaning fever will carry over to him cleaning, organizing and "throwing out" in his office. Be still my heart! Shhh! I'll just be very still and not disturb the magic......

THE SURPRISE FLU

2010-11-17T20:21:00.000-07:00

I came down with a cold or flu a couple of days ago. I've had a different symptom every day, so I've decided to call this "The Surprise Flu" - every day you get a new "surprise" symptom. The first day - or rather night - it came on really fast and was like the croup you see little kids get. Within an hour I couldn't even talk and had to whisper. My throat was so closed up I could hardly swallow. The next day - or once again, night - I had a fever and could not get warm. I finally went to bed at 5pm and stayed there for the rest of the night! Tonight my "surprise" symptom was a runny nose and sneezing. Gee, I can hardly wait to see what tomorrow's "surprise" will be! (not.)

HAPPY THANKSGIVING!

2010-11-17T16:29:00.000-07:00

Ondine

2010-11-13T19:34:00.001-07:00

We just watched this again last night. We found it on Net Flix under "Sci-Fi and Fantasy". I originally saw it in Ireland and loved it so was really happy to find it again. Go rent this movie, you'll love it!

DAY TRIP PICTURES

2010-11-06T17:05:00.000-06:00

My husband and I took a day trip last Wednesday to check out some fishing spots. He and Survival Knife are going Salmon fishing this morning. Here's some pictures I took through the window. Sorry I got the radio antenna in a couple of them. The birds you see in pictures #5 & 6 are wild turkeys. We also saw a red fox, but wasn't quick enough with the camera.

THE CHARMED LIFE SAGA CONTINUES....

2010-11-02T13:58:00.000-06:00

My husband and I went to Best Buy today to look at trash compactors. Ours finally bit the dust last night. When I turned the knob to compact the trash, the"smasher" actually broke off and fell into the trash basket. :0+ We found out that most people don't have trash compactors. Of course that might be because they don't sell them in the stores. If you want one, you have to buy it online. I guess the trash compactor fad is over. Personally, I don't see anything wrong with just throwing your trash in a trash can, but my husband just loves the trash compactor. But I digress....

Anyway, as we were leaving Best Buy, I suggested to my husband that he go left because every single time I try to turn right and go out of that exit, I can never, never get across the street because of the traffic.

Me: You might want to turn left and go out that exit because I can never get across the street going that way.
Him: (Ignoring me and turning right anyway)
Me: Oh wait, I forget....you're the one with the charmed life. When you get up to the exit, there will be no traffic and you'll be able to pull right out.

He pulls up to the stop sign at the exit. There is absolutely no traffic. He turns left with a smirk on his face.

I rest my case.

FALL COLORS

2010-11-01T20:43:00.000-06:00

I went out on my balcony after supper to take these pictures. It doesn't show the orange and yellow like it really is. Looks greener in these pictures than it looks.

TEXAS WIND FARMS

2010-10-29T16:54:00.000-06:00

I was totally amazed during my trip to Texas at the number of Wind Farms in West Texas. These farmers are making some money! Check out the video below for some info on West Texas Wind Farms. Interesting! Does the cowboy in the purple shirt remind you of Dee Ice with a mustache? :0)

FIELDS OF COTTON

2010-10-29T16:12:00.000-06:00

You'll remember me when the west wind blows
Upon the fields of cotton....

Yeah, I know that's not how the song goes, but since I grew up in my teenage years in Cotton Country, that's how I always sing that song. :0) I remember when we moved there when I was in middle school. My dad had been living there for several months while we were waiting for the house to sell. On one of his trips home he brought us a "cotton boll". I thought it was the neatest thing I had ever seen. I took it to school and all the kids "oohed and ahhed" over it. It was hard for us to believe that that little sprig actually represented something that our clothes were made out of. Here's some "cotton fields" pictures from my trip there last week. Click on the pictures so you can see them bigger. Note that the second picture is "baled cotton", and the last picture is a field that has already been stripped. Also note the oil well in the field - dual purpose field! :0)

AT THE DENTIST

2010-10-20T18:40:00.000-06:00

In the last 2 weeks I've had my teeth cleaned, a filling replaced, and a root canal. Today after my root canal my dentist shook my hand and said, "Well Nene, it's been a pleasure to see you again!" I said, "Yeah, it's been a real blast for me too." :0+

(I was going to post a picture of a "lego dentist" but the image uploader is down.)

O HOME BELOVED

2010-10-20T17:20:00.000-06:00

O Home Beloved

O home beloved where'er I wander.

On foreign land or distant sea,

As time rolls by, my heart grows fonder

And yearns more lovingly for thee!

Tho fair be nature's scenes around me,

And friends are ever kind and true.

Tho joyous mirth and song surround me,

My heart, my soul still yearn for you.

      I've been visiting my parents lately. My husband and I went to pick them up, spent a couple days at their house and then brought them back to ours for about 6 days. Then we took them back home and spent 4 more days with them at their house.
      After we had been at their house for a few minutes, my mom said, "Oh, it's so good to be home! There's no place like home!" I know my mom loves her house and her town, because it's where she grew up. She lives in my grandparents house that she and my father bought from them. We have since bought that house from my parents and will own it completely when they are gone.
      My mom is 85 and my dad will be 85 in April. They both use canes to walk, and in truth, Dad should be using a walker. Dad falls all the time and in his last bad fall, separated his shoulder. Mom has had cancer twice (breast cancer and colon cancer) in a year and then a serious hernia operation right after that, which was pretty hard on her. She says she has "chemo brain" - memory lapses from taking chemo medication, but her memory has not gotten any better since she went off of the chemo pills. All in all, I have been trying to get them to come live with me, at least during the winter. They live in a town that is about 7500 feet in altitude and gets some pretty heavy snows. There are several people in town that come and make sure their driveway and porch and sidewalks are always clear of snow, but if those people are one day late, my dad is out there with his snow-blower trying to do it himself.
      I tried having yet another talk with my parents to try to get them to come live with me - or even live with any of my other brothers or sisters, but my mother emphatically refused. I think if she would agree, my dad would also, but she is the one saying no. I have prayed about this and asked all my brothers and sisters to pray about it also, so my parents would come to the decision to live with me. It's really hard to see my parents so old and frail and forgetful. I know they love their home, their town, the people in it, and their life, but I also know that at some point, either they will have to agree or we will have to resort to stronger persuasions.
      I couldn't help remembering my mother's cry of "Oh it's so good to be home!" when we reached home ourselves. There really is no place like home.

IT'S NOT A JUNGLE OUT THERE ANY MORE

2010-09-25T19:02:00.000-06:00

For the past week, my husband and I have been working on our backyard. I pulled most of the weeds one day and they were big weeds - like tumbleweeds! I filled one corner of the yard with those. The next day I attacked the "Jungle" - a section of our yard that was so overgrown with weeds and new tree sprouts that I gave it that nickname. I wasn't sure we could even get that section of our yard ever looking normal again, but after today, I finally have hope. One of the big problems was those hated vine things that grow along the ground everywhere. I pulled and pulled and pulled those up today. My husband even got in there and trimmed the crepe myrtle and the pine tree. Then he started running all that through his chipper. He wasn't able to run the tumbleweeds through the chipper, because the first time he tried it, it came to a dead stop. Then he had to take it apart and get the tumbleweed out (that had twisted and wrapped itself around the blades). He still has a pile of bigger limbs and the pile of tumbleweeds to chop up. He said he'd take his chain saw to the bigger limbs and his machete to the tumbleweeds. I wished I had taken a "before" and "after" picture to show you the difference, but I didn't. Once we're done, I'll at least put up an "after" picture. One step at a time. We have a huge lot and still have a whole lot ahead of us. In the latter part of October we're going to rake up all the bark (they used for ground cover) in the front and lay rock. My back aches just thinking about it. Our goal is to get our whole lot zero-scaped (except where the lawn is in the front and back) so that when we go on a mission, all someone will have to do is spray the rocks to kill the weeds, and mow the front and back grass.

FAST MOON RISING

2010-09-23T19:45:00.000-06:00

I just happened to look up and see the moon peeking up just above the mountain top. By the time I ran to the next room and got my camera, it was already up!

BARBIE'S NEW FURNITURE

2010-09-23T19:42:00.000-06:00

This is the Barbie furniture that I made while I was in Ireland. I gave this to Gilbert Girl's youngest daughter as part of her birthday present. I also bought her a Fairy Barbie (what she told me she wanted) and a Jacob (from Twilight) doll to be boyfriend to her Fairy Barbie.

HE CAN READ MINDS!

2010-09-23T19:38:00.000-06:00

Me (thinking): I need to tell (husband) to bring me a Peppermint Patty while he's in the kitchen.

Husband: Do you want me to bring you a Peppermint Patty?

True Story!

NEITHER RAIN, NOR SLEET, NOR DARK OF NIGHT.....

2010-09-21T13:12:00.000-06:00

Last night my husband and I went to Sam's Club to get a few things (which is where I saw "Motorcycle Mamma"). We left there and went to Office Max and when we came out it was raining. I love the rain. I love the lightning and the thunder and just love the rain, whether I'm inside or outside. I never minded the rain when we lived in Ireland. We could tell that it must have been raining pretty hard while we were in Office Max, because there were big puddles everywhere and we saw lots of water running down the sides of the streets and in the intersections. Coming up the hill towards the turn-off to our street, there was so much water running down the hill that it would splash up on the windshield and we couldn't even see to drive, so my husband had to slow down. The street that we turned off on to get to our street was really flooded. We exclaimed again how hard it must have rained while we were in the stores. As we were turning into our driveway, I noticed something on the planter wall beside our mailbox. I had my husband stop just inside the driveway and I got out (in the pouring rain) to see what it was. He thought I was crazy to get out in that rain, but I knew I had seen something. There sitting on the wall beside the mailbox was 2 packages of books that Amber had ordered online and had sent to my house. When I got in the house I opened them to make sure they were all dry. Luckily they were packaged in plastic bags, so everything was dry inside. What was my postman thinking? Granted, I didn't go down to get my mail that afternoon - mostly because my mail never comes at a regular time everyday. My mail can come anytime from 11am to 7 pm. I've even had it come at 8:30 pm before. What if we hadn't gone to the store? It would have sat there all night! Anyone could have come by and helped theirselves. We have had problems with our mailmen leaving packages at the end of our driveway. I know it is a bit of a hike up our driveway to our house, but come on, the UPS and Fed Ex guys don't mind! We have found packages beside our mailbox, behind our mailbox, inside the wall, and in the bushes. I have a large mailbox, but I had to get a locking mailbox, because of having mail stolen out of my box. I have the larges locking mailbox that I could find. I guess I just need to make sure we get the mail before dark every day.