I know it's hot, but how do you "really" feel?

I'm just wondering, once it gets to 97 degrees and 94% humidity, why they have to make it worse by telling you it feels like 110? I don't remember in all my days growing up ever ONCE hearing the words "heat index". For heaven's sake, it's not like you have to tell me it feels hotter, anything over 80 in this kind of humidity not only feels HOT, it REALLY IS HOT! Good Grief, if I can't tell could you please just let me be blissfully ignorant?!

I don't know, I just found it odd (and somewhat irritating) this morning when the weathermen kept saying "Well folks, the high today is going to be 99 but it's going to feel like 109!" Maybe they were just talking to the "old" people so they know not to jog out to get the paper this morning, or the "very young" people so they know not to expect a walk at the park with mommy, or the "infirm" so they know that if they die of heatstroke it will be perfectly understandable. Sorry, it's just that 97 degrees makes me cranky, and with the "heat index" I feel downright evil!

When I was pondering the overused term "heat index" it made me think of all the words and phrases that are so common today that I'd never heard of as a child.

For instance I was oblivious to the title "drama queen" although a sibling who shall remain nameless was most certainly an early prototype.

If I'd ever heard the term couch potato I would have thought it was like a TV dinner (which came in an aluminum tray covered with foil and we only got to eat once a year when "The Wizard of Oz" came on), and the other day I heard mouse potato which, thank the good heavens, has NOTHING to do with food but is just a more tech savvy kind of couch potato.....one referring to spending one's days in front of a computer (blogging?) instead of exercising.

Bird Flu would have been something we made up when the parakeet died suddenly, rather than the newest version of impending doom (back then impending doom was communism and the moral decline of children.....wierd huh?)

I played my summers away on swingsets, skates, bicycles and pogo sticks never dreaming of anything like water parks, wave pools, X-Box, or DVD's.

Big-Box was the coveted packaging from the neighbor's new refrigerator, and mall was something a bear did to you if you weren't careful in the woods.

We didn't have fast food so supersizing hadn't been invented (in food or in people), the closest we came to supersizing was getting seconds if mom thought our "eyes weren't bigger than our belly".




Ringtones, caller-id, and 1411 were unnecessary because the operator could tell you anything you wanted to know. (Added benefit, if you got bored after school and she wasn't busy she'd talk to you ..... if you were really lucky you had a "party-line" you could listen to if you covered the mouthpiece so they couldn't hear you breathing).




Now that you know I'm older that dirt at least you can understand why the heat makes me cranky!

Sure Love Ya!

I need some help ....

I know many of you who read my blog are LDS and I'm hoping maybe you can help me in a quest.....

We (my Bishop and I) are looking for a picture that shows a young .... perhaps deacon aged boy....who is dressed in a white shirt and putting on a tie. He is looking into a mirror and his reflection shows him putting on armor .....as in "the whole armor of God". It's a wonderful picture but we only have a photo copy and can't even make out the artist although it might be Christensen. He got this copy as a handout at scout camp last week but doesn't know who gave it out.

If any of you have seen a picture like this and know where I can get an originalcopy could you let me know. I'd offer money but, well, I don't have any!

Thanks for any help you can give me and please forgive the unimaginative use of blog space!

Sure Love Ya!

Things I love Thursday!

I'm always anxious to get to Thursday so I can share ..... SO here are a few of my favorite things (are you singing along with Julie Andrews in your head...?)



Magnetic spice tins....I LOVE these things. They hang right on the side of my refrigerator next to the stove. They actually come with a little countertop rack but half the reason I REALLY loved them was because they didn't have to take up countertop space. The lids twist on and off AND have a sift or pour feature so you don't have to take the lid off at all except to refill. An added bonus?....they're beautiful! (I got mine at Lowe's but you can find them on-line too, be sure to check the lids for the sift and pour feature as some don't have it).

How about an zero-gravity chair for total relaxation?
I have seen these around for years but the prices were ridiculous. I'm glad I waited (I just got two on sale at Target for an unbelievable price!). Besides, I kept telling myself they weren't that much different from the lounge chairs I already had on the deck. Boy was I wrong! My dad got one for Father's Day and when I tried it I was IN HEAVEN. Mine are a beige mesh which is great because water dries quickly (I think the picture here is a canvas type) Two great things about them......one, the adjustable pillow....this chair is comfortable for everyone! Two, unlike lounge chairs, these sit high up, you don't have to crawl into them, they feel just like a recliner....LOVE them! (P.S. This, unfortunately, is NOT my pool...I don't have a pool, but if I did my chairs would look great next to it!)

And finally, I think I remember establishing the fact that favorite things could include food.....well THIS is my favorite. I have been known to fly to Wyoming and bring back tubs of this in my luggage! Cox's Creamed Honey. It's the best honey in the world.....really!

I now buy it on-line (because it's cheaper than buying an airplane ticket) but I'd drive out there if I had to. Try it if you can find it, if you can't check it out on-line here and remember it's the creamed honey you want!

Enjoy! (P.S. Share with me some of your favorites!)

Vacation Leftovers...

I didn't say much about my vacation, it was three weeks long so by the time I'd returned home I'd forgotten what I did the first two weeks (I'm sure you know me by now and that's not only completely normal, but also completely predictable).

The first week I spent three days with "Tiny" in her apartment in Orem, Utah.....

<
Tiny in her apartment actually I spent three days in the apartment, unfortunately being a struggling college student she had to work 16 out of every 24 hours, but I loved seeing where she lived,
The place Tiny calls homegetting acquainted with her roommates, and meeting the unauthorized "Stinky"...
"Stinky" and Daughter #3
When she initially told me about "Stinky" becoming a part of their little apartment family I warned her that his name may be portentious.....I wasn't wrong. However in spite of his stinkiness Daughter #3 and I learned to like him. It was funny to see the lengths to which these 4 girls would go to keep Stinky hidden from management. Being a "purse dog" has it's advantages!

After spending some time with Tiny we traveled north to Star Valley Wyoming where my mom lives .... we had a family reunion for her side of the family and three of her brothers and one sister were able to come along with much of their families. It was nice to see everyone under these circumstances (the last few times it's been to attend one funeral or another).


My nephew, Daughter #3, me, my mom, my aunt, my middle sister and her boyfriend.....hey where's my youngest sister?......holding the camera!


Me, my youngest sister, my middle sister, and my mom!
Star Valley is just my favorite place on the planet (I probably should even mention it as the multitudes of the world have already started decending upon the place). I was born there, as were both my mother and father.


Daughter #3 riding horses in Star Valley at grandma and grandpa's ranch.

It has the most beautiful scenery, a wide green valley flanked on the East and West by mountains. The days can get quite hot but the nights are always cool....even in July when I was there it was only 40 degrees some mornings yet got as warm as 87 during the day. If there were some way to transport our business there, and some way to cut their nine-month long frigid, snowbound winter to something reasonable like 4 months then I'd be there! Come to think of it so would everyone else! Until just a few years ago the population was still 90 percent LDS, the streets were quite and quaint, and there wasn't a fast food place to be seen. As nearby Jackson Hole has grown and become impossible to afford the population has almost doubled and horror of horrors (and against the best efforts of the townfolk) they now have a Burger King.....my mom swears Wal-Mart is looming on the horizon and it'll be all downhill from there.

From Star Valley I went to spend a few days with my Dad in Cody, just outside the east entrance to Yellowstone Park.


A grizzly in Yellowstone Park -- rare sight!


Daughter #3 with Grandma and Grandpa in Cody
Next to Star Valley I think Cody is probably my favorite Wyoming town. There is lots of tourist trade there as you can imagine, what with it being Buffalo Bill's homeland and all. I love the shopping there and we manage to be there around the 4th of July every year because the parade is just wonderful.






Love those miniature horses!!!

I can remember back when I was in High School (yeah, I know...that's a long time ago) Cody was frequently honored by the presence of famous people. John Wayne was the Grand Marshall of the parade one year. Robert Redford showed up to announce the relocation of Jeremiah Johnson's grave, and Candice Bergen came to dine at "Irma's". Cody has grown too though and I hardly recognize it as the same town ..... my dad says it's being overtaken by "Californians". This has driven property values through the roof just like Star Valley so I probably won't be retiring there either.

After leaving Cody I went back through Star Valley and stopped long enough to drop off Daughter #3 at Grandma's for 10 days then went on to Florida to see Nutella and her hubby in Jacksonville.


Nutella and Jonathan in Florida
This was my first trip to Jacksonville though we've spend innumerable vacations in Florida. It is a HUGE city. I was thankful to have Nutella and her husband as guides. It was extremely hot and humid there but being from Indiana I felt right at home. I did end up with an "altitude adjustment headache" from spending the previous two weeks in the Rockies but it didn't slow me down much. Nutella lives in a very nice condo that's more like a resort than anything. I loved it. They also have a beach house in Flagler Beach where we spent one day, Nutella and I bobbing around on our boogie boards in the waves while watching her husband surf.


Jonathan going out to catch a wave......


Nutella Sunbathing


Me sunbathing!
It's a beautiful little beach and the house there is so cute. My only regret was that dear HH, Tiny and D3 couldn't be there too. AND of course that I had to leave.

I came home with so many treasures, none of them purchased at stores. I have two boxes of pictures from my mother's family that I'm going to scan to CD's, loads of memories of the time spent with Mom, Dad, Tiny,Nutella, my sisters, aunts, uncles, cousins, nephews and that good feeling you get when you are privileged to witness the happiness of your extended family.

Glad to be home but missing all of my loved ones!

Babies, sweet, all sorts....

For over two months we've been watching a small wren patiently build and rebuild her next, then finally settle in among the leaves and flowers of my Martha Washington Geranium (beautiful setting if I do say so). For the longest time there were only 4 tiny white eggs, today we got a surprise....three have hatched!



The eggs are only the size of my thumbnail and the babies are so small!! They don't have any feathers yet as you can see ....just all naked pink baby bird with oversized beaks. They don't make any sound yet but hold their little mouths wide just in case mom's bringing dinner.

I'm surprised that this little wren would make a nest in a plant that hangs right there on our porch at just about 4 feet....it doesn't seem like she'd feel safe there but she must trust us and now maybe we'll get to see the little birds learn to fly.....I hope the raccoons don't get to them first.

Nature is just miraculous you know? And of course seeing these tiny little babies so dependent upon their mom reminded me of sweet Nutella who is bound to be the best mom EVER and her little egg.....yup, we have a picture of that too!





(top 1/4 of picture head to the right, feet to the left!....as if you couldn't tell : )

Oh what a beautiful morning!!!.....Oh, what a .....nevermind!

I should have known it would be "one of those days" when I got up this morning....

I, and daughter #3, decided last night we would have a little "sleep over" at my place (which means she slept with me in my bed after we watched a movie that scared us both) AND that we would "sleep in" which to her means waking at noon and for me means getting up after my internal alarm goes off and I hit the snooze button 6 or 7 times (don’t ask).

ANYWAY, I’d made it from 5:45 (when I first woke up and looked at the clock) to 7:00 (the last time I remember looking at the clock) when I heard someone knocking on the door. In any normal neighborhood this would be no cause for alarm....the neighbor might want sugar for their coffee, or the paperboy might want paid for the paper he sometimes delivers on time.

In my neighborhood, however, a knock on the door at 7:00 a.m. can only mean one thing...... well, maybe two things....either someone is lost, (I live in the country and have a 1/4 mile long driveway through dense woods ..... sometimes mistaken for Lover’s Lane by college students) OR it’s a burglar checking to see if we’re home before he breaks in.

Since I’m in my nightgown, my hair is a mess, and I have no makeup on I figure I’ll take my chances on scaring the burglar as bad as he’s scared me and I head downstairs.

I was only half right.....the burglar turns out to be the telephone company (I do, at times, feel they are crooks!) who are doing their duty and coming "promptly" to bury the new phone line they put in TWO months ago after the original model was chewed by some woodland creature who was apparently NOT a particularly picky eater. I did succeed in scaring the poor man half to death (you’d think he’d never seen a woman in an oversized blue t-shirt, black socks and flip flops before!)

After trapsing around the "slightly" overgrown yard, .....what’s that saying about knee high by the fourth of July?.....Oh, I think that may be for corn.....anyhooooo.......he tells me the message he got says he’s to follow the paint lines to trench in the new phone line. Well, why didn't you just say so?..................................Funny......there’s all of a sudden more paint in that yard than you can shake a stick at. We find blue lines, red dots, flourescent orange arrows and something that could either be brown paint or.......something we don’t want to imagine.

I finally resort to telling a "white lie" and go inside to "consult" with my husband (who, as it happens is not upstairs, but is in Montana right now on a forest fire). Thank goodness he had his cell phone and the two hour time difference didn’t seem to bother him.......thanks honey,......oh, it’s the BLUE line we follow.

The dear little men finish their appointed task and leave so I take advantage of the still relatively cool temperature of 77 (this is July in Indiana! oh, I guess it's probably July where you live too huh? Tee Hee Hee) to go to the garage and exercise. I manage to work up a good sweat in only 15 minutes and am halfway through an episode of "Small Spaces, Big Style" when the electricity goes off.....(bummer 45 minutes to go and no treadmill......also no TV).

I try to plod along on the old fashioned eliptical machine which requires no electricity (only batteries for the display) but find it somewhat inconvenient to not be able to see my hand in front of my face, or do anything but listen to my own panting for diversion. I make it 15 minutes and give up to go outside and walk the driveway for 30 minutes.

During the first 5 minutes I’m attacked by a mother bird who mistakes me for some kind of threat so I end up jogging, ...though not fast enough to elude the deerflies, which of course I’m allergic to (one manages to bite me right behind my left ear ....I now look like I have a case of the mumps), but plenty fast enough to miss seeing tree roots which I swear seem to jump up out of nowhere ...... a 50 year old woman can break a hip with a fall like that!!! I give up and decide to go home.....

After a boring hour and a half in the dark (did I mention we live in a dense woods....it won’t be light in our house until roughly 1:00 p.m. when the sun is directly overhead) I’ve managed to cook two eggs for myself on the barbecue (another don’t ask) , read the remaining 60 pages of my book club book by half light while sitting on the floor by the patio doors, knitted two rows of Afton’s project (I hope she doesn’t notice....she hates it when I do that), and used up all the ice we had trying to reduce the baseball now looming from the left side of my head.

In total frustration I decide to call the electric company to see when the electricity will be back on, it’s been off since just after 8:00 and I’m dying here! Luckily I have a cell phone as obviously the phone won’t work without electricity (Drat!) Unluckily, we get poor reception in our "little cabin the dense woods" (we have a signal booster in the house but guess what......it works on electricity).

I find I can almost get a signal upstairs, so I rightly assume higher is better, and climb on the file cabinet in the loft to make my call.....Miss Helpful at the electric company tells me the electricity will soon be restored, it’s only a temporary outage while they install a traffic light . In her sweetest voice she tells me it should be restored by ll:30 a.m. and asks if there is anything else she can do for me......(probably sensing my distress when I start sobbing).....it’s only 9:10!

I'm going back to bed and when I wake up it had better be tomorrow!!!!

(Oh, and a side note....I STILL CAN'T UPLOAD PICTURES TO BLOGGER!!!!! AAAAAGGGGGHHHHH!!!!!!)

Oh my goodness it's been a long time!....

Well, I'm back from my many, and varied, family escapades. I had a wonderful trip with lots of .....ummmmm.....interesting happenings.....you probably thought nothing could be more interesting than a traveling porta-potty but check out my dumpster adventure! (Please click here to read Tiny's description of the event......why use up space and brain power needlessly?)

While spending time with "Tiny" I attended her award ceremony where she was presented with lst place (AND a $1000 check!) in the Intermountain Design Awareness Event for her original area rug design. She won lst place!!! It was wonderful, I was so glad I could be there with her. I called to tell HH the news and he immediately told me to find out how to buy one.....

"In fact, we might want to buy two of them so we can give one to her"

(he's so generous!) I told him I thought it might be as much as $500......he still thought it was worth it.

After all the press pictures were taken of her standing before the rug (they sent her design to Nepal to have it reproduced in 100% wool and silk) I snuck up and looked at the label on the back.....it just so happened to also include the retail price for the 4' X 6' rug...... to make a long story short I called HH right back and asked how he would feel about buying 1/2 a rug! Obviously I shop in an entirely different world (Target, Bed/Bath/Beyond, etc) because they nearly had to sweep me from the floor when I saw the $1400+ price tag. I hope some wealthy families enjoy it immensely!.......you can purchase Hannah's rug from "Artifacts" in Salt Lake City...(please call me to come visit!)

Also spent a wonderful week in Jacksonville, FL with Nutella and her sweet husband, I felt like I was at a resort. Their condo is beautiful, they have a gorgeous pool and a gym so I could work off all the calories from SIL's "real" italian cooking. We got to see a picture of the baby too....Nutella had her first sonogram ..... didn't find out whether it's a boy or a girl but it's definitely got all the necessary and expected parts otherwise!

We (Daughter #3) and I came home to an empty house (HH got called to a forest fire in Montana 4 days before we got back...: ( , lots of mail, a lawn that needs mowed, an extremely fat cat (I thought she was normal till I saw regular cats!), and an assignment from the Bishop to talk on the 27th of August so I have plenty to keep me busy.

I have missed reading all your blogs and plan to catch up on that ASAP in my "spare" time.

Sure Love Ya!

AAAAHHH Summer "Vacation"

Well, I've returned, but only for two days then I'm off to Utah, Wyoming, and Florida!!! (which means I probably won't get to blog for about three weeks but when I get back I'll have good stories (and hopefully pictures!)

I've been gone all week .....you know relaxing, living the good life, getting a massage twice a day, eating great food, and being pampered ................in MY DREAMS!!! Actually, I was at Girls Camp eating food cooked over a fire by 14 year olds, sleeping.... but just barely, relaxing.....but only during bathroom breaks, wearing the same outfits two days in a row because my clothing rations were whittled down to nothing in the pudding/cool whip "incident", fighting off mosquitoes the size of Manhattan, and having adventures you thought only happened in cartoons!

I got to camp early on Monday hoping to score the best place for a tent before the "crowd" got there. I'd been drinking pop all the way up there so by the time I arrived I was about to pop! I was relieved (hehehehe pardon the pun) to see porta-johns right across camp.

There was a lot of work going on by the maintenance crew, spreading mulch on the paths and filling in potholes in the road with gravel but I managed to cut through all the "traffic" and make it to the potty in time. It's hard to tell this part delicately so just bear with me. I entered what would soon be dubbed by fellow campers as PortaStink #1, locked the door and had no more than seated myself when a HUGE commotion began outside.....CLOSE! Within seconds I felt my little abode moving sideways....at first I thought the fumes were making me dizzy but I could see through the little vent thingy that the earth was definitely moving beneath me.

I heard an engine rev and then Thump, Bump, AAAAGGGHHHH! The entire porta-potty was lifted into the air. I started screaming but the engine noise was so loud they couldn't hear me. In my minds eye I could see those big flat bed trucks driving down the highway carrying their load of porta-potties.......I was sure they were going to be loading me up any second......we were bouncing along down the road me screaming and pounding on the door as we went.

When I finally managed to get "decent" enough to open the door (wouldn't you know I'd be wearing my "ModesTee", great invention....but there's no hurrying it) we'd gone quite a little ways, I threw open the door and looked right into the eyes of a 20 something young man driving the bobcat that was carrying MY toilet away with ME in it! I was scared but trust me ........he nearly had heart failure! I'm not kidding.....true story!

Today I'm trying to recover a little before we leave tomorrow to go out West. Every year I think this will be my last at camp but it's a little like having a baby......hard, uncomfortable, and you swear you'll never do it again but when some time has passed you feel like it was all worth it and next thing you know you're 9 month's pregnant (or in my case sleepin' in a tent!).

Here's to summer vacation! Sure Love Ya! (P.S. More camp adventures to follow!)

Things I LOVE Thursday....

(Yeah I know last week it was Tuesday but....I'm getting ready for Girls Camp....need I say more?)

1. Flip N Fold - This may seem unnecessary but I got mine on a whim at Wal-mart over a year ago when they had them marked down to $4. I have an extremely narrow cabinet that I store towels in and I thought this might make it easier to fold the (MOUNTAINOUS) load of towels I do every day in a way they'd actually fit on the shelves. What I didn't expect was how GREAT it is for folding T-Shirts. My dear HH has TONS of T-Shirts. Being a wildland firefighter means you amass a boatload of T-Shirts which are emblazoned with the name of each and every fire. I can fold and stack 30 in the space of half that many when I use this little thing and they're perfect! Just like in the store! I love it!

2. Can "Things I love" be food? Sure....it's my blog and my list!!! These brownies are my cure for any sad day, the treat for any celebration and the basis for my reputation as a good cook (only in small geographic circles of course!).

The great thing about them is you make them in one pan....not a bowl, a pan.....no mixer, no mess and they're the perfect texture between cakelike brownies and fudgy brownies........mmmmmmm Now I'm hungry!

Indiana Brownies
1 cup butter (or margarine)
2 cups white sugar
4 Eggs
2 Tsp real vanilla (Mexican Vanilla is the BEST!)
2/3 cup cocoa powder
1 cup all purpose flour
1/2 tsp salt
1 tsp baking powder

Preheat Oven to 350. Grease and flour a 13 X 9 inch pan (I like glass the best). In a large saucepan melt butter then remove from heat. Stir in sugar, vanilla, and cocoa powder. By now it will be cool enough to stir in the eggs one at a time till well blended. Then just add the flour, salt and baking powder and spread in the pan. Bake in preheated oven for 25-30 minutes (I always get perfect brownies at 25 minutes but every oven is different) DO NOT OVERBAKE! If you want to frost these (totally unnecessary!) do it while they are warm because they're very tender. We use these to make a Death by Chocolate Trifle that's to die for!

3. One more thing I LOVE for this week.....my most visited website? ..... www.usps.com! Did you KNOW you can create a password protected account there and store payment information, create an address book of your most used addresses, and then just print AND PAY FOR postage right from your computer?!!! It's great. I ship things all the time (care packages to two far away girls that I miss) and this means absolutely NO standing in line at the post office. I just print out the pre-paid, pre-addressed label, stick it on the box and drop it at the post office (you can even request package pickup on-line and not go to the post office at all!). The other great thing is that I can get the priority mail boxes for free (either at the post office or order them dropped at my house....also free!) and pay only $8.10 for ANY WEIGHT that I can fit in the box! This is a great site.....there are lots of things you can order on-line there and just have your postman drop it off with the mail. I also just sign on and have my mail held when we're on vacation ....You gotta LOVE IT!!!!

Pass me them there power tools Harv....

Yesterday I, (me, by myself, without permission!)used power tools!!!! (well just one actually but hey, it's a start!)


HH was gone for the day at a meeting and I decided to rearrange my breakfast nook. We have a watercooler, which I love.....(probably some deep meaning related to my 23 year tenure in Federal Government!). The only problem with it really, is that there was no "place" for it. I mean we had it someplace, obviously, but I never felt comfortable with it. It blocked the view from my kitchen into the breakfast nook (which isn't a breakfast nook anymore....it's a piano nook....but I digress).



ANYWAY, night before last while lying awake in bed not able to sleep (again!) I was thinking up new places to put the water cooler and came up with the idea of putting it in my pantry. This would mean I'd have to give up some shelf space but the more I thought about it the more I liked the idea.



SO.....I took down the shelves, took them right out to the garage and used the table saw to cut them down to make a water cooler sized space!!! I couldn't believe how good I was. (Of course I've watched HH do it a million times, just last week in fact, so it was fresh in my mind).

HAHAHAHA, scared you didn't I girls?! .....anyway see that hair on the arm!!! It's not mine (don't think I didn't worry about something like that happening!)

You know what? ....I now know why guys like power tools....AND why they're called "power" tools. It's not because they work on power (silly girl!) .....it's because they GIVE you power! Wow! I felt like I could do anything! (Hey, am I just imagining it or are my biceps bigger today!?)

My advice.....go out and saw something to pieces if you really want to feel good about yourself! Arh, Arh, Arh! (Go on-- you know you wanna say it....give it the old Tim Taylor Try!)

Sure Love Ya!

Sisters, there were never such devoted sisters.....

That's me, my middle sister, and my baby sister

...my favorite picture

(except for that wierd color I died my hair....is that magenta!?

We're obviously sisters huh? Let me just say that my sisters are two of the most accomplished women I know....both are very successful career women that I totally admire. We don't get to see each other often, I live in the Midwest, the baby lives in the Rockies, and middle sister lives in California. I miss them a lot and often wish they were close enough to share lunch with once in a while....

People ask me occasionally if I'm sad that I never had any boys....I tell them that with the childhood I had I wouldn't have a clue how to handle one anyway so it's probably just as well.

Here's to sisters!!! Sure Love 'em!

Sweet Memories....

Hahahaha, today's post from "Tiny" was enlightening to say the least...I always knew she was afraid of E.T. but never knew it was because she thought her closet looked like Elliott's,.... anyway her description of her (somewhat irrational ) fear is hilarious so take a look..

She made me think back to some of my favorite things when I was a .....well, younger person (I know my kids think I've always been old but ....nope!....I was actually born young!)

One of my favorite memories was getting a nickel every Saturday. I could use that nickel for anything! Anything people!!!! Just imagine what that means to a 5 year old! .....Yup, the good life was just a nickel away back then.....I could save it, invest it in my future, or spend it.....I'm sure you know me well enough by now to know that I SPENT it....immediately!!! We lived across the alley from the creamery.....does anyone even know what those are anymore?

Well, they were like "Coldstone" except they only had vanilla, chocolate, and strawberrry AND the most important difference?.....they got their delivery of fresh cream (I mean, for goodness sake it was right from the COW!) every morning from a big truck. It even smelled like cows in there!

I spent my weekly nickel on a strawberry ice cream cone....just one dip (if I could have saved up for 2 weeks I could have had a DOUBLE dip!!!!). Ahhhhh, those were the days. Sometimes my kindergarten teacher would walk us down to the creamery and they'd give us all a little jar of cream to shake and make into butter (I had a weak shaking arm so usually just put the cream on my oatmeal for breakfast).

We also had "milk men" back then. We had a little silver insulated box that sat on the porch and mom would leave the order slip inside and voila! when we got up the next morning the "milk man" had filled our order....milk, eggs, butter, cream....mmmmmm!. It was like the tooth fairy (only I'm pretty sure mom and dad had to pay for it). Magical!

Funny how so many of my good childhood memories revolve around.....food! I mean Gosh, we had penny candy, for real! (Now they have penny candy that costs 5 cents.....what the.....?) Every cent I made babysitting went into bags of penny candy that I'd hide as "scavenger hunts" for my sisters.

You know what else we had? We had movies that cost a quarter!!! (Add an extra dime for the popcorn unless you brought your own from home in a bag that you hid under your sweatshirt! Thanks mom!) In one of the towns I lived in we were close enough for my friends and I and to walk to the theatre on Saturday mornings for the matinee....and guess what? They had CARTOONS before every movie!!! No previews of nasty, scary adult movies, no wierd hollywood trivia, no ads for local hair salons, just.......CARTOONS....the kind that made you laugh...it was great!

I guess my favorite outfit back then would have been that wild and crazy thing called a "sunsuit".... kind of a little one piece thing with ties at the shoulder and elastic at the waist......my mom was a great seamstress so I had them in every color and fabric imaginable.....I was lookin good!!!

As for scary things in my young life.....well there was one thing.....it was.....the "incinerator"! I don't remember having one at any of our houses but my cousins had one in their backyard, it was this square concrete thing (like a big trash can) with a steel flap on the lid...you put all your burnable trash in there and then lit it somehow.....I was absolutely terrified of it....everything that went in came out ash and that LID!!! It was heavy and scary!

I was so afraid that I'd push it open and flames would shoot out of it and burn me up, but you had to push it open to put in trash, oh, the dilemma..... I'd stand there on the brink of tears, scared to death, then push in the trash real fast and run.............honestly, I hated that thing! (I vaguely remember Grandma talking to Grandpa about a person burning up a body in one.....that story stuck with me forever!!!!) That's no INCINERATOR, that's a MURDER WEAPON!!!!




(And on a side note, can I just say I'm SICK of not being able to upload pictures!!! Blogger what are you doing to me!!!!!!)

Things I love Tuesday....

Actually I was going to write this post on Thursday (Things I Love Thursday sounds better) but because I'm lacking in interesting life experiences I thought I just go ahead and use it today......maybe I should call it Top of my List Tuesday!

Sometimes there are things in your life that you just know you'd miss if you didn't have them.....like "Tiny" I am easily influenced by commercials so I usually try something once but it takes something great to make me a loyal fan!!! Here's a few of my favorites....



1. Ceiva Digital Receiver! I got this from my husband for Christmas (or maybe it was a birthday....anyway) and it's become one of the things I'd save if the house was burning down (okay, after the kids, HH, the cat, my pictures, and my makeup!) Basically it's a way to share digital photos without a computer over the phone line. Since I got mine we've bought one for both daughters, my dad, Stewart's Mom and Dad, and both of my sisters! There's nothing better than getting new pictures from someone far away! Here's a link to their site if you're interested...Ceiva Logic, Inc

2. ROOMBA!!!! I love my roomba! When HH and I got married I told him not to EVER buy me anything practical and try to pass it off as a present. That meant I had to beg and beg to get him to even consider buying me this for Christmas two years ago. It was one of my favorite presents! What could be better than having a vacuum that comes out at night, vacuums the living room and then puts itself away before you even get up!!! Love it, Love it! (P.S. They have a new "Scooba" now that MOPS!!!! Can you believe it!)

I know this makes me sound terribly unambitious but if you can give up vacuuming just think what you can do with that time......skydiving, painting a masterpiece, writing a novel....

3. My last thing for this week.....(I may have shared this before but I can't help touting it again)....There's something wonderful about climbing into bed when the sheets smell fresh and clean.....wouldn't it be great to get that EVERY day (without the washing and remaking part?).....

I discovered at my local K-Mart, something called "ironing spray" (in some places it's now labeled linen spray). I don't iron my sheets every day but I do spray the top sheet (the part nearest my face) and both sides of the pillow. (My favorite scent? Serene Dawn) Trust me it's wonderful! One bottle costs about $5.99 at K-Mart but it lasts me almost a month. Mmmmmmm, Magnifico!!!

Have a happy day!

Clean internet?....

Whew! After three days I'm able to get back into my blogger account which was blocked by my filtering service "NetMop" for "Pornographic or Recreational Nudity Content".....(you're shaking your finger at me aren't you.........well believe it or not I couldn't get into any of yours either!)

Some weeks after I began my blogger account and let Daughter #3 open one on the Xanga site we discovered it could be pretty scary to look for google images to put on our blogs, it happened more than once that we were "surprised" at the images that came up when searching for a seemingly innocent picture.....(don't ever search for old woman washing .... I was hoping for a picture of a grandma type with a washboard or even a rock in a stream but .....well, as I said I got surprised!)

Anyway, in response I immediately signed up for a filtering service called "NetMop" that was recommended by LDSLiving. It did seem to block a lot of things but there were also some images that came through and when we couldn't get into our accounts at all last week I decided I would have to do something else.

Basically I'm going to be reduced to posing for my own pictures ............hmmmm "Old Woman Washing?.....I could totally do that!" It is a sad thing when there is so much free filth out there huh? I guess that's why we hear over and over from our church leaders about the dangers of the internet. Very frustrating that it can be so hard to control.

Speaking of graphic images, my dad, concerned for "Nutella" in her new Florida digs (aka Alligator Alley) has forwarded this little item......

Vicious Dog Pack Kills Gator in Florida --

Dogs savage Florida alligator

At times nature can be cruel, but there is also a raw beauty, and even a certain justice manifested within that cruelty. The alligator, one of the oldest and ultimate predators, normally considered the "apex predator" in it's natural ecosystem, can still fall victim to implemented 'team work' strategy, made possible due to the tight knit social structure and "survival of the fittest pack mentality", bred into the canines over the last several hundreds of years by natural selection. Scroll down to see the attached remarkable photograph courtesy of Nature Magazine... Note that the Alpha dog has a muzzle hold on the gator preventing it from breathing, while the remainder of the pack prevents the beast from rolling.

Warning: Not for the squeamish!

Click Here for Picture

History, it's a Family (Home Evening) thing!

I was reading Sweet Mama Entropy this morning, she wrote about memes and how she's used them to come up with questions to use for a family reunion she just had.

It reminded me of some special family home evenings that we did a few years ago. Each Monday night when we held family home evening we would end the lesson and then hand out a "My History" page. The page had three sections.....Then, Now, and My Spiritual Life. Under each heading I would type a question for each person to answer, or a statement for them to finish with their own thoughts. As time progressed I started sending the "My History" page by e-mail to our extended family and they would e-mail it back so I could add it to our Family Home Evening Book.

Here's an example:

• Then....
• I consider myself an optimist (or pessimist) because......

• Now...
• If satisfied with your present attitude explain how you maintain it (optimism), if not satisified list some ways to improve your outlook.

• My Spiritual Life....
• I'm counting my blessings....here are some of them...
• 1.
• 2.
• 3.
• 4.
• etc...

And here's another example ...

• Then...
• Some of the best advice I ever got was...

• Now...
• A piece of advice I'd like to pass on to my children, friends, etc. is....

• My Spiritual Life....
• I am grateful for so many things but a few of them are.....

It was like a meme for family home evening. We kept all the pages in our Family Home Evening Notebook which includes:

1. Monthly calendar pages with FHE assignments written on the appropriate night,
2. An Outline Page for the night stating the title and objective of the lesson, who gave the lesson,prayer, scripture, and activity,
3. Notes about the lesson and any family discussion
4. Pictures taken if we had an activity, and
5. Recipes for the refreshments, etc.

(I actually have pictures to share of our family home evening book but for some reason can't upload them....I'll keep trying)

Getting the "My History" pages from extended family members really added something special to our Family Home Evenings and gave us something to look forward to during the week. We only did it for a year (now that I've looked back through the book I want to do it again) but it gave us pages of Family History that we wouldn't have gotten any other way.

If you only have young children at home consider asking the questions out loud and then just writing down what they say, or if they are really young, just fill out the pages for yourself and your spouse.....someday those young children of yours will LOVE reading about your family home evenings and getting to know mom and dad by reading what you've written!

Cravings...

I remember reading somewhere that when you crave a particular food it's because your body is missing something (like stores of fat perhaps?). Anyway it's a nice thought when you're craving chocolate, ice cream and Raisinettes




but I'm not so sure when you're craving .....mmmm say, Mustard!

Betcha Nutella's mouth is watering right now!

I had a great, funny conversation with Nutella over the weekend (and I am no doubt ruining her next post as we speak), about the unusual food cravings she's experiencing as a SAHPP (stay at home pregnant person) She's been a fairly strict vegetarian for the past 3 years but has begun eating a little meat, I mean poultry, ....I think partly because she needs the protein as a PP and partly because she'll eat anything that sounds good right now and since that's hardly anything, meat or no meat she's going to eat it. I think she is now up to about 3 grilled chicken sandwiches in a month which is a HUGE thing for her but the really wierd craving is for Mustard.

Her biggest problem right now may be that, although she craves Mustard, she doesn't crave anything that you would put Mustard on (she has admitted to licking some off a hamburger pattie the other day) so may have to resort to just eating it right out of the jar with a spoon. I say, "Whatever Works Sweetie!"

It made me remember (fondly as you might imagine) being a PP myself. With Nutella I craved pickled vegetables, of any and all kinds, but most especially pickled cherry peppers which I bought in huge gallon jars.......mmmmmm, mmmmm, good!

With "Tiny" it was green olives. I'd take them to work with me in a little baggie ... okay, several little baggies......I worked in a government office and I remember one client coming in at 8:30 in the morning and telling us she thought our office smelled like a delicatessen...they made me remove them from my desk drawer and keep them in the lunchroom....oh well, more breaks for me!!!

Along came "Afty", and my cravings finally became sensible. I desired nothing more than a bag or two of chocolate chips a day which resulted in a whopping 42 pound weight gain for me and a dainty baby girl that weighed in at 9 pounds 3 1/2 ounces ....Isn't it funny how we have to tag on the 1/2 ounce.....like it makes a difference at that point......but in the competition between mothers (you know the one "Well yes, that is a big baby but my baby weighed 9 pounds 4.2 ounces!") it can make all the difference......I digress....

So now I'm just trying to figure out what nutrient my body finds in deficit when I crave Three Musketeers Bars for breakfast, ice cream for lunch, and McDonald's french fries for dinner (probably the aforementioned fat stores feeling threatened as we try to eat healthy food......which by the way has resulted in an 11 pound weight loss over the past 5 weeks and nightmares about worldwide famine).

Sure Love Ya!

P.S. You just HAVE to visit "Tiny's" (aka daughter #2) post from yesterday.....you'll get to know all about her in a nutshell!

Crowning "glory?"....or "Time Will Tell?"...

Okay, so Daughter #3 ("Afty" as she calls herself) wants to have her lovely locks cut off in the tradition of Kelly Pickler (if you’re an American Idol fan you’ll know what I mean, if not….here’s her new style).
Daughter #2 ("Tiny") says it's a big mistake....and me? I'm staying out of it. My track record with hair....well, it isn't so hot ....

Until I was seven I had curly hair ….VERY curly hair, I blame this on my mom, who subscribed to the notion that little girls needed something called a permanent wave…I still remember the boxes of Toni Milk Wave (heaven only knows why they called them that because they sure didn’t smell like milk!). She bought them by the cartful whenever they went on sale….little girls must have curls!!! I love you mom but really……! (as you can see we also needed a handbag to go with our dress and perfect coiffure!)

I still remember in lst grade someone saying “Fuzzy, wuzzy was a bear, fuzzy wuzzy had no hair but Helen does and it IS fuzzy!!!” Kids are cruel…..

Anyway from 2nd grade through 6th I bravely sported a “pixie” (and took NO pictures I guess...) so that I wouldn’t have to have the dreaded lst day of school perm.

Once I got into Junior High I spent hours drying my hair with a hairbrush and the brisk Wyoming wind doing it’s best substitute for the, not yet invented, desperately needed, hand held blow-dryer…..actually it worked pretty well and I eventually declared my hair "naturally straight" and sported the typical hippie hairdo of the 60’s and 70’s……

Then there was the "Farrah Fawcett period"

Followed by the ever popular "mommy with a mullet" look.....(my kids are dying right now)




and the "I can't do anything with my hair in this humidity" do....

I have since made friends with the hair straightener (so much more convenient than laying my head on an ironing board) and have given up style in favor of ....well, I guess it's just neutrality at this point..


If "Afty" wants to cut her hair I won't say no but I thinks she's perfect the way she is.....





(Besides I don’t want her writing a blog someday about how her mom made her wear her hair long and straight when she wanted it short!)

P.S. I'm having a particularly bad hair day today....it's 90 degrees and 85% humidity!

"M" is for.....

(Thanks Gabriella for giving me a letter! I have such a hard time thinking of blogworthy items .... okay, so yesterday wasn't blogworthy.....anyway THANKS!)

Ten Things that start with "M" .....

1. Menial, as in menial labor..... i.e. tree planting, tractor driving, and being Ward Librarian....(all things I'm intimately acquainted with).


2.Millers: the kind that fly into your hair and get trapped, also the kind that some people find beautiful but I find absolutely terrifyingly freaky .... WHAT ARE THOSE THINGS ON THEIR HEAD!?


3.Miracle Worker: what my children insisted I be, often at a moments notice. .......able to find lost clothing articles instantaneously, work advanced mathematical equations, without a calculator, over the phone; and construct meals out of kid friendly items like peanut butter, chocolate and chicken nuggets; all with a happy smile and sunny disposition (M is also for Mary Poppins!)

4. M is for MoreMom: The religion Daughter #2 used to tell people we belonged to.....it made perfect sense to her.

5. Mattress: The inanimate object that beats me to a pulp nine out of ten times I try to flip it .... when they call them innerspring they're not kidding!


6. Mickey Mouse: The only rodent I would ever call "friend", chiefly because he lives at our home away from home, Disneyworld! (And because he wears those cute little red shorts!)

7. Matilda, Minerva, Morticia: Names I can think of that would be worse than my own ("Helen" ).

8. Marriage: an alliance entered into by a man who can't sleep with the window open, and a woman who can't sleep with the window shut.

9. Mental: the kind of work you're doing when everyone insists you're sleeping

10.Mule: what men believe to be a cross between a horse and a donkey but women know is a VERY cute shoe!

"The Contractor" is in control.....

I never thought I needed a maid. I always knew if I ever got one it would just mean I had to clean earlier in the day to make sure everything looked nice when she got here....obviously not worth the money.

Seriously, I don't know how I ever worked full time and kept my house clean (I know right now Nutella and Tiny are saying......we know how she did it.....she had us!) Okay, maybe. I've only been planting trees for 4 weeks and I feel like I'm losing control of my surroundings. I guess the difference now is that when I come home from "work" I'm dead tired and don't want to clean. For the most part the house stays pretty much picked up because we're all gone all day. I have a Roomba that does the vacuuming for me every day and I always get the dishes done before we leave because I'm obsessive about that but the things that I'm losing the battle on are things like....dusting, toilet cleaning, mirror cleaning, and OH MY GOSH....the lawn, you should see the lawn!

We leave early in the morning so I don't notice it then but when we get home at night I swear it brings tears to my eyes. It's a good thing we live in a woods and the neighbors can't see it......they'd probably assume we were dead inside the house or something, we NEVER let our grass grow like this. The only days we aren't working are #1...when it's raining, and #2 on Sunday.....neither one offers any possibility of mowing. (I have a headlight on the mower but I'm not at that point yet!)

Adding to my stress at the moment is the ...... shall we call him ....."The Contractor". The contractor was hired in August last year to do two jobs, #1 build a rock fireplace to complete our Log Cabin....we'd been looking for 12 years for someone who could do real masonry work and finally found him.....and his #2 job?.....to re-roof our house which received some damage in a big hail storm last spring. The fireplace was projected to take 10 days to 2 weeks -- it took them 2 months to get started and SIXTY TWO DAYS to finish! I was ready to scream.

Well, when you build a fireplace like that there is a lot of ..... mess......inside and out. The inside I took care of, the outside ..... which consists of piles of leftover mortar, cement blocks, wooden pallets, cigarette butts (amazingly those are part of constructing a fireplace.....huh? who would've thunk), pop cans, styrofoam cups, bottles, metal strapping, tarps, plastic, wood, etc. etc. etc.

All of this stuff was left when the fireplace was finished just before Thanksgiving. "The Contractor" said that when they started the roof (in the next two weeks, weather permitting ....that was in NOVEMBER!) they would bring in a big dumpster for the roof stuff and all the mess would be picked up then.

Fast forward to May 2006. They started the roof (after constant nagging) about two weeks ago, they only finished the back of the house because it then began raining. They haven't been back. We called "The Contractor" on Friday last week and he said the next two consecutive sunny days (which is what they need....supposedly) would be "next" Monday and Tuesday (that means today and tomorrow). We left for another day of tree planting at 7:30 this morning and when we got home guess what.....NO ROOF! AAAAAAGGGGGHHHH!

Now we are living with a yard full of rubble from the fireplace, a roof that is half done, (including rain gutters half torn off and boards nailed to the roof from when the worked on the chimney LAST FALL!) and a HUGE dumpster the size of a rail car parked next to my porch! It's totally driving me crazy. I feel stressed enough just trying to keep up with the laundry and things I have to do inside, but to have the "public" side of my house look like this is more than I can handle.

To answer my own question, ....no I don't need a maid (they don't clean yards), I need a miracle!

A little support, please....(and I don't mean hosiery!)

Okay, if anyone who reads my blog did not get here by linking from Ciao Bella!
(aka Nutella) then I'll tell you now that she's my daughter and if you've been reading her blog then you know she's pregnant!!!! I'm trying not to be TOO excited because I don't want to "pressure" her ... BUT as I told her I learned how to be a grandma from my grandma and she was the BEST,......I just know I'm going to be so great at it!!! Visit her blog and give her support okay? (Cause from you it won't be pressure!)

AND Daughter #2 announced today that she has her own blog! I am so happy.....she was too busy as a college freshman but now working full time at one job and part time at another she has found time!!! YAY! Give her your support too cause I love her too.

Daughter #3 has a blog but I'm not sharing hers with the world cause she's only 13 and I don't want to get her a stalker or something.

Thanks for your congratulations everyone.....it was easy for me.....becoming a grandma that is......I can't wait! Grammy, I'm going to have to change my blogger name now huh? AND I'm going to quit complaining about being 50 because as a Grandma that's the perfect age!

Sure Love Ya! Life is great today!