Life's a Picture

A Laugh-Out-Loud Email

2011-02-06T07:24:00.000-08:00

My Uncle Donald sent me this; and I thought it was hilarious. I wanted to share it with everyone who isn't fortunate enough to be on his email list.

After I retired, my wife insisted that I accompany her on her trips to Target. Unfortunately, like most men, I found shopping boring and preferred to get in and get out. Equally unfortunate, my wife is like most women - she loves to browse. Yesterday my dear wife received the following letter from the local Target.

Dear Mrs. Samuel,

Over the past six months, your husband has caused quite a commotion in our store. We cannot tolerate this behavior and have been forced to ban both of you from the store. Our complaints against your husband, Mr. Samuel, are listed below and are documented by our video surveillance cameras.

1. June 15: Took 24 boxes of condoms and randomly put them in other people's carts when they weren't looking.

2. July 2: Set all the alarm clocks in Housewares to go off at 5-minute intervals.

3. July 7: He made a trail of tomato juice on the floor leading to the women's restroom.

4. July 19: Walked up to an employee and told her in an official voice, 'Code 3 in Housewares. Get on it right away'. This caused the employee to leave her assigned station and receive a reprimand from her Supervisor that in turn resulted with a union grievance, causing management to lose time and costing the company money.

5. August 4: Went to the Service Desk and tried to put a bag of M&Ms on layaway.

6. August 14: Moved a 'CAUTION - WET FLOOR' sign to a carpeted area.

7. August 15: Set up a tent in the camping department and told the children shoppers he'd invite them in if they would bring pillows and blankets from the bedding department to which twenty children obliged.

8. August 23: When a clerk asked if they could help him he began crying and screamed, 'Why can't you people just leave me alone?' EMTs were called.

9. September 4: Looked right into the security camera and used it as a mirror while he picked his nose.

10. September 10: While handling guns in the hunting department, he asked the clerk where the antidepressants were.

11. October 3: Darted around the store suspiciously while loudly humming the ' Mission Impossible' theme.

12. October 6: In the auto department, he practiced his 'Madonna look' by using different sizes of funnels.

3. October 18: Hid in a clothing rack and when people browsed through, yelled 'PICK ME! PICK ME!'

14. October 21: When an announcement came over the loud speaker, he assumed a fetal position and screamed 'OH NO! IT'S THOSE VOICES AGAIN!'

And last, but not least:

15. October 23: Went into a fitting room, shut the door, waited awhile, and then yelled very loudly, 'Hey! There's no toilet paper in here.' One of the clerks passed out.

Wouldn't you just love to do something like this at least once? I never will, but the thought makes me chuckle.

July, 2010

2010-08-01T17:17:00.000-07:00

Well, the month started off really bad. I think the first was one of my worst days at work ever. Fortunately, things got better. While I was on vacation, the team really kicked it in gear and I ended up hitting my goal for the month. That's the first time this year. Yoohoo!!! I spent the 29th and 30th observing another manager in Salt Lake. I got to ask her lots of questions, took copious notes; and she gave me some really good insights. She was 'fabulous", one of her favorite words. Hopefully, I can take it all back and get better at my job. I know my boss hopes so too. I have such a great team and they deserve a great manager. It's just going to take some really hard work on my part.

Cheya and Myke had their annual 4th of July barbecue. It was as fun as always. Cassie came out and so did Alyson. The next day, Cassie and I got up early to drive to Cedar City for the Shakespeare Festival. We left her car at Brett's house and chatted with him for a little too long. So I really had to book it to make it to the first play. Which I did with time to spare. We went to "Great Expectations." It was a musical which I think everyone else liked more than I did. Maybe it was because I kept falling asleep. It was a beautiful production and the music was fantastic. That night, I went with Stacey, Jordan, and Lincoln over to her aunt's home to watch the Enoch fireworks. Stacey has a wonderful family who made me feel very welcome. Lincoln had a ball running all over the beautiful yard and watching a great fireworks display. It was the best I've ever seen for a smaller city. The next day, Stacey and I went to "Pride and Prejudice" together. Cassie and the rest of the group had bought their tickets the year before and sat in the balcony. But I liked our tickets down below. I really liked this play. And the next day, we got to meet the actors who played Darcy and Elizabeth at a seminar. Very fun. The same evening, we went to "The Merchant of Venice." Because I bought my tickets late, I had to pay quite a bit, but I was sitting o the second row in the Adams theater. I thought the play was excellent even though the subject matter is quite dark. The next day after the seminar, we just kind of hung out. That night I got to babysat Lincoln while Stacey and Jordan went to a movie. Of course, they put him to bed first so I didn't really have to do anything but watch TV and read. It was pretty relaxing. We did watch The Lion King earlier which he found enthralling. Movies are so much more fun to watch with him. My last play was "39 Steps". I had bought my tickets on Monday, and Susan bought hers on Thursday and we got to sit together. It was probably my favorite play, a take on Alfred Hitchcock movies. There were four actors playing about twelve different parts so the timing was impeccable. Later, we went to a used bookstore and I bought four books. The madness must stop. Anyway I enjoyed the festival and seeing everyone. Besides, Cassie and Susan, there were Tracey, her friend, Kerri, Pam, Jane, Connie, Connie's daughter, Brittany, and Julie. Kylie and Jill joined us as well. The next day, Cassie drove us home. She fixed my Walkman or at least figured it out and explained it to me to I was able to listen to some of the music I have on it. There's about 13 hours and I still haven't listened to everything yet. Here's the places I remember eating at while in Cedar City: 1. Chili's, Jordan, Stacey and Lincoln joined the whole group and Lincoln got a little shy. That doesn't happen often. 2. Lefty's, a Mexican restuarant that had really slow service and the food wasn't that great. I've had better there. Lincoln loved the gold fish. 3. A restaurant up the canyon, can't remember the name. It was really good food though. 4. The Pizza Factory, don't remember what I ate there but it was pretty good as well.

I spent the last day of my vacation working in the yard, mowed the lawn and pulled up all the radishes (They were way too hot to eat. Note to self: Don't plant radishes again) I spent most of the day at Lowe's looking at things to remodel my bathroom with. Stacey and Lincoln said they were coming up to do that in August. Fantastic, right?

My lesson is Relief Society was from Elder Bednar's talk, "Watching with All Perseverance." I don't know how I could teach these lessons if it weren't for the sisters and the way they discuss everything. I learn so much from them.

After I left the branch in Salt Lake, I rode up to Layton with Mark and Susan for the Peterson Family Reunion. This is the year I can remember that Mom was not able to come. She is just not doing well, it's very worrisome. It was great to visit with cousins and Uncle Donald, Aunt Elinore, Aunt Carol (improved from last year) and Aunt Betty Jean. We made way too much sloppy joes, but they turned out good. The only bad thing was the heat. Absolutely sizzling. Next year the reunion is in Vernal on June 24th. I hope Cheya is ready to take that on. (giggle) The next day, Myke, Cheya and I stopped and ate a late lunch at Zupas. I ate there on Thursday night as well. It is my new favorite place to eat. I also bought two more books while I was in Salt Lake. Jeez.

I have been eating peas straight from the garden which is fun. I suspect the chipmunk is eating them as well. He just better stay away from my tomatoes. I harvested quite a few zucchinis, grated four quarts to freeze and gave the rest away. My corn got beat up by a hailstorm but there are a few tassels showing up. I may get an ear or two. There are lots of blossoms on the pumpkins and I have a pretty good crop of sunflowers getting ready to bloom. It's been surprisingly fun to grow a garden this year.

Books Read I only read four books this month. I really enjoyed The Host by stephanie Meier, quite different from her Twilight series. Right now, I'm reading Cutting for Stone by Abraham Verghese and really liking it.

Movies I saw "Eclipse" with Lisa earlier in the month. Not too bad, better than the first one and I didn't see the second one. And "The Lion King" with Lincoln. I hear he's banned from watching until he learns appropriate lion behavior around other little kids.

TV Yes, I'm watching the Bacheloette. I like Ali and I even like both of the guys remaining. Glad Frank's gone. I'm really liking Howier Mandel on America's Got Talent but he and Sharon kind of pick on Piers. It's a fun show to watch. That's about it, mostly I read a lot.

Overall Impression It's been really hot and we've only had one good rain storm which tore up my garden. I'll come back and read this post in December to try to keep a good perspective on the weather. I think my life would be really boring if I had time to think about it, so it's a good thing I don't.

June, 2010

2010-07-10T18:11:00.000-07:00

Thanks heavens, that month is over.

I didn't remember doing anything this month, then I looked in my calendar, There is a whole week blocked out. I'm telling you , it's sad to see a good mind decline. So on the 5th and 6th, Cassie and I stayed in Park City. We ate at the Windy River Restaurant, great steak. On Sunday, we drove to Mirror Lake. It was a pretty drive but the road was closed into the lake because of snow. We did walk along the Provo River, which was soooo full, and saw the water falls. Very pretty. Sunday night was spent in Salt Lake where it was hot and humid. Cassie and I went to the movie, Killers, with Ashton Kutcher and Katherine Hiegel. Very funny. I never understood the fascination with Ashton Kutcher until now. We went back to her house and watched Iron Man I which I had never seen. On Monday I drove to Cedar City. Then Jordan, Stacey, Lincoln and I went on to Las Vegas. Several observations: it was really, really hot in Vegas, our hotel was okay but our tower was completely opposite from the pool so we had to wind through the casino everytime, Alyson's house is absolutely gorgeous and she had decorated it beautifully, and Lincoln is a fantastic traveler. I only remember him crying when we made him leave the pool. Or maybe it was so hot that he had no energy or tears to waste. We walked up the strip from our hotel to the Bellagio to see the fountains. They were broken. Luckily we rode the monorail back. One night we went to Mandalay Bay and saw the aquarium. Lincoln loved it and so did the rest of us. We went back to Cedar City on Wednesday and I watched Cars with Lincoln. I had never seen that movie and it is so cute. Next day, I drove to Vernal where I spent the rest of the weekend mowing the lawn, watering the lawn, weeding the garden and even watched a movie, Harry Potter 4.

My garden is doing surprisingly well. Whatever has decided to leave my tomatoes alone so they are coming along well. I even harvested some radishes, but they are too hot to eat. I give up on radishes. I know I said I hated squash bugs, but there is nothing like squash and pumpkins to make your garden look so lush. My sunflowers are doing very well and so is the corn. I hope the raccoons and skunks don't find my garden when that corn gets ripe. I even have some zinnias and hollyhocks growing. It's very exciting, even though the daisies and cucumbers died. My lawn looks pretty green for a change thanks to some good rainy days. But the last time I mowed it, I was covered with mosquito bites. What's happened to our local mosquito abatement program?

Books Read I read eight books and listened to two. I really enjoyed Silent in the Sanctuary and Silent on the Moor by Deanna Rayborn. There's a good mystery and romance as well. I loved listening to Jim Reid narrate Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban. I would love to listen to all the Harry Potter books.

Movies See above

TV I wonder if future generations who read my journal will een care what I watched on TV. Let's face it, I watch pretty worthless stuff: The Bachelorette, True Beauty (talk about mean people), and America's Got Talent. Some times I can catch one of those cake decoarating contests. I love watching those.

Overall Impression I need to write these journals closer to end of the month so I remember my overall impression. It's the tenth and I barely remember June at all. Plus I have a new mosquito bite that is driving me crazy. Must . apply . Cortaid . now.

May, 2010

2010-05-31T16:52:00.000-07:00

I think summer is finally here. This may be a rash statement that I could regret later, but I stand by my words. Granted, the gas to my heater has not yet been turned off. I'm ashamed to say I even turned it up for 30 minutes today. Even so, it is supposedly in the high seventies outside. I thought my house would be warmer this year since I had my big tree seriously trimmed last fall. But I am still cold. Next month I will be crying about the heat.

My Relief Society lesson was from Elder Oaks talk in the priesthood session, "Healing the Sick." Great explanation of how a priesthood blessing works and the sisters had a good discussion about it. I love those women.

It seems like all I did this month was work, several six-day weeks and many nights until six or seven. Hope I get that under control soon. On the 10th, I traveled to Salt Lake for a meeting the next day. I got take-out at Zupas (great Spring Aspargus soup) then went to Cassie's to watch DWTS. It was a good meeting, only half a day so I spent the afternoon shopping. I did not need the clothes I bought and certainly not the books, but I did kill some time. That night Cassie and I ate at Cafe Med and went to a movie, Babies. It was cute but after an hour, you get a little tired of watching babies cry. Then we went to her house and watched TV. I spent the night and came home the next day. An actual day off!!!

I got all three days off for Memorial weekend. So I finally mowed my lawn, took forever. And the lilac bushes that I had ruthlessly trimmed back last fall attacked me. I was a bleeding mess. And what's with all the little baby lilacs cropping up all over the place. Ye Gads !! What do I do about those. I merrily mowed them down, but I suspect the lilac mommies may have revenge on their minds. Silly to be scared of a few bushes, isn't it? Next I fertilized the grass, something I heartily wished I had done months ago. It looks so pathetic. And I watered it for the first time. I really need to live in a condo for all the time and care I take with my place. There are a few flowers blooming, some bachelor buttons, my lilacs, a snapdragon I just planted, my catnip, and a cute orange-flowering weed. I also plowed the furrows in my garden spot. Then, sinner that I am, I planted most of the garden on Sunday after Sacrament Meeting. Otherwise, I doubt if it would ever have been done. It will probably die. The few plants I already had don't look so spry today. And sometime in the dead of night (who knows when it really happened, I'm just trying to be literary) a fiendish pest ate all the leaves from four of my eight tomato plants. The one thing I truly want from this garden is fresh tomatoes. Any suggestions? I also planted some zuccini, winter squash, peas, radishes, pumpkins, cucumbers and corn. I planted some marigold seeds around the squash in the hopes that it will repel those disgusting squash bugs. It's been 15 years since I last planted squash if that's a clue as to how much I hate those bugs. I also planted some sunflowers, zinnias, daisies, and hollyhocks. Then I will be out of town for several days next week so it will probably all dry up and blow away. Rigth now, it just has its furrows with a few green things sticking up and absolutely no weeds. I feel wonderful.

Julie and Ryan held our annual Memorial Day breakfast at their house. They have done so much work on the house, it looks beautiful. I always eat too much at this event, but it was sooo good. Myke made his has browns that I have never been able to duplicate. Julie made quiche and we had sausages and lots and lots of fruit. Then we just sat around and visited for a couple of hours. I've missed my family. They've spent some weekends together painting Mom's house, but I've always been at work so it was good to see them.

Books Read  I read six books (is that all??) and quit one about half way through. I definitely recommend The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Society. Wonderful, heartwarming story. I tallied up my TBR list today and found that I bought or acquired twenty books in the last month. Yikes. There is no room left on the shelves for books. This book-collecting habit needs to be brought under control.. Sigh.

Movies  Cassie and I went to see Babies. On the 15th, Lisa invited me to go the matinee after work and see Iron Man 2. It was a fun movie and I love Robert Downey Jr. Thanks, Lisa, for including me in your family and friend outing. This last Sunday, I watched The Philadelphia Story on KBYU. It's one of my favorites and a true classic. The black and white cinematography is fantastic. Plus Katharine Hepburn and Cary Grant are wonderful.

TV DWTS and American Idol are over. Nicole Scherzinger won DWTS and rightfully so. I did enjoy the other two finalists as well. Good finish to that show. Lee won American Idol but I would have been equally happy with Crystal winning. They were both so good. Not sure how I will like this show now that Simon is leaving. I hope they get someone good. The Bachelorette just started and looks like there will be plenty of drama. I hope no one has to leave because of work this season. That's getting overworked. And Gray's Anatomy had a great season finale. I am definitely watching more TV lately. Maybe that's why I only read six books.

Overall Impression  I will be so glad to not see any more snow for a while. And I have three weeks scheduled to take off in the next two months. Yippee.

April, 2010

2010-05-02T13:12:00.000-07:00

   Another month, another . . . month? I was trying to come up with something along the lines of another day, another dollar; unfortunately, creativity has run out the door. Buh-bye. It is getting warmer. I say this despite the five inches of snow left on the ground on the last day of April. I also had my best month at work in ages. My boss tells me I've almost turned the corner. Of course, that was just before we tanked the last two days of the month. I'm halfway back down the block now. So I've turned in my resignation and I'm moving to Salt Lake. It's got to be better than working until seven every night and six days a week. I've also missed my last four weeks of working at the temple because I can't leave work early enough. And I'm not reading the scriptures I keep at work because I don't go to lunch any more.
   General Conference was the first weekend of the month. Susan and her family had come out for Lorin's funeral and Cassie was here as well. That was a great treat. Unfortunately, I didn't watch as much conference as I should have.
   On a bright note, I bought two grow boxes at Walmart, you know, the kind with little pellets of soil that you soak with water and plant seeds in. Now I have eighteen pea plants about six inches tall, myriad little carrot tops, some of that cute curly lettuce with red edges (the edges aren't red yet, the plants don't look anything like lettuce. I think it's a hoax), twenty-four corn plants, eighteen sunflowers (they grow really fast), thirteen or fourteen hollyhocks (some seeds are refusing to germinate) and a bunch of daisies. I really like watching things grow and there are no weeds in my grow boxes. Naturally, I will have to plant them outside; and my sweet home teacher has even plowed a garden spot for me. Too bad I am going to move. But the plants can go with me. My peonies are coming up and that always excites me. Dang, I'm going to miss them.
   On the fifteenth, I drove to Salt Lake with a colleague for a meeting. We ate lunch at the Olive Garden, great but made me sleepy at the meeting, and had dinner at Zupas. Have I mentioned how much I love Zupas. I didn't get home until ten that night, but what's another late night?
   The 23rd was Mom's birthday. Mark came out and we went to dinner at JB's that night and then to Mom's to play games. Susan snuck in as a surprise birthday gift. That Saturday tons of people converged on the house to paint. I went to work and got some much needed work done there.
   As an example of how out of whack I am, I hung my sheets out to dry on the line again. That was two weeks ago, and I've yet to put them back on the bed. Who does that?
Books Read  I read eight books this month. My favorite was Inside the Dream. It's a book about the work of Walt Disney. While it includes some bits and pieces of his life, mostly it deals with his cartoons and films and how they evolved. Pretty darn good.
TV  Still watching Dancing with the Stars and American Idol. I don't have an overwhelming favorite on either show, but I do like watching them.
Movies  If  I watched a movie last month, it made no lasting impression on me and so I've forgot about it. Jeez, no movies? I know watched movies, Cassie was here. What did we watch?

Weight Loss Please, who has time to lose weight?

Overall Impression This has been a particularly negative post and my goal next month is to become more positive about things. I have developed the growing conviction that very few people actually read my blog. And I'm all right with that. But just as a check, I did put in a grossly misleading statement. I didn't quit my job and I'm not moving. At least not in reality. Gotcha.

March, 2010

2010-04-11T06:56:00.000-07:00

I waited too long to write about last month. There's very little I can remember. Thank heavens I wrote a few things down on my calendar. On the first and 2nd, I finished my trip to visit my kids. It was so warm in Salt Lake that I drove with my window down. It was sheer bliss. I got back to Vernal on Tuesday to overcast skies and cold weather. Jeez. Jordan turned thirty this month. How did that happen? I'm very proud of him. He has decided to quit his job and go back to school. What a hard decision but ultimately, it will be so good for him and his family.
Annie passed away on the 10th after a fifteen-month struggle with cancer. It's hard to imagine her gone since she was so full of life. Even sick as she was, she always had that beautiful smile on her face. The funeral was on the 13th. Everything was spoken in English and Spanish as she had so many friends who spoke one or the other. Her parents don't understand English much at all. It was a very moving service. Eric spoke and gave a wonderful tribute to Annie. We will miss her so much.
Cassie came out for the funeral, and it was so good to have her here. We mostly spent time at Mom's house visiting with all the other family members who came to say goodbye to Annie.
Jordan, Stacey and Lincoln spent a few days in Vernal on the following week. I had to work but spent one lunch hour with them all at the Natural History Museum. Lincoln loves dinosaurs and it was watch him look at all the dinosaurs and other preserved animals in the exhibits.
The only other thing I have written on my calendar is that on the 20th, I hung sheets and towels on the line. Yay!! My house smelled so fresh for days because I didn't fold them for days. It didn't stay warm but I sure enjoyed the warm days that we did have.
Books Read I read eleven books this month. No fives, but three books were rated 4.5 which is pretty darm good: The Great Bridge by David McCullough (Fascinating history of the Brooklyn Bridge), The Whistling Season by Ivan Doig (I love the way he writes) and The Time Travelers by Linda Archer (Great children's book about time travel and medieval England). One book I did not finish: Farewell Summer by Ray Bradbury. I just couldn't get into it.
TV On the first, I watch the Batchelor final with Cassie and her friends in Salt Lake. That was a lot of fun even if Jake did choose Vienna. Dancing with the Stars started and I love watching it that. Otherwise, nothing much has changed except I may be watching more TV than usual.
Movies I went and saw "Nine" with Cassie in Salt Lake. It's a musical with Daniel Day Lewis, but I didn't love the movie. I watched "Harry Potter and the Half Blood Prince" on video one Saturday. I don't watch movies at home very often even though I own twenty or so that I've never seen. But I do enjoy the Harry Potter movies.
Weight Loss I lost about a half pound. I guess that's better than gaining but still . . . I think I include this in my journal just to shame myself to get more proactive. So far, it's not working.
Overall Impression It's getting warmer!!! I can't remember when I've so excited to see the end of winter.

February, 2010

2010-03-02T18:03:00.000-08:00

February was another stressful month, but with a great ending. I turned fifty-four on the 4th. Yikes. I still feel thirty. Fifty is the new thirty, right? No exercising at all which I really need to change. I'm sure it would help me cope with the stress much better. I've been doing a lot of praying just so I can hold on until things start looking better. I'm a firm believer that eventually things will get better. I did go out to dinner one night with some colleagues from Salt Lake City who were out for a couple of days. I laughed so hard. I need to laugh more often, it felt great. I am still enjoying my Family History class. The people taking the class are so fun to visit with and we all share some great things. I am learning more all the time. Annie's Spanish-speaking branch held a dinner for her on the 20th. I went with Mom. The food was good. It is easy to see that Annie is failing and it is so sad. But she is determined to be cheerful and brave. What an inspiration she is. And Eric is being so strong for her. Annie's parents, brothers, sister, sister-in-law and niece all came to see her which I know is a huge comfort to her. On the 25th, I drove out to Salt Lake and spent the night with Cassie. She's as stressed as I am. What a pair. We went to dinner at Hoppers. Really good hamburger. Then back to her place to watch the Olympics. I forgot to mention how much I love watching the Olympics. Such drama and inspiration. And it's always nice to see Apollo Ono. Cassie had to go to work on Friday. She looked so cute and professional in her skirt. I got up early also on my way to Cedar City. First stop was Jiffy Lube for an overdue oil change. I was very impressed with their service. It was a gorgeous day for driving and I made really good time. It was so fun to see Stacey and Lincoln again in their new home. It is sooooo beautiful. Stacey has decorated it wonderfully. You can see some of her ideas on her Chic It Yourself blog. Jordan got home from school soon after and we had a good visit. That night we met Susan, Audrey and Porter at Applebee's for dinner and had a great time. The next day, we drove to St. George in the rain. Lincoln and I slept all the way down. I slept so much on this entire trip which is wonderful because I have not been sleeping well. We did a little shopping and ate at the Red Robin, then home again. Lincoln played with his balloon from Red Robin until he worked the ribbon loose. Jordan didn't know that so when he opened the back door, the balloon flew away. Poor Lincoln's heart was broken. It was broken again the next day when his parents decided he was still too sick to go to the nursery at church. It's refreshing to see a toddler who really loves the nursery. Of course, Lincoln is pretty amazing. He turns off his toys when he's done playing with them and is fantastic at cleaning up. For the most part, he is exceptionally well-behaved. For the other part, not so much. All in all, quite a normal little boy. I love him so much. I hope Jordan and Stacey weren't too bored with me. Mostly I slept a lot, ate a lot, and watched TV and Lincoln. It was just the rest I needed and it was so good to see them all again.
Books Read I read or listened to nine books this month, eight were on my Catching Up Challenge and one was an audiobook read on my drive. It's good to get some books read that have been sitting on my shelves for so long. My favorite book this month was And Then There Were None by Agatha Christie. Great mystery.
TV I'm still watchng the Batchelor but only half-heartedly. I do enjoy American Idol, Castle and Gray's Anatomy but missing them occasionally didn't seem to upset me too much.
Movies I watched four movies at Jordan's House. He had rented "Couples Retreat" which was pretty lame. Then I watched "Pelican Brief" after waking from a nap. We quit watching right after the chase scene in the parking garage because 1. We had all seen the movie before and 2. Lincoln was insisting on watching Toy Stoy with Ba and Wooey. How can you resist that? So we watched Toy Story and it is funner to watch with a 2 1/2 year old. After Lincoln went to bed, we watched Jurassic Park. I don't love scary movies but, as always, I enjoyed Jeff Goldblum.
Weight Loss I lost another six pounds, because I'm not eating as much. I didn't exercise at all. After this past weekend, I'm afraid I will have gained everything back. I really did eat a lot.
Overall Impression Professionally, February was worse than January. Otherwise, I think things are looking up. It's getting warmer. The days are longer. And I am enjoying my callings at church. The temple was closed for two weeks for maintenance and I really missed my weekly assignment there. But it's only two weeks. It was great to have some days off from work as well. I really needed the break.

Life History Assignment: Likes and Dislikes

2010-02-11T13:29:00.000-08:00

A great device for including information about yourself is by making a list. I heard an author say you can make a list about anything: what's in your refridgerator (I just threw out some disgusting, unknown substances so maybe I should do that one) a list of what's going on in your life at age thirty, forty, fifty, etc., (I wish I had done this but now I don't have that many decades left in me), what's on your bookshelf (this would be too long). Anyway you get the idea. Blogging memes follow this idea very well. I found this list in a life history book, and the class seemed to like the idea.

1. List your favorites from any of the categories below, and add any others that appeal to you. If you would like, add a short explanation beside each item.

Books - Anne of Green Gables, The Book Thief, Trinity, it's no use, I could go on and on. I just love a well-written, entertaining book that makes me feel something. Anne made me feel hope, happiness and the love of family and friends; Book Thief made me feel sadness and the love of the written word; and Trinity made me feel romance, danger, and determination. My favorites change on any given day but these are three that came to my mind today.
Songs - "I Wanna Hold Your Hand" I feel good every time I hear the opening riff to this song. It's just one of those songs that takes you back to a different place in your life. I have lots of songs that I really like to listen to and so much depends on who the performer is. It would be hard to choose just one favorite. But this Beatles song always lifts my spirits and John Lennon seems to sing it with so much joy. Isn't that how you want to remember the Beatles?
Television shows - Dancing with the Stars, Gray's Anatomy, Castle. I love watching Curious George with my grandson.
Movies - Sleepless in Seattle, While You Were Sleeping. Funny how a little sleep deprivation changes your focus, isn't it? I also really liked Four Wedding and a Funeral, especially the edited version. Funny how I don't particularly like to read romances, but I love romantic comedy movies.
Plays - The Tempest
Kinds of Music - Christmas, I own more Christmas CD's than any other type of music.
Colors - Soft yellow, periwinkle, lavendar, deep red.
Foods - chocolate, Mom's potato salad, Myke's grilled hamburgers, the pina colada salad at Zupas
Flowers - peonies, lilacs, yellow or apricot roses, wild flower mixes
Operas - ????
Holidays - Thanksgiving is my favorite. Great food and family get togethers.
Sports - I love watching swimming on the Olympics. I just love the Olympics, summer or winter.
Cities - New York City, Monterey, Boston, Salt Lake City.
Restaurants - Zupas (see above), Macaroni Grill ( had a great soup there last year), Appleby's
Dances - ????
Presidents - Abraham Lincoln is my favorite.
People's names - I think Lincoln is a wonderful name.

2. Look at the categories above. Do items you particularly dislike come to mind?

Books - The Journeyer This is one of the few books I have not finished, but I'm getting better at setting a book aside when I 'm not enjoying it. But it is the only book I ever threw away. Pure trash.
Songs - There are a lot of annoying songs out there. "Master, the Tempest is Raging" is one church song I don't care for. Too long and tedious.
Television shows - The Office
Movies - That independent film based on Nephi in the Book of Mormon. The worst acting, makeup, sets, dialog etc.
Kinds of Music - Rap
Foods - green peppers
Holidays - Valentine's Day Come on, people, do you really need a day to celebrate your love? We could eliminate this holiday, save some money and not make those poor lonely hearts out there feel any less worthy. And, no, I'm not bitter, just cheap.
Cities - Aberdeen, Washington -- just not a really pretty place.

I could probably come up with more dislikes if I let myself really think about it, but why dwell on things I don't like? I'm glad that those things were harder to bring to mind. Maybe I'm not in such a dark place after all.

Life History Assignment: Family Vacations

2010-02-06T10:03:00.000-08:00

Actually, the assignement was to write about your favorite vacation of your married life. I can't think of one but I did think of two trips I took with my kids and family after the divorce.

In 1994, Susan planned a trip to the Grand Canyon which included her two boys, Jason and Kevin, along with Cassie, Jordan and me. I helped pay for it, but she did all the work, shopping, making reservations, even driving. We even drove from Cedar City to the North Rim of the Grand Canyon with those three big boys crammed in the back seat of her Chevy Lumina. That was probably not our favortie part. We stayed in a little cabin and prepared our meals in the cabin to save money. Susan did a fantastic job in planning and packing the food for those meals. It was such a good time and a great way to take my kids on a trip. I had a bit of a problem because I get vertigo when looking down huge drop offs. But I still enjoyed the beautiful scenery, the sunsets, the lecture in the inn, spending time with my sister and watching the kids all get along together. Here's some pictures:

I think it was the next year on spring break that Myke and Cheya invited us to go with them to Disneyland as their treat. Can I just say that I had been to Disneyland once and didn't really want to go again, but I knew my kids would love it. What can I say? I loved it too. For three days, we raced around the park, standing in lines, riding the rides and visiting with Mickey Mouse, Tigger, Winnie the Pooh, the villain from Aladin, etc. My feet were killing me. One night, we took a trip to Newport Beach to eat at the Hardrock Cafe. Great strawberry shake. There was another day that we woke to pouring rain. Still we walked from the motel to the park and bought bright yellow duckhead slickers. It was a blast. There weren't as many people and we didn't have to wait in lines. Everywhere you looked, there were people dressed as yellow ducks walking around the park. My favorite ride was Splash Mountain, even the great plunge at the end. I would post that picture but can't get a decent copy scanned. Here's one that Myke took. Jordan is missing since he decided to sleep in and joined us much later. I can't express enough how much I appreciated Myke and Cheya's generosity in taking us on this trip. It was a great memory.

One of my biggest regrets while raising my kids was that we didn't go on enough trips together. I was poor but I wish I had used my credit card and gone into debt for their sakes. Thanks heavens I have two sisters who helped with these two wonderful vacations. I really cherish the memories of these trips and the few we took to Salt Lake touring the city.

January, 2010

2010-02-06T09:12:00.000-08:00

I looked over my calendar of January and see that I didn't really do much except go to work, go to the temple, go to church. Wayne and Susan visited from Virginia, and it was great to see them. I started an exercise program at the beginning of the month, but it soon fizzled out. Hopefully each month I will get the motivation to start exercising again. I guess exercising for two weeks and then stopping is better than no exercise at all. I gave a talk in church on the 17th about family history which I felt good about. Shared some stories from familiy histories I've read and thoughts about geneology. The same day, I gave my first family history lesson. There were seven people in the class. On the 24th, I gave a family history lesson and then my Relief Society lesson. It was based on Elder Dallin Oaks talk, "Love and Law." It's all about how God's laws are evidence of His love for us. By obeying these laws, we develop the characters and attributes we will need to return to live with Him again. He shows mercy through the Atonement but is bound by the laws. If we choose to be disobedient, he cannot overlook that disobedience. But because of His love, he strives to help us overcome temptations. I like how Elder Oaks doesn't pull any punches and is matter-of-fact in telling how our choices affect our outcomes. Here's a rundown of my regular activities:

Books I read or listened to nine books this month for a total of 2692 pages. My favorite was Mort by Terry Pratchett. I started The Atonement but couldn't finish it. Too bleak. I also re-read Jane Eyre and really enjoyed. It's quite different than I remebered it. Did Bronte come back and do a rewrite in the last forty years? Seven of the nine books were for a personal challenge to read books that have been on my TBR list for over three years. Twenty-eight more to go. Quite often I've wondered why I put off reading a book for so long.

TV New seasons of the Bachelor and American Idol started this month. Watching The Bachelor is like watching a train wreck only this time it's less interesting. I still watch, but Jake is just not as much fun (too earnest?) and the girls seemed determined to be witches. Don't they realize it's all on camera? American Idol is still fun. They're all still in the audition stage. I wish they wouldn't show so many of the really bad or stupid contestants and none of the ones who go off, getting merrily bleeped along the way, when they're not picked. I'd like to see more of the contestants who do get picked. I'm loving Castle and am getting a little tired of Gray's Anatomy.

Exercise 4 1/2 total hours. How pathetic. I can only do 1/2 hour at a time and haven't exercised since the 18th. But now I'm embarrassed so I am determined to start again.

Weight Lost 6.6 pounds. Obviously I didn't lose much weight from my diligent exercising program. I'm attributing it to stress. I never thought I would be too stressed to eat, but there you have it.

Overall Impression January is a cold, dismal month. Even so, we had a number of days where the sun shone and the snow melted quickly off the roads. There were a number of foggy days as well. I don't like driving in the fog and it was miserably cold; but I love the way it freezes on the trees and electric wires. Things are not going well at work but I just have to keep plugging along. Hopefully, it will start looking up. I really think January is my least favorite month. So here's to February.

7. Jane Eyre by Charlotte Bronte

2010-01-25T21:52:00.000-08:00

I remember reading this book when I was in 9th grade and absolutely loving it. But I remembered so little about the story. Of course, I knew Jane Eyre was a penniless governess who falls in love with her employer, Mr. Rochester, and he with her. I remember the mysterious happenings on the third floor of the mansion and even the fire. But that was it. When I started reading this book again, it opened with the story of Jane as a ten-year-old being mistreated by her aunts and cousins. Was I even reading the same story? She went to a boarding school? She ran away from Mr. Rochester after learning that he had a wife? I thought she learned that at the time of the fire. Where did these cousins come in? Wow, isn't it amazing the things you can forget over forty years' time? Since I have never seen movies made from the book, it was almost like experiencing it for the first time. Which was pretty neat. What can I say? It's a great story, a great romance, and Jane Eyre is a great character. I love how strong she is (except for when under the thrall of her cousin, St. John. He was creepy.) She had such moral conviction and deep passion. I love that neither she nor Mr. Rochester were good-looking, but were attracted to the better qualities of the other, and maybe even some of the faults. The story captured me. True, I found the dialogue to be stilted and silly; but probably true to the time the book was written. It sure took a long time to say anything, didn't it? But the book is a classic, and I can certainly understand why? I should try to not wait another forty years to read it again. Here's a quote I picked out from many good ones:

"We know that God is everywhere; but certainly we feel His presence most often when His works are on the grandest scale spread before us and it is in the unclouded night-sky, where His worlds wheel their silent course, that we read clearest His infinitude, His omnipotence. I had risen to my knees to pray for Mr. Rochester. Looking up, I, with tear-dimmed eyes, saw the mighty Milky-Way. Remembering what it was -- what countless systems there swept space like a soft trace of light -- I felt the might and strength of God."

The book is filled with some great thoughts on Diety, right and wrong, morality versus immortality, even religious over-zealousness. Good lessons that don't feel preachy because the story is so enthralling. If you want to read a classic, I recommend this one.

Rating: 4.5

I realized that I posted this review on the wrong post. If you want to see my other book reviews, please visit Framed and Booked.

My Favorite Time of Day

2010-01-23T22:04:00.000-08:00

"What is your favorite time of day? Are you a morning or a night person? Has this changed over the years?"

I love sunrises and sunsets, with a little leaning towards sunsets. That could be because I am usually either sleeping when the sun comes up or busy getting ready for work. I have lived in my house for over thirty years and I can't count the times I've sat on the front porch watching the sun go down. Until three or four years ago, the field across the street from me was empty, giving me an unblocked view to the west and the mountains that circle the Ashley Valley. Vernal has had some pretty spectacular sunsets during those years.

Some evenings in the fall and spring, I would watch huge flocks of birds as they dart across the sky. It's amazing how synchronized they are as they all suddenly change direction. Sometimes, hundreds would be perched in this locust tree in my front yard and on the electrical wires by the road.

I would have to say that I am both a morning and night person. I prefer those times to the middle of the day. There's a softer quality to the light when the sun is lower in the sky and the shadows are more interesting. Has this changed through the years? Definitely. When I was a teenager, I slept all morning. Probably never saw a sunrise. Now that I'm older and my body is running down, I can't sit on the front steps like I used to. But sometimes I glance out the window and see some pink or orange lights and walk out to see what brilliant note the day is ending on.

New Calling

2010-01-17T17:09:00.000-08:00

"What???" you say, "Why would you accept a new calling with the chaos that is your life?" It's so true. My life is a mess and I'm feeling pretty stressed. But I have learned that, while I can do very little about the pressures of my job short of having every inhabitant of my town move all their accounts over and thus putting all my competitors out of business (slight exaggeration), I can control my own attitude and what I do with the little time when I actually have some energy to do something. It's ironic that when I pray for strength to endure my "sore trials and tribulations", the Lord gives me another calling. Two months ago, I was called to be the ward Family History Consultant. I was so relieved that I wasn't being called to be a ward missionary, that I almost hugged the bishop. And yes, the calling was extended two months ago. Aside from buying some books on writing personal histories and some genealogy help books, I haven't done much except procrastinating the inevitable CLASS. Two weeks ago, the bishop decided the class should start today and I could give a talk in Sacrament meeting to announce it. Things just keep getting worse, don't they? Well, I lived through it. I used the first lesson in the book for my talk which went pretty well. I had seven people show up for the class which is about seven more than I expected. I gave the lesson using the DVD that accompanies it and felt we all had a good discussion which is how I teach. There were even assignments. That's right, assignments for Sunday School. I know so little about Family History but I think I will learn so much from everyone else. I hope they feel they are getting something out of it. Anyway, I decided that along with finding our ancestors, we would have a weekly assignment to write a journal entry for our own personal histories. We picked a topic from the myriads I had available: "What is your favorite time of day? Are you a morning or a night person? Has this changed over the years?" I will probably post my entries here on my blog so be looking for them. If you want to join in by writing about the topic of the week, please leave a message with a link to your post so we can visit. I hope this will be fun. Some of my class liked the idea. One brother groaned and said, "I have to write????" We'll see how it goes. Did I mention that I am still teaching Relief Society? Next week, it's Lesson Three for Family History and a conference talk by Elder Oaks for RS. I'm not feeling the stress letting up a lot yet, but I have a feeling this will all work out for my good.

December Diary

2010-01-01T21:32:00.000-08:00

It's my last journal entry of 2009 and I should really try to be eloquent; but I'm tired and coming off a holiday sugar rush; so we'll just have to see how it goes.

3rd I drove to Heber with Julie and Todd to attend a manager's meeting. It was the first time we had met with the managers in our new district and I thought it went well. I've probably mentioned before that my new boss is very driven and intense, but he's also very funny and has really good ideas to help us meet our goals. And he's pretty honest about the fact that we are going to have to work our butts off this next year. (sigh)

5th - 16th Maddy's son got married on the 11th so she took off all these days to get ready and spend time with visiting family. Which meant I got to work every day except Sundays. I was pretty tired to say the least. Lisa and I drove over to Hidden Springs in Altamont to attend Buck's reception. What a long drive. It took over an hour to find the place, but I can understand why people have their receptions there. It is a beautiful setting. On the 16th, we had a manager's meeting in Roosevelt to go over strategies for the new year. Again, very intense.

17th My high school friend, Ann Stewart, hosted a get-together with a bunch of us from high school. There were thirteen of us: Ann, Nikki Sorensen, Gail Sorensen, Rosalie Sorensen (can't remember her married name), Karen Hatch, Benna Bridges (again, married name ???), Cathy Magee, Linnette Rollins, Dahn Caldwell, Julie Brooks, Judy Kurtz, Betsy Magee, and myself. We had a blast. Ann had made the most wonderful food and her home is beautiful. She is such a good hostess. We played a game where we all drew a Christmas song and then sang it until we found our partners. Karen, Rosalie and I had JIngle Bells. We then perfomed a routine for the song. We won!!! You can see why from the picture below. :)

21st - 23rd I took these days off because Stacey, Jordan and Lincoln came for a pre-Christmas visit. Lincoln was very excited to see my Christmas tree which was fun. This was the first time we tried having him sleep in a regular bed. We put chairs and pillows all around the double bed and he slept just great. The next morning I had to run into work and to the store. Just as I was getting ready to leave at 7:30, Lincoln opened the door and walked out of his bedroom. It was good that I had not left yet as Stacey and Jordan were still asleep. It's hard to get used to him being so grown up. Stacey made breakfast when I got home, German oven-puff pancakes, soooo good. We opened our gifts to each other. I bought (had Jordan buy for me) Lincoln a keyboard and stand. It was so fun to watch him play the different beats (actually he seemed to keep to one beat) and sing into the microphone. What an entertainer. I have a little caterpillar with 26 legs for the alphabet. When you push a leg, it plays a different song. Lincoln would only push the "I" leg and would rock out to "I've Been Working on the Railroad." And he would not let me play another song and that caterpillar plays some really cute songs. It was so funny. Stacey made me a baking dish that had my name engraved on the bottom. It's so nice to know which pan you brought to the potluck without putting masking tape on it. In fact, it was such a great gift that I had also made a simlar one for Stacey last summer. Great minds think alike. Then they gave me a digital picture frame with a lot of their family photos already on the memory card. I added some of my own. Amazing how much time I spend looking at those pictures. Thanks, Jordan and Stacey. Earlier, I had bought some alphabet magnets since Lincoln liked lining up the magnetic trains so well at Thanksgiving. The letters were stuck randomly on the fridge and he proceeded to line them all up. He would move them from the fridge to the metal trashcan and back but always in a straight line. I could watch him for hours. But they had to leave Wednesday afternoon and then Cassie got here that night.

24th Christmas Eve. I had to work but we closed at 3:00 so I had time to make pico de gallo and sour cream enchiladas for our family dinner that night. The enchiladas were really good. We had so much food at Mom's. I think it took us four days to eat everything. Of course, people kept making new stuff like soup and such. There were lots of people so it was pretty chaotic. We played the same Christmas song game that I had played with my friends and it turned out fun. Everyone participated which was surprising but also made it successsful. Greg read "The Night Before Christmas" and Cheya read the Bible and we sang some carols. Ahhh, tradition. Then we opened presents. This year, Mom made a donation to help Third World familes in our names and that was her gift to all of us. What a great idea for Christmas. I got her some software and a book to help her write her life history. I hope she will spend some time writing down her memories. I always enjoy when she tells stories from her life. I also gave her some pictures from our Thanksgiving photo shoot. Last year, I gave her magnetic board to displays pictures of her family that can be changed when she gets new ones. So now she has new ones of me and my kids. Cheya and Myke gave me a WaterPik shower head. I was a little apprehensive about installing it. I did have to go to the hardward store to get a small converter pipe but it works just great. I love it. I also got an ARC of The Brutal Telling. Cheya and I are great fans of Louise Penny. Thanks, Myke and Cheya.

25th Christmas Day. No getting up early for Cassie and I. I don't think we ate breakfast until noon and then opened presents. Or was it the other way around? Whatever, it was nice and slow. Cassie brought me great things from her travels: a plaid, cashmere scarf from Scotland, a silver necklace and an Irish Tenors CD from Ireland, and a red coral necklace from Hawaii. She also gave me some other really neat things. And then she is going to make me a temple bag. She had bought the fabric but ran out of time. The fabric is so pretty. We took it very easy but eventually made it over to Mom's to eat and play games.

26th Cassie and I went to see Sherlock Holmes at the movie theater. Great movie. After it was over, we saw that Greg had come also but had sat farther ahead of us. I can't believe I actually did this, but after the movie, we went to Walmart. On the day after Christmas!! It was not too bad and we needed to get the trim for the temple bag. We settled on a really pretty green color with a gorgeous bling-bling button. I'm so excited. More games at Mom's that night.

27th I gave my lesson in Relief Society and spent my last day in the library. Now I have to get ready to teach Family History. I know nothing! Cassie left to go back to Salt Lake. Man, it's hard to see her go.

31st Mom, Susan, Cheya and I went to lunch at The Red Onion Grill. It's right next to the Dinosaur Gift Shop so we went in to check out the sale. I spent too much but bought some fun Christmas items. Lunch was just okay especially considering that we had to wait so long and the service was pretty bad. That night we had sloppy joes at Mom's and birthday cake and ice cream. And played games. My back was killing me and I developed a bad headache so as soon as I saw that ball drop in Times Square, I headed home to bed.

Books I read eleven books this month. My favorites were The Kite Runner, Forest Born, and Ender's Shadow. Six of the books were Christmas stories, some very short, which helped get me in the holiday mood.

Movies On Christmas, Cassie and I watched Julie/Julia which she gave me. I really liked it. Meryl Streep is wonderful. Then we saw Sherlock Holmes which was also a wonderful movie, very fast paced and action-packed. And funny as well. It seems like I watched another video but can't remember what it was.

Overall Impression We got a lot of snow this month which was so pretty at first. Then it just gets dirty and drab. It was also very cold. Most nights dipped below zero. Brrrrr. But it was a good month to spend time with the family and enjoy the Christmas spirit. I love singing carols at church and celebrating the birth of our Savior. Now if I can just keep that feeling with me throughout the year. I did make some resolutions. I have to lose weight or my back is going to become an even bigger problem than it already is. So I am going to try to eat better and exercise more. Plus, I am going to read the Old Testament. And I want to do some writing on my life history to go along with the family history class I will be teaching. That ought to do it. Look for updates on my monthly posts. I may post my life history entries as well, haven't decided yet. I hope everyone had a great year in 2009 and wish an even better one for 2010. HAPPY NEW YEAR.

Family Pics

2009-12-15T20:02:00.000-08:00

The day before Thanksgiving, we had family pictures taken out in my mom's field. Jordan's friend, Mindy Gale, and her sister have started a photography business. Take a look. There are several shots I really like that I will be getting printed, but I really need a 11 x 14 for an frame that's been hanging on the wall empty for far too long. My main concern was that it had to be a landscape shot because that is how the frame is hung. The shots with all five of us all have something wrong with them but all have great things as well. I know, you can't expect five people to all look good at the same time. Anyway, I'm posting the ones I like the best and letting you all help me decide. Please be honest in your comments. I'm not putting them in any particular order so you won't know which one I'm leaning towards. All but the second picture also have a sepia version so you can try to picture that. Try clicking on the picture to see it bigger. I don't know if that will work or not, but ... Please comment on which one you like best and why. Thanks for your input.

O Christmas Tree

2009-12-12T22:25:00.000-08:00

This year I bought a new artificial pre-lit tree that has both multi-colored and white lights. It was a beast to put together. So heavy. But I love not putting on the lights. That alone makes this a worthwhile purchase. Plus, the remote control is fantastic. The tree even revolves, but I can't see myself ever using that feature. That would mean I would have to decorate that side that's up against the wall. Jeez. After I finally got the tree up and plugged in, I noticed a three-foot section where the white lights did not come on. (Grit my teeth and try not to swear) Finally, after moving the wires around, they came on. Brand new tree and there seems to be a short in the wiring. A few days later, I finally put on some decorations. This year, I went with my Santa theme; and I'm quite pleased with the whole thing. I'm posting some pictures, but the flash fades out the lights making the tree not as pretty. I did take a couple without a flash. See what you think.

November Notes

2009-12-04T11:10:00.000-08:00

I love November. It is the month of my favorite holiday. Yes, winter is slowly creeping in and the fall leaves are faded and littering the lawn; but it's still on the warm side and Thanksgiving is on its way. Here's what I did through the month.

1 - 6. I took the week off to clean the house and get ready for my Thanksgiving guests. It was a great opportunity to get rid of some stuff to take to DI and send other stuff to the dump. I also got to start my temple shift when everyone else does. I usually go at 5:30 pm but the shift actually starts at 3:00. I was still late for the prayer meeting but did get to see all the sisters who work on that shift. Sometimes, you get so busy that you go a whole evening and not see someone.

9. I had my first telephone call with my new boss. He is quite different than other supervisors I've had and very different from the one just previous. I sense I am really going to have to kick it in gear. Since we've been moved into a new district, I also have to get used to the way things are down in a more urban market.

11. Veteran's Day. The bank gave us a paid holiday this year. I t was nice to just sit in the house and enjoy it being clean.

20. I drove to Moab with two co-workers for Don Cook's retirement party. He was my supervisor for just about six months, but I really grew to appreciate him. It was good to see some faces from the Southern Utah division. I've worked with some of these people my whole career and will miss them.

24. I had my first goal setting session with new boss. It was grueling, but I can see where I can really improve my performance and help my employees do the same. There is a lot to be learned. I wish I wasn't so old and tired.

25. Cassie arrived last night and Jordan, Stacey and Lincoln came about noon. They had had a rough trip as Lincoln got sick all over the car and carseat. Yuck. After tumbling over my exercise ball (the most action it's had for years), he went down for a nap and we cleaned the seat. Then everyone got ready to go get family pictures taken. Cassie and Stacey had to pick out what I would wear. It started out fun taking pictures in Mom's field and by her old cow shed. Jordan's high school friend, Mindy, and her sister took the pictures. Lincoln was not very cooperative; but I hope there are some good shots. Mostly, it was just good having them all there. I got to watch Lincoln that night and put him to bed. He's so sweet.

26. Thanksgiving Day. We slept in, had a good breakfast and headed over to Mom's for dinner. It was soooo good. Alyson came from Las Vegas, Scott from Salt Lake; and everyone from Vernal was there. We all wrote what we were grateful for, put the cards in a basket; and drew one to read. Great stuff. After dinner, we played games and talked until there was room enough for pie. After dark, a bunch of us went outside to see the space station and shuttle as they passed overhead. It was cold but fun. Then Mom gave us all a scare as she got dizzy and almost passed out. Luckily Jenny and Julie were right there to catch her. Mark and Cheya took her to the hospital and the rest of us went home to await word. It turned out to be dehydration and extremely low blood pressure; the doctor soon had her feeling much better. She didn't even have to spend the night. We were all so grateful because it was pretty scary at the time. She got a good rest that night which is more than I can say for those at my house. Lincoln decided he didn't like sleeping in the portable crib or with Grandma and just wanted to play in bed with Mom. When I finally got up the next morning, he was asleep on the couch and his dad was sleeping on the floor. Happy Anniversary, Jordan and Stacey. I hope next year things go smoother.

27. Vernal plans a whole slew of activities to get ready for the holiday season. I was excited to take Lincoln to ride the ponies and see the camel. He got to pet the camel on the nose and talk to the ponies. He has "Neigh" done all the way. He was so cute when his turn to ride finally came.

Definitely not cute when his turn was over. Good heavens, that kid can scream. He was probably hungry. Back to Mom's for a lunch of leftovers and then Jordan, Stacey and Lincoln headed for the city. That night we played games again. As always, Cheya and Myke had some new games that were fun. It seemed every game we played, Scott won. Dang.

28. Cassie and I went to the matinee and really enjoyed the movie. We played more games that night.

29. We really relaxed this day. I don't even remember what we did after I got home from church. Cassie did't leave until six that night but got home safely. So the holiday is over and it's back to work.

Books Read

I read ten books and 2928 pages. I finally finished the Chronicles of Narnia series. Can you believe I had never read those books? None of the ten books really stood out in my mind. There were a couple I wouldn't recommend but they weren't horrible. Just kind of a boring reading month.

Movies

The movie Cassie and I went to see was Blindside with Sanda Bullock. I really liked it and thought she was fantastic in it. We also watched The Jungle Book and the Sword in the Stone with Lincoln. He mostly played while the movies were on except during the songs. Then he would dance.

Dancing with the Stars is over; and Donny Osmond won. I was rooting for Joanna Krup but Donny was my second choice. He wasn't the best dancer but was certainly the most fun to watch. It was also fun to watch Kelly Osbourn. She just improved so much over the season. I'm still watching Castle, Gray's Anatomy and have added Flash Forward to my schedule.

Overall Impression

This month just flew by. I was so caught up in all the changes at work that I didn't do much of anything else. I can't see that December is going to be much different. Still it was fun to spend so much time with my family. I got a new calling at church -- Family History Specialist. I don't have a clue but it will be fun learning about family history and geneaology.

October Outcomes

2009-11-01T23:11:00.000-08:00

In England, the first week of October is Children's Book Week. What a great idea. Germany celebrates Unity Day and Canada has its Thanksgiving. Columbus is the second Monday, Apple Day on the 21st and everyone's favorite, Halloween, is on the 31st. It is also Breast Cancer Awareness Month. October's birthstone is the opal and the flower is the calendula.

The weather really started changing this month. The mornings had that great crisp, clean, cold smell of fall. We even had some snow. The wind blew for days, but there's still some hardy leaves hanging on for dear life. How can I rake them when they're still up there? Guess I won't. Here's what happened in my life.

2. I mowed the lawn for the last time this year and I turned on the heater. (This is going to be a really slow news month)
3-4. General Conference. Some really great talks as usual. Sometimes it's nice to just on the couch in your pj's, eating breakfast and getting your spiritual cup filled.
14-18. Mom, Mark, Susan and I drove from Salt Lake City to Reno for our annual fall trip. Luckily it was overcast on the drive west, and we saw some beautiful skies and interesting lights on the hills.

With a low tank, we almost stopped in a little hamlet called Puckerbush, but Mark felt like going on to a bigger hamlet. I'm not sure there is anything bigger between Winnemucca and Reno, but we did finally find a station before the tank was completely dry. We checked into our rooms at Circus, Circus and ate dinner at The Smokin Gecko BBQ, located int the hotel. I had barbecue chicken with baked beans and corn on the cob. Mmmm. We had such good luck with food on this trip, never a bad meal. Except for the McDonalds breakfast the next morning. That was probably our fault as we couldn't seem to get our orders straight. We headed west to Donners Pass. The visitor's center there was so interesting, reading about that ill-fated pioneer group, their courage and will to survive. While driving over the pass, we saw the worse weather of the trip, some cold rain; but the pass is beautiful with great craggy rocks and cliffs. Then down into sunny California. We turned left at Auburn and went down a windy road toward Sutter's Mill, passing through Cool. We had a good time boning up on our gold history at the Mill. Lunch was at Mel's Original Diner in Placerville. Great hamburgers. Next came Lake Tahoe. What a beautiful view as we traveled up the west side of the lake.

Mark and Susan climbed some rocks overlooking the lake but it was getting dark so we headed back to Reno. A light night snack at an ice cream shop and we were ready for bed. Friday we did the river walk in downtown Reno. What an amazing place to have right in the middle of the city. It was absolutely beautiful. There was a sculpture exhibit right off the river that we had a great time perusing. Next, it was south towards Carson City and the the capitol building. What beautiful fall colors that city had. The capitol building is completely surrounded by trees, you can barely see it. And it is very small. The legislature and judicial branches have separate buildings. We took a driving tour and looked at some historical houses around the city. The Governor's Mansion was completely decked out for Halloween. That's a big day for Nevada as it joined the nation on Halloween. However, I thought the Governor overdid it, very gaudy. Still it was fun to see everyone put so much effort into this holiday. We drove down to Gardnerville hoping to see some Basque culture, but missed it. Heading north and west, we came to Genoa (accent on the o since we are not in Italy) to see the first Mormon settlement in Nevada. It was closed for the season but we did walk around the fort and read some of the markers. We did some shopping and visited with some storeowners, very friendly and knowledgeable. There is a great candy store where we spent some time. The owner kept winking at me. What???? We tasted several samples of gelatto before realizing that several had alcohol in them. Annnnyway, it was a fun experience. We then drove back to Tahoe to see the eastern shore. It's a gorgeous lake but way over populated now. This is my favorite shot that I took of the lake. My camera with the zoom was acting so weird and took multiple shots every time I pushed the shutter. So I would have two or three pictures of the exact thing.

Coming back into Reno, we decided to visit the temple. It is not an easy building to find. We even called to get directions but that was just a little bit of help. The problem is that it was dark, you have turn on this certain road; and we just couldn't see the street sign, drove past it two or three times. Mark kept his cool but it was hard. Eventually, we made it up the hill and took some pictures of that. The temple sits on a hill overlooking Reno and has a great view. Here's Mom, Mark and Susan huddling up as it was a bit cold.

That night we ate at Louis' Basque Corner. You share a table with other diners and we hit the jackpot with the two couples we ate with. Bryan is of Basque origin and gave us great tips on what to eat. He is a government contractor. He and his wife were in town opening a major highway. Very fun people. The other couple are college professors from a small town in Northeastern California. Very interesting and fun to talk to. We had a great time. We got up early on Saturday and headed to Virginia City. Since we got there early, we were able to get a good seat at a restaurant that had been restored to fit the Old West. Great breakfast in a great setting. The town itself is way overcommercialized. We were going to take a wagon trip around the town to see the sites, but the wait was just too long. We walked up and down the boardwalks and went into a few shops. I really would have liked to have bought a deck of cards for Nevada, but every deck I saw was a used casino deck. I already have one of those. Rats. We did see the picture of the bride with the silver dollar dress. She is huge and the dress is made up of silver dollars, gold dollars for the belt and her jewelry is dimes and nickels. Then we started the long trek to Ely on the Loneliest Highway in the country. It's pretty desolate and empty. Thank heavens Mark is such a good driver. Our last night on the road saw us eating pizza in a hotel in Ely. Pretty good pizza too. The next morning we walked across the street from our motel to a park to see paintings on the library wall, the duck pond and some statutes. Then we headed north on a road even lonelier than the day before. Needless to say Mark made great time. It was great to see the Salt Lake and the Salt Flats coming in from the west. And it was great to get home. Wonderful trip.
28. Received word that my boss is retiring the end of November. Big changes. I'm not excited.
29. First snow of the season. It melted quite quickly but I'm still not ready.
31. I went to Jeffery's baptism. I can't believe he's eight already. I was moved as John baptized and then Grandpa Myke confirmed him. Jeff will always be able to remember that he was baptized on Halloween. And he and Megan were my only trick-or-treaters. Thanks for not forgetting your old aunt.

Books: I read or listened to eleven books. I am finishing the last two of the Narnia chronicles this week and enjoying them very much. No five ratings this month, but I gave three books 4.75: Catching Fire, Stargazing, and A Rule Against Murder. I spent hours on Halloween reorganizing my books. I found I was missing eleven books that I showed I owned and haven't read. Grrrr. After thinking it over, I realized that my sister has one, two I had already read but didn't check off the TBR list, and one I thought I had bought but apparently didn't. Don't know where the other eight are. If you have my copy of Pippi Longstocking, it's time to give it back. I also found six books that I really didn't want to read so I listed them on Bookmooch. They were snatched up almost immediately. Did I act too hastily? There were ten double entries plus I deleted nine I didn't want to read after all from the list. The list would be getting smaller except I found sixteen books that weren't even written down. Maybe I need to quit playing with my lists and read more. Get that thought behind me. This is my hobby and I'll hobby it as I want to. Besides I cleared up some room on the shelves so it was a good thing.
TV and Movies. I am totally into Dancing with the Stars, Castle and Gray's Anatomy. Other than that, I rarely turn the TV on. I'm sad that Louis Vito got voted off DWTS last week. He can't dance at all, but he's so darn cute. Castle just gets better and better. Saw no movies.
Overall Impression The end of October means we're heading into the holiday season. I'm not ready. I love Thanksgiving but buying gifts for Christmas is so stressful. I just want fall to last longer.

September Summary

2009-10-04T16:21:00.000-07:00

September is one of my favorite months. The change from summer to fall is so beautiful. Cooler evenings and mornings are my favorites. A drive up a canyon just illustrates how beautiful fall really is. And, even though you know winter is on the way, you can still enjoy this time of transition. Here's how I spent my month:

3rd. I finished my personal Book Around the States Challenge. The goal was to read a book set in each of the 50 states and the District of Columbia. I started this challenge in August, 2007. Two years to read 51 books. There were some really good books included but also some pretty bad ones. Here are the ones I rated the highest:

Animal Dreams by Barbara Kingsolver, Arizona

Dandelion Wine by Ray Bradbury, Illinois

More Than You Know by Beth Gutcheon, Maine

English Creek by Ivan Doig, Montana

The Valley of Light by Terry Kay, North Carolina

Peace Like a River by Lief Enger, North Dakota

Broken for You by Stephanie Kallos, Washington

October Sky by Homer Hicken, West Virginia

Caddie Woodlawn by Carol Ryrie Brink, Wisconsin

3rd I bought a new toaster. This might not seem very momentous to you, but I've had that old four-whole toaster since I got married in 1977. It was time. I still need to get used to the new one and figure out the best setting, but I'm not mourning the old one.

5th My thirty-year-old cottonwood finally got a much-needed trim. It was expensive and I'm not sure it was trimmed enough; but it is still a vast improvement. I'm not worried any more about a big wind breaking a limb and having it fall through my roof. I just hope the trimmer got all the diseased portions out.

6th & 7th Jason, Rachel and baby, Robby, came out to visit. Robbie is such a cutie. It was good to hold a smaller baby again. We played games and went to breakfast on Monday at JB's.

11th & 12th I went to Provo for Lincoln's second birthday. It was a traumatic day for him. He was pushing on the backend of a toy pickup when it flipped and hit him in the face. So heartbreaking. Two Tylenols later, he was feeling better and enjoying opening all those presents. I was happy that he was excited about his Curious George movies. Lincoln loves Curious George and that was the theme of his birthday party. His two cousins wore monkey masks but Lincoln refused. Stacey had bought balloons and had a ring toss game with prizes. There was even a delicious monkey cake which Lincoln loved. I can't believe he is two already and getting so big. In some ways, it's sad because he's not a baby any more; but he just gets more fun all the time. Wonder what he'll be like at fifteen.

26th & 27th I went to Provo again to take Lincoln and his parents to the circus at the Energy Solutions Arena. (Delta Center is so much easier to say. I wish they could hold onto thier sponsors) I wasn't sure he would make it through the entire performance, but he did. It wasn't easy though. We were late and caught the tail end of the horse performance (tee hee). Lincoln loved the dogs and clapping with the audience. Then there was a lot of singing and dancing that reallay tried his patience and subsequently ours also. It was pretty silly. He was mesmerized by the elephants, but we had to buy popcorn to keep him entertained after that. Sadly, the tigers did not impress him at all and there were NO monkeys. What's up with that?? I'm sorry to future grandchildren but I probably won't repeat that again. Circuses aren't what they used to be. Isn't his new haircut cute? He looks so old. Sunday I took Jordan, Stacey and Lincoln to breakfast and then drove to SLC to see Cassie. She had just returned from the British Isles and I got to see all her pictures. It was so good to see her. It's been a while. It sounds like she had a great time for the most part and the pictures were fantastic. I'm going next summer if I can find someone to go. I think Mark and Mom are on board. Anyone else?

Obviously, the highlights of this month revolves aroung seeing Lincoln; but I have to tell you how beautiful the drive to Provo and back was on that last trip. The tree were turning and there were brilliant splashes of yellow, orange and red among the evergreens. The weather was wonderful and the skies bright blue. It snowed in the mountains that Sunday but I missed that. Hopefully, we can go without snow for a little while longer; say three months????

Books Read I read eleven books and listened to two on CD. None of them rated a five, but I gave October Sky a 4.75. It's a wonderful book, well-written and a great view of West Virginia. I also read all five of the Gardella vampire series. I liked it but don't feel the need to read it again.

Movies and TV I watched no movies. Good thing Cassie is back. Maybe she'll visit soon and we can see a movie together. Dancing with the Stars started again. There is a great bunch of dancers this year. The two worst got voted off the first week, but there aren't too many that aren't fun to watch. I'm thinking Mya will win. Donny Osmond is pretty good ad has a large fan base and Natalie Coughlin is a good bet since gold medal winners always seem to do well. But I really like Derek Hough and his partner, Joanne. She's just not very well known. I'm loving Castle and Gray's Anatomy.

Overall Impression I mowed my lawn on Labor Day and then forgot about it until October 1st. It's actually doing pretty good. Still eating fresh tomatoes and even put up some corn and zucchini. Haven't tried the carrots yet. Next year, I really need to plant a better garden. The month started out hot and ended just right.

August Actions

2009-09-03T16:29:00.000-07:00

August has been a very quiet month for me. Things have been slow at work. I did get a new boss finally. Preston had been trying to watch over Vernal while doing his new job in Provo since the first of the year. Now Don Cook from Moab is taking charge of the Uintah Basin along with the branches in the southeast. He's been great and it's good to have things settled again. I haven't gone out of town since the first weekend. Not much to talk about this month.

1st-2nd Saturday was the last day of the family reunion. We were in charge of breakfast so we had fruit, muffins, eggs and milk and juice. Spent way too much money. We made a quick run to Barnes and Noble where I bought a couple of books. Just what I needed. Back to the reunion where we played cards for a while before heading back to Salt Lake. I went to Stacey and Jordan's to play with Lincoln while they continued packing for their big move. We met everyone at Zupas for dinner. The next morning I took Stacey, Jordan, Lincoln and Cassie to breakfast at the Red Rooster Waffle Co. Everyone seemed to like it except me. It was just okay.
6th I picked my first tomato. It wasn't quite ripe, but we had this torrential hail storm and my almost ripe tomato took a direct hit. So I had to eat it. Not bad but I am excited to get some more ripe ones. It was a fantastic storm. Lots of lightening that night and rain.
18th-23rd Kevin and Debbie and their family came to visit Mom. I didn't see them until Thursday at a picnic at Myke and Cheya's. It was good to see all of them again. Cassie came out Friday and so did Brett and Angela. A little nerts that night and the name game on Saturday. Good times. And it was so good to have Cassie home again. It's been quite some time since she last visited Vernal. On Sunday, a bunch of us attended the temple dedication broadcast for the Oquirrh Mountain Temple. Wonderful talks.
30th Instead of regular church, a four-stake conference was held to create a new stake in Vernal. It was exciting to see what the changes were and all four stake-centers were packed. They moved two wards out of stake and about six families from my ward were moved to one of those two wards. A few families from the two changing wards were moved into wards in my stake including Mom. I guess it made the boundaries more regular. Anyway, not much change for me. The talks were wonderful though.
Books Read I read fifteen books, including the first four of Susan Albert Wittig's Beatrix Potter series. Very good. The other two I really enjoyed were both Young Adult books: Framed by Frank Boyce Cottrell and Peak by Roland Smith. One takes place in Wales and the other on Mt. Everest.
TV and Movies I didn't watch any movies except for bits and pieces of movies that Cassie watched. I am watching America's Got Talent which I am really enjoying. I don't always agree with the judges, they seem a bit more sentimental about some contestants that I am but it's still fun to watch. They reran a couple of Castle episodes. I'm hoping that show gets picked up this fall. I really like it.
Overall Impression I can't imagine what I did all month. Read, I guess. It's been a good summer, not too hot, but we could use more rain. I'm loving my chairs and bench outside. I don't have air conditioning but it still gets so cold inside my house (trees are great) that I take my book outside and sit and read until I warm up. I also bought and mooched a bunch of books online. I don't know where to put them but at least I have them. And I have harvested quite a few tomatoes. There are some scars from the hail and a few are pretty odd looking, but they taste great. I had my eye on one perfect tomato that was almost ripe. When I went to pick it some animal had got to it first. It was laying on the ground half eaten. Grrrrr. My carrots are coming along but are nowhere near big enough to pull up.

Lincoln

2009-08-09T17:37:00.000-07:00

Waiting for the jets

Cooling off in the sprinkler

Amazing fireworks

I didn't know he could open his mouth this big.

I know I said these pictures would be below my July Jottings, but you are all so smart, I knew you could figure it out. To get the full scoop, keep reading.

July Jottings

2009-08-06T22:00:00.000-07:00

I'll bet you'll be amazed to learn that July is the hottest month of the year in the Northern hemisphere and the coldest in the Southern. Actually, we've only had a few really hot days this year, but don't think I'm complaining. (Could use more rain though) I tend to spend a lot of time indoors avoiding the heat and sun, even though this year I may have spent a bit more time outside. In June, I bought two adirondack chairs for my patio. This month I finally got them painted and assembled. Whew, that was a lot of work but I really like them. Guess I'll have to spend even more time out there sitting in them. I'll just hop from one to the other. July's birthstone is the ruby, flower - larkspur or water lily; and it's named for Julius Caeser. Good stuff, huh? Surprisingly, ten countries celebrate Independence Day during this month. Only the U.S. celebrates it on the 4th and only Utah celebrates the 24th of July. You can read a great post on building a float for the 24th here . Here's my doings for the month:

July 2 - I caved into pressure from Jordan and bought a new cell phone. I just couldn't take the snide remarks about my antique phone any more. After a month, may I just say that I really miss that old phone even if it isn't as pretty as the new one? At least I could hear it ring.

July 3 - Jordan, Stacey and Lincoln came to visit. They stopped by the bank so I got to show Lincoln off. We ate at 7-11 (not the convenience store, Vernal has a restaurant that's been here for years) and went home to watch National Treasure 2.

July 4 - I got everyone up early to watch the annual Main Street parade. I knew Lincoln would be excited about seeing the jets from Hill Air Force Base fly over. Well, the parade was a let down. It was really hot and everything started late. Lincoln was not happy about being unable to run free in the crowds, especially since there were some fun-looking dogs close by. Then he got sunscreen in his eye. Not a happy boy. When the jets finally flew by, it was pretty anticlimatic. They didn't even make that huge noise like they used to. We hurried home to bathe the poor child. After his nap, Lincoln went outside to run through the sprinkler. Isn't it amazing how much fun a kid can have with so little? Then we went to Cheya's for the annual barbecue. Fantastic, as always. A little before nine, we walked over to the ballpark to watch the fireworks. It took forever for it to get dark enough and Lincoln does not like to sit and wait. Plus it was way past his bedtime. Fortunately, he loved the fireworks, at least for a while. I posted some pictures of him below. All in all, it was a fun day and I loved having them all here. Cassie elected to go to Cedar City this year. I hope she doesn't make a habit of that.

July 7 - 8 I traveled to Provo for training and ate at Zupas. It is my new favorite place to eat. I bought a new flat screen TV and DVD-VCR for the bank and an MP3 for me. It's a Sony Walkman. Wonder how long it will take me to figure it out.

July 9 - Maddy and I stayed to oversee installing all new computers and printers at the bank. It was supposed to be an all-nighter but we were done by midnight.

July 14 - 15 More training in Provo. Dinner at Zupas again. For lunch, we went to an Italian restaurant just east of the main Wells Fargo in downtown Provo. Can't remember the name but it was very good and reasonably priced. I'm really tired of training.

July 24 This is a big holiday in Utah. I mowed the lawn, watered and went to Lowe's. I spent a small fortune on new sprinklers, tree food, bug killer, bug fogger for inside the house, weed killer, spray paint and an electric hedge trimmer. That night we ate at Steve and Verona's in their beautiful back yard.

July 25 - First thing, I went to Smiths to buy ingredients for muffins to take to the family reunion next week. Home again, I put out the bug killer. I hate those box elder bugs, earwigs and little black beetles. Sprinkled tree food around the trees. Made muffins. And I painted the chairs. The salesman at Lowes told me one can of paint should do both chairs but I should buy two, just in case. At nine that night I went back to Lowe's for three more cans. Why do they make those lids so hard to get off? By the time all the pieces of those chairs were painted, my fingers were permantly curved. Looks evil, somehow.

July 26 - I finally figured out the Walkman and downloaded a couple of books. Funny, how when I downloaded the software to my computer, all the books I had deleted from RealPlayer copied over. No wonder my computer's memory is full. I deleted them with the new software and it gave me the option to delete them from my computer. Man, I hope that works.

July 27 - Day off from work. First thing, I went to Lowes to return a sprinkler and then Walmart for who knows what. All I know is it took longer than it should have. I almost missed breakfast at McDonalds. Then I took my Walkman and my drill outside to assemble the chairs. Several hours later and after a trip to True Value to get a screw I had drilled into an anchor out of the anchor, one chair was finished. It took me an hour to finish the other. Now that I've got it down, I really should assemble some more. Except absolutely no painting. I was even able to listen to the entire book called Nation by Terry Pratchett. And to round things off, I washed clothes and sheets and got all the beds made. I need a day off to rest but no, I have to work the next day because we are so shorthanded.

July 31 - Mom and I traveled to Salt Lake on out way to the family reunion in Layton. We decided to meet Cheya and Myke, Susan, and Mark at Zupas on Redwood Road. The only problem is there is no Zupas on Redwood Road. It was my suggestion and I feel guilty especially since it took us another hour to get to the Zupas on 123rd. Only Mark didn't make it because he has no cell phone so we could tell him the change in plans. Thankfully, it was worth it. So good that we went to the one on 106th the next night. But that is August so will have to wait. We made it to the reunion in Layton after a circuitous drive. Always fun to listen to Myke and Cheya navigate. I was just glad that I wasn't driving. My cousin, Tom, had reserved his ward's bowery and park. It was beautiful and a great place for a reunion. It was good to see everyone. Cassie and Kevin even came up from Salt Lake and Vernal respectively. Kristi and Ronnie came the next day. Mostly we ate with our own families but did play the Newlywed game which was fun. Cassie was my spouse and we did pretty good.

Books Read I read or listened to ten books this month. My favorite was The Mysterious Benedict Society by Trenton Lee Stewart, a great kid's book. I also enjoyed Lemon Tart by Josi Kilpack, a mystery with a middle aged woman who solves the crime. Still pluggin away on reading a book from each state. I have four more to go.

TV and Movies The Batchelorette is finally over. Jillian chose Ed. I was rooting for Kipton. Such drama. The whole thing is getting a little over the top for me but I will probably still watch the next one. It's like a train wreck. There's not much else on. I'm not getting much of a bang for my Dish Network buck. I watched National Treaure 2 with Jordan and Stacey and enjoyed it as always.

Overall Impression I'm really tired.

A Visitor

2009-08-02T18:41:00.001-07:00

I walked in my kitchen tonight after changing the water on my lawn. In the middle of the floor sat my visitor. It was a chipmunk!!! I ran back outside; he ran down the hall. Rats, I can't have a rodent running around in the bedrooms. Leaving the back door open and armed with my trusty broom, I ran to the front door and open it. I turned around and there he was, sneaking behind the couch. I screamed. Yes, I'm not proud; but this is a truthful accounting. And that ridiculously high-pitched squeak (it was a poor excuse for a scream) confused the critter who turned in a circle and ran into the kitchen. I didn't see where he went (the little beggar is very fast); but I'm assuming he had some intelligence and headed for the open door. I ran down the hall and closed all those doors and the front door. But just in case, the back door is still open (a welcome to all those flies outside) and I'm typing with my feet held as high off the floor as I can manage. I've always enjoyed the rare glimpses I've had of this fellow when he ventures out of the woodpile into the great beyond of my yard. But I think he crossed a line today. I know he looks cute, but that doesn't thaw my cold, cold heart at all. What if he made it back into the bedrooms when I wasn't looking. How will I sleep tonight? EEEEEEEK.

June Jumbles

2009-07-09T11:57:00.000-07:00

I just re-read my May posting which talked of turning off the gas heater. Well in June, I turned it back on . . . twice. I know, the first day of summer is in June, but this June has been unusually cold and rainy. But I'm not complaining, I like the rain. June's flower is the rose . . . wait, that's May's flower. I guess they have to share. The gemstone is a pearl or an alexandrite. Father's Day falls in June as well.
So here's how I amused myself this past month:
6th Mark was in town so I went to dinner with Mark, Mom, Cheya, Myke , Steve and Verona at Don Pedro's. I had the Carne Adabada. Sooo good. I can't remember if we went and played games afterwards or not. Hmmmm
10th & 11th I have written in my calendar on these two days: "Days from Hell at work. Wonder what that is all about? I think we had people calling in sick right and left and Maddy was on vacation.
11th We had a office party at Maddy's ranch up past Red Fleet reservoir. She has the wonderful picnic area down a little hill from her house. Since it has rained hard that day, we had to be driven down the wet, slippery, muddy road down the hill to her house and then walk a short ways to the picnic place. But it was beautiful there. Maddy's husband, Bob, had built a fire in the firepit and there were peacocks on the shed roof watching us. The food was great and a bunch of people played bocci ball. They played it quite bit differently than how I played it a few years ago with my family but it was fun to watch. I didn't stray too far from the fire. The party was just what we all needed to relieve tensions that had been building at work. I work with a bunch of great people who I consider to be good friends. But we really, really needed that party.
19th - 21st I took some time off from work and spent a few days in Salt Lake visiting Jordan, Stacey, Lincoln and Cassie. Naturally, we went out to eat. Friday night we went to Johnny Carrinos which serves scrumptious Italian food. Cassie and I babysat Lincoln while Jordan and Stacey went to a movie. It was Angels and Demons. Jordan came home upset. It was his favorite book and I guess the movie botched it. The next day I took it easy. Jordan and Stacey and Lincoln went to Lindon for a birthday party. That night, we went to dinner to celebrate Cassie's birthday and the restaurant we had finally decided on turned out to be closed. So we settled on Tempanyaki's, a Japanese hibachi-grill restaurant. It was quite expensive but sooo worth it. It was fun watching them cook our food but eating it was even better. It may just be my new favorite place. Cassie and I saw a movie, The Proposal, with Sandra Bullock and Ryan Reynolds which we both liked a lot.
23rd Cassie birthday. I can't believe she's 27. That must make me 42. :)
Books Read 9
Pages Read 2603
Books Listened to 1
The Good Good Pig by Sy Montgomery, rated 3.5
Agent in Lace by Tristi Pinkston, rated 4.5
The Hunger Games by Suzanne Collins, rated 5 (One of my favorites this year)
Can't Wait to Get to Heaven by Fanny Flagg, rated 4
Where Rivers Change Direction by Mark Spragg, rated 4.25
The Secret Life of Houdini, by William Kalush, rated 4 (audio)
Broken for You by Stephanie Kallos, rated 5
The Lost German Slave Girl by John Bailey, rated 4.5
Indigo Dying by Susan Wittig Albert, rated 4
Spanish Dagger by Susan Wittig Albert, rated 4.25
TV
I am still watching The Bachelorette. There is one bachelor named Wes that eveyone hates except for Jillian. He is such a player. You'll have to wait until next month to hear what happens next. That's it. My TV is getting dusty just sitting there.
Movies
The Proposal, see my comments above.
Overall Impression
It was great to have a few days off work but I still have massive amounts of PTO to use up. I just wished I had something fun to do or a trip to take. It was still rainy off and on but warmer. My lawn is starting to get dry but I have carrots and tomatoes growing. Mmmmm, something to look forward to.

May Memories

2009-06-03T12:06:00.000-07:00

Oh the joys of May . . . I remember as a child making little May Day baskets filled with flowers and candy and taking them to my friends. And, of course, there's Mother's Day, a day I have a love-hate relationship with. (It's getting better as I learn to celebrate the joys of being a mother instead of feeling guilty for not doing a better job of it. My kids turned out so well that I must have done okay.) Then there's Memorial Day which signals the return of summer and turning off the gas heater. May's flower is the rose which seems appropriate as Booklogged is raising some gorgeous specimans over at her house. In Germany, it is an old custom to plant a "tree of May" to honor someone. What a great idea. Finally, May's birthstone is the emerald.
And here's what's been happening in my world:
May 7 I attended a training in Provo. Stayed at La Quinta's as usual and ate at Zupas, as usual.
May 7 & 8 Spent the night at Jordan and Stacey's. Ate at Chili's and shopped at Target's for Stacey's birthday present. While Jordan and Stacey decided on the gift, I rushed Lincoln around the aisles in the grocery cart. He likes speed.
May 8, 9 & 10 Cassie came to Vernal to spend Mother's Day with me. We went to a matinee of "17 Again" which we really enjoyed. Zac Ephron is very good-looking. Then we went to dinner with the whole family at Canton City's Chinese buffet. Very good food, I ate too much. Then we went to Mom's house and played the Name Game using old names from a game we had played in December. That was pretty fun. It was Fast and Testimony meeting that Sunday, so we didn't have the usual Mother's Day program. It was an amazing meeting as people talked about their mothers and their kids. All the mothers received a CD of hymns. Wonderful. I always manage to kill the usual potted plant they give out. Then Cassie gave me the most touching book she had made with thoughts and pictures, a crossword puzzle. It made me laugh and cry. She is just the best daughter in the world. I'm so glad to be her mom.
May 23, 24 & 25th Memorial Weekend. Cassie came out again and we saw Star Trek. What a good movie. Sunday I gave my Relief Society lesson: Sacred Homes, Sacred Temples. It's always easy to get a good discussion going around the subject of homes and temples. Later we went over to Cheya's and played the name game and nerts. Cassie put in all these hard Star Trek names and really stumped the rest of us. And they fed us an amazing roast beef and mashed potato meal. Kudos to Myke, Cheya and Katie. The next morning we had our traditional Memorial Day brunch. It used to be breakfast but no one wants to get up that early. Steve and Verona hosted it this year and it was pouring rain. But we cooked and ate inside and it worked out great. Myke made his fantastic hash browns and I made pancake mix which Verona then turned into waffles (wonderful) and Julie brought some really good sausage. Mom furnished fruit and Annie brought juice. Poor Cheya cracked I don't know how many eggs and they never got used. Wonder what she did with those. It was a great meal and fun to see all the family that live in the same town that I never see. That afternoon we went back to Cheya's for more games and barbecued hamburgers, my first of the year. I really owe them a dinner out.
May 30 Susan, Corey and Audrey and kids came to visit so Mom had a barbecue at her house. I made a strawberry shortcake trifle that turned out really well. We had a good visit and some of the younger people went to the park to play golf frisbie.

Books Read 8
The Night Journal by Elizabeth Crook
The Color of Magic by Terry Pratchett
The Bone Gardne by Tess Gerritsen (audio)
The Liught Fantastic by Terry Pratchett
Fragile Things by Neil Gaiman
In God We Trust, All Others Pay Cash by Jean Shepherd
Damien the Leper by John Farrow
The Wonderful World of Oz by L Frank Baum

TV
All my favorite shows ended. I'm hoping Castle gets renewed because I really liked it. Shawn Johnson won Dancing with the Stars. I think Gilles Marini should have won but Shawn was good also. Chris Allen won American Idol. Great controversy over that one but I liked Chris best. Even though Adam Lambert is a fantastic singer and entertainer, I don't really care for most of the songs he sang. And the ending of Gray's Anatomy was sooo good. Now I'm watching the Bachelorette and little else. I feel like I'm wasting my money on Dish Network. I think I need to explore it more and find some good movies to watch.

Movies
I already mentioned that Cassie and I went and saw "17 Again." It was funny and entertaining. Two weeks later, we went and saw "Star Trek." Excellent. It had great suspense and Spock was great. The guy who played Captain Kirk was quite yummy. I just don't want to see those names in another Name Game.

Overall Impression
It was a cold and rainy month. (Sounds like the opening line to a scary story.) That was great for my lawn except when I wanted to mow it. But I was able to talk myself into retreating into my warm home and eating a banana popsickle. Vernal is pretty and green right now so I'm not complaining about the rain. I bought a rocking bench for my patio and go out there to read when my house gets too cold. Now if the wind would just quit blowing every afternoon. I'll regret saying that next July, won't I?

BLOGIVERSARY

2009-05-18T20:36:00.000-07:00

I can't believe it's been three years of blogging. How do I condense that to give you all a brief overview? On May 7, 2006, I published my very first post. You can read it here . Since that time, I have created six more blogs, one for my ongoing book reviews, three that I stored reviews for each year; one for my Book Around the States Challenge, and one for my TBR list. I think I'm getting rid of the three blogs for the reviews of each year and not do that anymore. Fourteen more books and I will be done with the Book Around the States Challenge. I just really like the colors in that blog. My TBR list in May of 2006 had 76 books on it. The last time I updated it, there were 491. Yikes. I find it interesting that I removed ten books from the original list without reading them (just lost interest) and there are seventeen still on my TBR list. I feel another personal challenge coming on. I have read and reviewed 323 books, joined 39 challenges and have just one left to finish. I had participated in 29 memes, lists, tags, or those funny web things where you learn weird things about yourself. In fact, I'm in the mood for a meme. Anyone seen a good one lately? I learned some fun things about blogging but mostly keep it pretty basic. Visiting other blogs has been fun, but started to really take a lot of time, so I try to limit visiting so much. Not to mention that those visits accounted for much of the huge growth of that TBR list. In January, 2008, I started a monthly journal entry to recap that month. I think my niece, Alyson, got me started on that and it's been such a good thing for me. Of course, the highlight of my life in the last three years was the birth of my grandson, Lincoln. He is such a joy. What else . . . I turned fifty, went on a cruise, was a Relief Society President for a while, hit a huge milestone at work, lost weight, gained it back, I can't remember what else, I'm old. All I know is that blogging has become a part of my routine. It's how I keep in touch with relatives (even those who live in the same town), and I meet new and interesting people all the time. Thanks to all of you for visiting and leaving comments.

April Agenda

2009-05-03T11:38:00.000-07:00

April is National Poetry Month as well as Sexual Violence Awareness Month. Does anyone else see the contradiction here? The Boston Marathon is held on the third Monday of April and Arbor Day is the last Friday.

The gemstone for April is a diamond and the flower is either a daisy or the sweet pea. I love diamonds even though I don't have many and I like both daisies and sweet peas.

I did a lot of traveling in the month of April--two trips to Provo and one to Salt Lake City-- which explains the audio books I listened to this month. Much more happening in April than in March anyway.

April 4-5 General Conference. I like to stay at home and watch General Conference twice a year. There are always great talks and spiritual uplifts. If I could only stay awake through the whole thing. I really enjoyed Elder Holland's talk as well as Elder Bednar's.

April 8-12 Susan was the first of several who came to visit for Easter weekend. Mark, Greg, JennyLou and Katie also came out from Salt Lake. So I spent a lot of time at Mom's playing games and eating but missed the egg dyeing because I had to work. Mom, Cheya, Susan and I ate lunch at JB's on Thursday and tried to plan a sisters' trip. I don't know when we will ever pull this off.

April 12-14 I drove to Provo for training on Monday and Tuesday. Stayed at La Quinta on the south end of Provo. I had gone out early to get a little shopping done, but Provo is completely closed down on Sunday. Rats. The training seemed to be a bit of a repeat of other trainings but I did get in a couple of great meals. For lunch on Monday, we walked to Ottavios, an Italian restaurant on Center Street. I had a chicken wrap and tomato basil soup. The soup was scrumptious. That night I got soup and salad to go from Zupa's, my favorite place in Provo--Lobster Bisque and Pina Colada salad. Ymmmm. Tuesday, Preston took Julie, Linda and I to lunch at Los Hermanos, a lovely Mexican restaurant just down the block. It was a working lunch but great food.

April 17-19 I went to Salt Lake to visit the kids and grandkid. Again, it's all about the food. Friday night, we ate at Archibalds in Gardner Village. I had prime rib which was pretty tasteless. After we ate, we took Lincoln to see the animals they had in pens. He was pretty fascinated with the geese. It's a really pretty place. The next day we went to The District so I could do some shopping and ate at the Red Robin. I had a great hamburger and Lincoln had fun flirting with a little girl from the next table. I am disappointed in the shopping there. Cassie and I went to JC Penny's then drove to Jordan Landing for a bit more shopping. Friday night, we played dice and I won!!! The next night Cassie and I watched a video.

April 19 My lesson in Relief Society this month was "God Loves and Helps All of His Children," a talk by Bishop Keith B McMullin, 2nd Counselor in the Presiding Bishopric.

April 22-23 Traveled to Provo for a manager meeting on Thursday. I had to give a presentation on Recognition. It went okay. The meeting was a little overwhelming as usual. Lots to do.

Work - I'm glad this month is over. This is the slowest month we've had for ages. Too many people leaving Vernal, I guess.

Books -I read or listened to ten books and 2153 pages. The page count is down because four or these books were audio. My favorites were West with the Night, the memoirs of a female pilot who was the first to fly across the Atlantic traveling east to west; and North River, a great novel about New York City in the thirties. I started one book but didn't finish it. I am letting myself do that more often. There are too many good books to read to waste time on one I don't enjoy.

TV - I am getting into Castle, a great detective show with a twist. Sad to see Chuck and Julianne voted off last week. Up to that point, I had pretty well agreed with the voting. I like Melissa, but I can't imagine she will be able to dance that well with a cracked rib. My favorites are still on American Idol. I think I am still watching America's Next Top Model and Celebrity Apprentice because there's not much else on those nights. I thought Joan and Melissa Rivers were such babies last week.

Movies - Cassie and I watched Slumdob Millionaire at Jordan and Stacey's house. I really liked it and can easily see why it won the Oscar.

Overall Impression - It has been raining a lot which I like because everything is so pretty and green. However, the wind has also been raging and I hate that. My lawn is growing like gangbusters and I can't get my lawn mower started. Plus I need to spray the weeds but it rains every weekend. I hate yard work, but I really want to plant a garden this year. We'll see.

March Madness

2009-04-04T10:25:00.000-07:00

The name of March comes from ancient Rome, when March was the first month of the year and named Martius after Mars, the Roman god of war. In Rome, where the climate is Mediterranean, March is the first month of spring, a logical point for the beginning of the year as well as the start of the military campaign season.

The equinox, named the vernal or spring equinox in the northern hemisphere and the autumnal equinox in the southern hemisphere, occurs on dates varying from 19 March to 21 March.

March is famous for the Ides of March when Julius Caeser was assassinated, the beginning of spring (except in Vernal, UT), Ash Wednesday and Mardi Gras. It is also Women's History Month. (I see a pattern for my reading next year.)

March has also been an extremely quiet month for me. This may be a short post.

March 2 - The Bachelor is over. Jason chose Melissa then broke up with her on national TV. The cad. It seems he loved Molly after all.

March 7 - Attended the Women's Conference with Mom. A local woman, Cherry Colton, spoke and shared some great missionary experiences, especially about shortsheeting the bed intended for her mission president's wife's friend, Tommy. Turns out that Tommy was President Thomas S Monson. Funny story. The other speaker was Richard Paul Evans. He was a fantastic speaker. His talk covered five main topics. 1. We all have a divine nature. 2. Forgiveness. He told a great story about a man who borrowed money from him and then did not repay it and how angry he was. How he came to forgive the man was beautiful. 3. Take a chance. 4. Adversity. Evans has Tourette's Syndrome and he discussed how this adversity shaped him into the man who is able to write such beautiful stories. 5. Love is the basis for all we do. It was a very inspiring and moving talk.

March 12 - Went to the temple for our Ward Temple Night. I work at the temple every Wednesday evening so it had bee quite a long time since I attended a session all on my own. There were only three others from the ward but a total of 65 people were in the session.

March 22 - I gave the Relief Society lesson on President Monson's talk, "To Learn, to Do, to Be." It was given to priesthood holders but also applied to all church members in how they fulfill their callings.

Work - We had a great Saturday on the 29th, but overall it has been pretty slow. There are three pregnant women who are all due in July and three more going through divorces. So things are kind of crazy.

Books - I read ten books this month. My favorites were Animal Dreams by Barbara Kingsolver and The Kissing Hand by Audrey Penn. In fact, I've mooched another copy of The Kissing Hand to share since it was such a cute children's book. I read 3063 pages. I'm surprised I didn't read more since it was such a slow month. Oh, that's right, I watched TV.

TV - It is amazing how much time you can spend watching reality TV. I think the only non-reality shows I watch are Gray's Anatomy and The Practice. Well, I did just start watching Castel which comes on right after Dancing with the Stars and enjoying it very much. I'm glad to see Steve Wasniak (sp) finally voted off DWTS. Nice guy but bad dancer. I'm predicting Gilles will win because he is sooooo good but then I also like Melissa from The Bachelor. So glad I don't have to listen to Holly giggling any more. I also watch America's Top Model which surprises me, it is so campy and the women so mean. I must enjoy watching beautiful women tear each other apart. Celebrity Apprentice is another show that cracks me up. I'm also surprised at how good some of these celebritys are. Glad to see Dennis Rodman go. The censors are probably glad as well. And I am addicted to American Idol. Man, you really get into these singers' lives, don't you? My favorites are Alyson and Chris, but I wouldn't be surprised if Adam won. Fantastic voices for all three. I don't like Adam's singing style all that much but I love to watch him. He is so entertaining.

Movies - None, nada, zilch. Who had time to watch movies when I need to see what's going on with the dancers, singers, models, doctors, detectives and Trump's minions.

Overall Impression - I have no life. I can live with that.

Mystery Gift Game

2009-03-10T20:57:00.000-07:00

I saw this over on Julie's blog and jumped right on the bandwagon. Here's how it goes:

The first three people to respond to this post will get something made by me! My choice. For you.This offer does have some restrictions and limitations:
1- I make no guarantees that you will like what I make!
2- What I create will be just for you.
3- It'll be done this year.
4- You have no clue what it's going to be.
5- I reserve the right to do something extremely strange.
The catch is that you must repost this on your blog and offer the same to the first 3 people who do the same on your blog.The first 3 people to do so and leave a comment telling me they did win a FAB-U-LOUS homemade gift by me! Oh, and be sure to post a picture of what you win when you get it!Who's in?

I'm very curious to see who dares to have me actually make something for them but I will give it my best shot.

February Focus

2009-03-05T13:28:00.000-08:00

February is named for a Latin term that means purification. It seems the Romans held a purification ritual on February 15th every year. Hmmm, maybe I will try that next year. In Finnish, the month is called helmikuu, meaning "month of the pearl"; when snow melts on tree branches, it forms droplets, and as these freeze again, they are like pearls of ice. Sounds pretty, doesn't it?

February is Black History Month which many of you have seen fit to honor by reading books to learn more about our country's balck history. Other important days include -- Feb. 2, Groundhog's Day, a very meaningful and important day; Feb 14, Valentine's Day (blech); Feb 29, Leap Day, a very weird day; and, most importantly, Feb 4, my birthday.
Good thing I've added this little information piece since it's been a really slow news month.

Feb 4 -- As mentioned above, it was my birthday. It was very low-key. A friend from church, Julie Justice, took me to lunch at 7-11. (It's a restaurant in Vernal that's been there long before the convenience stores were created.) She gave me an LDS fiction which looks like a fun read. How can you go wrong with a book? That evening was spent doing my shift at the temple, a perfect way to end the day.
Feb 5 - Feb 8 -- I took a trip to Salt Lake to visit my kids and get my baby fix. (see previous post) Lincoln is hardly a baby any more but toddler fix sounds wrong.
Feb 14 -- I went to the movie with Lisa Labrum who is a co-worker. Her husband was out of town so a matinee on Valentine's Day sounded great. We saw "Confessions of a Shopholic." I was surprised how much I enjoyed it. It was very funny and pretty relevant to our current economic mess. Mothers, take your children to see this movie to teach them the dangers of credit card debt.
Feb 22 -- I gave my Relief Society lesson based on the conference talk, "Winning the War Against Evil." I am so blessed to be able to present the lesson to a group of sisters who participate and offer such good insights. These lessons would be so boring if I was the only one talking. It's an amazing talk printed in The Ensign and I learned a lot.

~~~~~

Work - We didn't come close to our goals this month. Things are slowing down so much. Blame it on a rotten economy and the fact that we live in an oilfield town.

Books - I read eight books this month but True North took so long and was very boring. I only read 1965 pages, less than half of last month's total. Of course, one book was an audio and another was a children's book. Four of the books were rated a 4/5. I rated one book 4.5, another 4.75 and finally, gave out one 5. Overall, that means I had a very good reading month. The "5" book was A Fatal Grace by Louise Penny, a mystery set in a small town in southern Quebec. I'm really enjoying Penny's series and look forward to the next one.

Movies - I saw THREE movies this month. That's almost unheard of. Cassie and I saw "Taken" with Liam Neesom, very riveting. He's such a good actor. I mentioned "Confessions of a Shopaholic." The last movie I watched at home on a quiet Sunday afternoon: "The Errand of Angels." It is a movie about an LDS sister missionary is Austria and was pretty good for that genre.

TV - I have been faithfully watching The Bachelor. Since the finale took place in March, I'll save my comments for next month. I'm watching American Idol for the first time this season and thinks it's great. I hate it when a singer I like puts in a bad performance but have been very impressed overall. Plus I really like Simon. He's incredibly mean but hilarious as well. I think most of these contestants have watched the show from the get-go so they shouldn't be so surprised when he puts them down, but they always are. I remain a Gray's Anatomy devotee although I think Derik's melt-down was over the top. And of course, I caught a lot of the Awards shows. I must be in the minority but I thought Kate Winslet's dress was ugly. But I was so glad she won. I've always liked her even though I haven't seen this particular performance. Hugh Jackman was a great host and who knew Anne Hathaway was such a good singer?

Overall impressions - I managed to jot down two things I was grateful for: midwinter thaws (this was right before that huge snowstorm hit on the 2nd) and my family. I obviously need to spend more time concentrating on this piece. We did have some awful weather at the first of the month, but it is truly looking like spring is just around the corner. I love those 60 degree February days, don't you?

Weekend Getaway

2009-02-08T16:13:00.000-08:00

I just returned from four days in Salt Lake, visiting my daughter, son, daughter-in-law and grandson. It was nice to take a couple days off work and just get away. I like Salt Lake City. I think I could live there. I've even narrowed down living choices to the west side, after driving east from Jordan's house and observing the pollution along the Wasatch Mountains. I don't want to breath that stuff on a daily basis. While nothing earth-shattering happened, here's a run-down of my activities:

Thursday - I slept in which was lovely and made me nice and alert for the trip to the city. Of course, I had a audio book to listen to and chocolate to eat. I always stop at Jordan Landing for a bit of shopping before heading to Jordan's house. After browsing Michaels and Dress Barn and finding nothing to buy, I head to Bath and Bodyworks. I always spend money here. It's part of my emergency preparedness plan. I know food is important, but don't you think that I should have a supply of anti-bacterial soap as well? The fact that it smells so good is just a bonus. The real reason for my shopping spree is the Barnes & Noble gift card that is burning a hole in my wallet. I love that store. After going through the Mystery section, Fiction, Fantasy, Non-Fiction and Teen sections, I have my arms loaded with eight books. All but three are on my TBR list. Those three are Agatha Christie books which are on sale, how can I go wrong? And it's only $97. As I drive towards Jordan's house, I realize that the gift card is still burning a hole in my wallet. Jeez! All that is forgotten when I get a big hug from my grandson. He is so cute and endlessly fascinating to watch.
Friday - More time spent playing with Lincoln and visiting with Stacey. Jordan leaves work early because he is covered all over with a messy, itchy rash. We finally convince him to go to the doctor and get medicine. That evening we eat dinner at Panda Express since we are in a hurry to get to the Draper Temple open house. Cassie treats me for my birthday. Isn't she sweet? I had never eaten there before and it is really good. Jordan takes the baby home and Stacey, Cassie and I head up to the temple. Luckily, we are not too late and get to take the tour. It is a beautiful temple and lights up that hill on the southeast end of the valley.
Saturday - Jordan, Lincoln and I go to Best Buy to pick up his flat screen TV. I didn't get to actually see the TV but the box is huge. I play on the computer while Lincoln naps, thinking I will sneek in some shut-eye myself the last hour of his nap. Unfortunately, Lincoln takes a very short nap and thinks I should play instead of sleeping. He is very hard to say no to. That night we eat at Iggy's. Very good food and very noisy. Lincoln loves the french fries. Cassie and I go see a movie, "Taken" with Liam Neeson. It is a fast-paced thriller and Neeson is very good.
Sunday - Stacey made delicious pancakes. Her parents had brought back some coconut syrup from Hawaii which I really liked. I pack up, hit the gas station and head for Barnes and Nobles. Don't forget I still have that gift card.
It's 10:15 and the store doesn't open until 11??? Rats. I spend the next forty-five minutes writing down the books I already bought on my TBR list so I don't forget and buy them again. I listen to more of the audio CD. I stand at the door with ten other people for five minutes until they finally decide to open. Quickly I find three more books to buy and head to the check-out stand. As I pull out my credit card, I finally notice the gift card. Can you believe I almost forgot it again? I now have enough books to last until the Millennium. At least I have a two-years supply of something. I hope the electricity lasts as long. The trip home is uneventful, cloudy but no snow except for some slush and snowpack east of Strawberry. I won't complain about that. Well, I have to go unpack, find a place for all those books and maybe find time to actually sit down and read. Phew!

January Journal

2009-02-01T16:11:00.000-08:00

January is named for Janus, the god of the doorway; the name has its beginnings in Roman mythology, coming from the Latinword for door (ianua) - January is the door to the year.

January is . . . . National Careers in Cosmetology Month, National Eye Health Care Month, National Fiber Focus Month, National Hobby Month, National Soup Month, Hot Tea Month, Oatmeal Month, Prune Breakfast Month.

This picture is called January from the Très Riches Heures du Duc de Berry. You can see it better on Wikipedia.

There, I've added a little color and culture to my monthly post. Let's see how long I can keep this up. I made a resolution at the first of the year to eat better and exercise more so I can lose weight. I've exercised three times and lost .6 ounces. Woohoo!! It's been a stressful month, what else can I say? Stress = chocolate. Here's my January happenings.

1st - I failed to mention in my December review that we had a New Year's Eve Party at Mom's house. Since we were still there on the lst, I will tell you a little about it. I can't remember what we ate for dinner. Late we had sparkling juices: Lingonberry-Apple, Peach, Black Currant, Cherry, and the perennial favorite, Red Grape. I really liked the Peach and Red Grape. Cherry is okay. Myke and Cheya brought an assortment of cheese and crackers. There were some really good cheeses. We played games and watched the ball drop, then hurried home to bed. Aaah, good times.

3rd - The bank opened on Saturday for the first time. I worked along with Beau, Amanda and Shayla. It was pretty dead, but I got the Christmas tree down. What would they do without me?

Big gap here with nothing going on.

17th - Cassie drove out last night to spend the weekend. Even though, I had to work that day, it was so good to have her here. She gave me an early birthday present, a book she had had printed with pictures from our Canadian cruise. It was so fun to look through and remember all the fun we had on that trip. Saturday night, we saw Marley and Me at the theater. I read the book so there were no surprises, but I still cried at the end. Jennifer Anniston and Luke Wilson are such likeable actors that it made the movie fun to watch. We ate at Golden Corral before the movie so I managed to forego the usual buttered popcorn. There was just no room. Hmmm, no weight loss this month, can't understand it. She even went to church with me on Sunday. At least one of us is keeping up with her resolutions. I took Monday off and we just sat around the house until she had to leave at one. Not a very exciting weekend, but it was just good to have her home for a short time.

20th - Steve and Verona's friend from Russia (her name is Luda) made dinner for the family and some friends on her last day in the country. She spent the whole day cutting up food into these little, symmetrical bits. My favorite was the borscht. She made another soup with chicken in it and three different kinds of salad. One had eggs and corn, another beets and corn and other things; and the last had dill pickles and other things. So I can't remember what was in the salads, but they were bery good. And the roasted potatoes were heavenly. Again, why am I not losing weight? So, goodby to Luda and thanks for the dinner. I really enjoyed the time I spent with you. (Only twice, really, but she's pretty memorable. Always smiling and laughing and very pretty.)

23rd Annie went in for surgery after it was discovered that she had Stage 3 breast cancer. The surgery went really well and we hope that the radiation and chemo treatments she has to endure will get the rest of it. Keep her in your prayers. She also cut off her long, beautiful black hair and donated it. She looks so cute with her new haircut.

25th - I teach the fourth Sunday lesson in Relief Society, so I thought I would let you know what I'm teaching each month. The lessons always come from the previous General Conference talks. This month's talks was President Uchtdorf talk, "The Infinite Power of Hope." I have to admit I have felt pretty hopeless this month, probably a natural letdown after the holidays, but I really struggled with this lesson. It's a beautiful talk, though, and I have felt better ever since. I recommend that everyone read it. If you don't get the Ensign, go to LDS.org and search for the talk's title. My last three lessons have been based on talks about having joy and hope in these tough times. One sister shared a piece from the Desiderata which was beautiful. She just brought me a copy of it so I'll just quote that particular part: "Be gentle with yourself. You are a child of the universe, no less than the trees and the stars; you have a right to be here. And whether or not it is clear to you, no doubt the universe is unfolding as it should." One of these days, I'll post the whole thing.

25th and 26th Wayne visited from Virginia. We sat around talked and then had sloppy joes and palyed games on Monday. Vernal got bombarded with a huge snow storm Sunday and Monday, and driving was treacherous. But it's the end of January and that snow won't last long. Plus we really needed the moisture. Spoken like a true Vernalite.

30th Mom took a bunch of us to JB's for our annual birthday lunch. Besides, Mom and I, there were Cheya and Myke; Steve, Verona and Dominic. I had a patty melt and smelled like onions the rest of the day. This is a fun tradition right in the middle of the January doldrums.

~~~~~

Work As I mentioned earlier, we are now open on Saturdays which means I work every other week. It's something I can live with. Things have really slowed down as the oilfield is laying people off. Some of this is seasonal and some is due to the economy. It's pretty scary, isn't it? (refer back to my entry for the 25th)

Books I deal with stress by burying myself in books and managed to read 13 books and 4565 pages. I didn't count one book that I ddin't finish (too boring) but I did count the 64 pages I did read. Six of the books were under 250 pages and quick reads. I didn't rate any book a 5 but my highest rating was a 4.75 for Going Postal by Terry Pratchett. It was hilarious and the characters are fantastic. Thanks to Cheya for introducing me to this wonderful author. I also gave a 4.75 for Still Life by Louise Penney, a mystery series set in a small town in southern Quebec. It was a very well-written mystery with a great sense of place and characters. I am currently reading True North by Jim Harrison. It takes place in Michigan. Mark lent it to me for my Book Around the State Challenge. I'm only on page 28 but it hasn't pulled me in yet. I hope it gets better.

TV I'm watching The Batchelor. I missed last week when he sent three girls home at once, but it was the three I wanted to see go. I'm still watching Gray's Anatomy. I hope Stacy and Jordan will let me watch it on Thursday when I'm at their house. I really enjoy watching MASH and Cosby reruns, and the occasional movie.

Movies Besides Marley and Me, I watched Sleepless in Seattle on TV. It's one of my favorite movies and I've seen it countless times. Still love it.

Overall Impression Cassie is writing a blog almost daily on things she is grateful for. Amazing posts. I tried to write down something each day in my daytime that I was grateful, and remembered to do that three times. I'm pathetic. So here's what I wrote: On the first - new beginnings; the second - good books; and the fourth - sunshine. I really am grateful for so many things, I just need to focus. I will try to do better in February, in fact, I'm off to write down something right now.

December Diary

2009-01-01T12:32:00.000-08:00

December is always such a busy month getting ready fo Christmas, having Christmas and then recovering from Christmas. So here's a run-down of how I filled the hours.

2nd - We had the bank Christmas party. I won't tell you where, but it was the worse party ever. The food was not good and the service terrible. What a waste.
5th thru 9th - I went to Salt Lake to do my Christmas shopping. Susan and I stayed at Mark's house Friday and did some marathon shopping on Saturday and Sunday. I was amazed at the deals she found. While not so lucky as she was, I was still able to finish most of my shopping. We ate that night at Joe's Crab Shack at Jordan's Landing. Susan, Kevin, Mark, Cassie, Stacey, Jordan, Lincoln and I were all there. Lincoln entertained us with his Incredible Hulk impersonation. (He's so talented) The food was very good and the service great. Every so often, all the waiters would gather in the middle of the restaurant (our table was right in the middle of their gathering) and do a dance to whatever song was playing. It was fun. We ended the night playing dice at Mark's, except for Jordan's clan who went home to bed. On Sunday, we all went to see Jason and Rachel's baby get blessed. Robbie is such a cute baby. Lincoln was not his most best-behaved and I am not very good at disciplining him. Just ask his dad. But he sure was interested in Susan's glasses. That night I stayed with Stacey and Jordan and got to babysit Lincoln the next day while Stacey got some extra hours at work. We had fun as usual. On Tuesday I drove my overloaded car home and piled all those boxes and bags in the living room.
11th - I wrapped the presents, and wrapped and wrapped and wrapped. I hate wrapping presents. I had bought white paper and red paper to go with a snowman theme. They looked pretty but after hours of wrapping, I no longer cared.
12th - The tree got put up, finally. It's the only the twelfth, why do I feel guilty for not having my tree up until now?
13th - I went to see Twilight with Lisa again. Julene Richards was there so she joined us. It was her fourth or fifth viewing. Cheryl Abplanalp and Sherrie Calder sat with us also. I thought if I saw the movie again, I would like Edward better. Ennh.
16th - Ward Christmas party. Much better food and entertainment. Ron Litton and his family performed. They did some Christmas songs but mostly Beatle music which I liked. I left when Santa got there. It's none of his business whether I've been naughty or nice. Does anyone else think he's just a bit nosy and what about him coming down chimneys? Weird.
19th - We had a shorter version of our progressive dinner and just visited Mom's, Steve and Verona's and Myke and Cheya's. Still, we had fun.
20th - A few more presents arrived plus I did some more shopping. I swear I ws finished, but noooooo. So that meant more wrapping. Good grief!
23th - Cassie made it safely from Salt Lake. At 10:30, Jordan called to say they were on their way. Naturally, I stayed up to wait for them. Just the first of a few nights of little sleep. Lincoln slept in the living room this night but had a hard time getting settled in.
24th - It's Christmas Eve and I had to work until three. The bank wasn't very busy although we did have a customer show up just as we were all leaving about at 3:30. Stacey, Lincoln, and Cassie joined me for lunch at La Cabana. Jordan went hunting with his friends. That night the whole family gathered at Mom's for our annual Christmas Eve dinner and program. The dinner was ham and funeral potatoes. Yummy. There was so much to eat. Greg and Jenny Lou were there with their dog, Apache. Lincoln was interested in the dog but apprehensive. I read the Christmas story from the scriptures, we sang a few Christmas songs and the younger kids performed. Another impersonation from Lincoln. What a ham. Now he claps for himself. Then we watched a video that Katie had made from old Christmas Eve clips. It was so funny and very well done. Then it was time for home and bed. I stayed up and watched Jordan and Stacey get Lincoln's car ready for him. So nice not be in that position any more.
25th - Christmas Day. We finally dived into the huge pile of presents. Lincoln got more than he knew what to do with but it was so much fun watching him ride in his car and beat his drums. My presents were amazing, just what I wanted. Stacey made a delicious breakfast casserole that we scarfed right down. I really appreciated not having to do much for breakfast this year. While Lincoln napped, we watched The Holiday and napped also. Later that day, we went back to Mom's to work on the ham and other leftover goodies and to play games. It was a great Christmas. I know Stacey and Jordan won't be spending too many more Christmases in Vernal, if any, so it was great having the opportunity to have them this year. Cassie thinks she and I should take a trip one of these Christmases. That sounds like so much fun.
26th - I had to go to work and Stacey, Jordan, and Lincoln headed back to the city. That was so sad. Cassie got to sleep in and play more games. In fact, the next few nights, we played a lot of games at Mom's.
27th - I helped at a wedding luncheon for Kenny Richards, Julene's son. They had soup and bread bowls which was kind of messy, but the soups were really good. Mark and Davis came out from Salt Lake, so it was back to Mom's house to play more games.
28th - I gave my RS lesson from President Monson's talk, Finding Joy in the Journey. I think it turned out all right. Cassie left to go home about seven. I always feel so let down when she leaves. It's so easy and comfortable having her at home even though I think she gets a little bored.
31st - New Years Eve. We had a Mexican dinner at Mom's and stayed up until midnight. It's getting harder and harder for me each year.

Work - Things are quite slow but we made our goals for the month and the year. Hallelujah! We are going to start being open on Saturdays which is going to be a huge adjustment but I think it will be okay.

Books - Who has time to read? Actually I did manage to squeeze a few in, but only six. I debated which challenges to join for next year and have decided not to join any right now. Maybe some that start later, but I'm really going to just read what I feel like reading.

TV - I've caught Sherlock Holmes on the KBYU channel a couple of times. It's pretty fun to watch. Even though I don't watch TV a lot, it was good to have some other options. Maybe this satellite TV will be okay.

Overall impressions - The mild weather of November is long gone. We had major storms on the 24th and 25th and I was so glad none of my kids had to drive in it. Then it was just really cold, falling below below zero most nights. It's been an interesting year, probably my best and most challenging at work. I've enjoyed working at the temple so much. I got released as Relief Society President and am back to teaching which I love. The presidential election has come and gone, it will be interesting to see the changes that Obama will make. I sure hope he gets some divine inspiration as the country is in such a bind right now. Watching Lincoln grow older was certainly my favorite activity this year. Being a grandma rocks. And I got to go on my first cruise with Cassie and Julie and it was a blast (most of the time). And I managed to do a journal entry for each month this year. I hope I can continue to do that in 2009. Well, Happy New Year, everyone.

Christmas Meme

2008-12-20T19:05:00.000-08:00

Stacey at Magnum Momma posted this festive meme along with some wonderful photos of the cutest kid in the world. So I copied the meme and you'll have to visit her blog to see the pictures. And, yes, there are a hundred other things I should be doing, but who's counting?

1. Wrapping paper or gift bags? I wrap until I'm sick of it. Then I pull out the bags.

2. Real tree or Artificial? Artificial. I have a closet full of decorations, enough to do five trees with different themes.

3. When do you put up the tree? This year, it was the 12th. And I've only turned the lights on once. We have a family progressive party each year to see the different trees. Mine was off limits because I didn't even have time to get the boxes off the floor.

4. When do you take the tree down? New Year's Day

5. Do you like Egg Nog? Of course, it's fattening, isn't it?

6. Favorite gift received as a child? A stuffed kitten. I always loved soft, furry things.

7. Hardest person to buy for? Jordan and Stacey. They always have to tell me exactly what to get because I never have a clue.

8. Easiest person to buy for? Myself. Now there's a gift that is always appreciated and loved.

9. Do you have a nativity scene? Yes, I think I have twelve. This year, I've put up a set made from corn husksthat Cassie gave me last year (it's amazing), a Jim Shore set (also from Cassie and also amazing), and a Willa Rae set (I just love those homely faces).

10. Mail or email Christmas cards? Neither. My computer is too slow for email and I'm too slow for snail mail.

11. Worst/Funniest Christmas gift you ever received? Funniest - The year I bought myself the Willow Tree nativity set and one for my mother also. Then I found out that she had bought herself the set. I complained about that all month. So I was pretty embarrassed when my daughter gave me a set for Christmas. No wonder, she wasn't very sympathetic about my complaints. I can't think of a worst which is a good thing.

12. Favorite Christmas Movie? "White Christmas" I never fail to get tears in my eyes when the general walks in the dining room and all the men snap to attention.

13. When do you start shopping for Christmas? I try to start early, I really do, but it's usually the first of December every year. I know if I bought something on sale in January, that person would have bought himself/herself the same thing long before Christmas rolled around again. And I have this unreasonable need to spend money in December so why fight it?

14. Have you ever recycled a Christmas present? Is that legal?

15. Favorite thing to eat at Christmas? I love wassail and eggnog. We don't have a traditional Christmas meal but it's always good. And I love chocolate oranges and peanut brittle. And divinity, but no one makes it anymore.

16. Lights on the tree? I love lots of white lights on my tree but this year, I skimped. Yes, it was sheer laziness. When I do my Santa Claus tree, I use multi-colored lights.

17. Favorite Christmas song? Oh Holy Night by Andy Williams and Ave Maria by Josh Groban. I have tons of Christmas CDs. My favorites are Michael Crawford - A Christmas Album, and Amy Grant - A Christmas to Remember. Although Josh Groban and Alan Jackson are great as well. I could go on and on. I have some great CD's. There are a couple of Christmas songs that I loathe: I Heard the Bells, why, oh why do we have to sing it in church two or three times; and Grandma Got Run Over by a Reindeer. (shudder)

18. Travel at Christmas or stay home? Stay home

19. Can you name all of Santa's reindeer? Dasher, Dancer, Prancer, Vixen, Comet, Cupid, Donner, and Blitzen...Rudolph! Lucky for me, I copied Stacey's meme and just didn't delete this section.

20. Angel on the tree top or a star? I put an angel on the top when I do my angel tree but this year, I have a snowman.

22. Most annoying thing about this time of the year? Grumpy shoppers. I know it's crowded and your feet hurt and everything's expensive or gone, but still. On the other hand, there are always those people who smile and help and are polite and exude Christmas cheer. I'm trying to be more like that.

23. Favorite ornament theme or color? No favorite colors or themes. I change it every year.

24. Favorite for Christmas dinner? I think I've already answered this. We've done everything from Mexican to Italian to fondues (that was fun but it was before we all had little kids) This year I have a ham that a customer gave me so I requested funeral potatoes to go with. Love potatoes.

25. What do you want for Christmas this year? A new body, a different hairstyle, a bigger house. But I'll be satisfied to spend time with my family. Cassie, Stacey and Jordan are all coming, so I'm excited. And Lincoln. Really, what more could I want?

NOVEMBER NEWS

2008-12-13T08:01:00.000-08:00

I've been doing so well with my monthly journals but nearly blew it with November. December is such a crazy month that I've almost forgotten what I did last month. I'll just have to do the best I can:

14th -16th I traveled to Salt Lake and spent time with my kids and grandson. Lincoln is endlessly entertaining with his Incredible Hulk imitation and just being himself.

18th The ward had a Thanksgiving dinner complete with turkey and stuffing. I went, I ate, I left. I usually stay and help wash dishes but my feet hurt and DWTS was on. Sad, huh?

22nd I went to the matinee showing of "Twilight" with Lisa Labrum. She loved it; and I thought it was okay. Some of the characters were spot on like Charlie, Alice, Carlisle and James, but Edward was too pale with too-red lips. I know he's a vampire but none of the rest of the vampires looked quite as odd. But overall, I enjoyed and will probably watch it again now that I've seen Edward and can live with the disappointment.

26th- 30th I took time off to get ready for Thanksgiving. Cassie came home and I got to spend lots of time with her. She's great company. Julie also stayed at my house which was fun too. Of course, I went to bed while they were still playing games at Mom's and they got out of bed hours after me. Thanksgiving dinner was a Mom's as usual; and it was delicious as usual. Mark, Greg and Jenny Lou were here from Salt Lake; and Julie and Susan from Cedar City. Plus Annie's nephew from the Dominican. We played games: Dice, Hearts and Hand-and-Foot. Plus Kevin's Wii. What a crack-up watching everyone golf and bowl.

28th Julie, Cassie and I went and saw "Australia." I enjoyed it as well. What's not to enjoy. Nicole Kidman is a great actress and Hugh Jackman is excellent eye candy. I swear when he walks into the ballroom there was a collective female gasp in that theater.

Work I barely made my goals this month. It's the worst month I've had all year. Things are slowing down a little in Vernal what with oil prices so low and uncertainty over the new administration. It doesn't bode well for next year because my goals are going to be jacked up. We'll just have to do the best we can.

Books read or listened to
The God of Animals by Aryn Kyle - Fiction
Let Me Finish by Roger Angell - Memoir
Dewey, The Small-Town Library Cat (audio) by Vicky Myron - Memoir
The Colony of Unrequited Dreams by Wayne Johnston - Historical Fiction
Conquering Gotham by Jill Jones - Non-Fiction (Great book)
Peace Like a River by Leif Enger (Another great book)
The Cowboy's Christmas Miracle by Raeanne Thayne - Romance
Whatchagot Stew by Patrick McManus - Memoir

TV I finally got hooked up to Dish TV so I can watch TV in my living room again. I still am addicted to DWTS and Gray's Anatomy, but it's fun to see what's on all those other stations. Not that I get a lot of other stations because I got the cheapest package, but I'm loving KUED and KBYU. There sure are a lot of shopping stations on and I've watched a couple. I was almost convinced to buy the floor cleaner but remained strong. I'm going to avoid those stations from now on. My problem is that I go to the channel guide and see a great show I would like to see and realize I've missed the first hour. Oh well, it's just TV.

Overall impression It's been almost two weeks since November ended. I can't remember except it was beautifully warm and sunny. Now I'm sitting looking at my undecorated house waiting for the snow storm that's coming today. Yikes!

What Twilight Book Character Are You?

2008-11-30T10:50:00.000-08:00

Alice Cullen
You are Alice Cullen. Your ability to foresee danger and misfortune doesn't diminish your bubbly optimism. You are a force to be reckoned with -- anybody with enough sense knows, you never bet against Alice.

Twilight Test from Dumb Spot!

It's true. I am a Twilightee. Loved the first book, enjoyed the rest. Edward Cullen is too good to be true which is why I didn't love him in the movie. How do you portray "too good to be true"? Still the movie was a lot of fun. I loved the casting of Charlie, Alice and James. I like Robert Pattinson but surely there was a better looking guy to play Edward. Climbing the tree looked a little hokey, but the scene in the dance studio was fantastic. All in all, a great escape.

October Outlook

2008-11-01T20:03:00.000-07:00

Wow, October is over already. This month has really flown by, and the year is almost gone. How does that happen? It has been a beautiful month, warm with a nice brisk chill some mornings. I've been wearing my sweaters to work but mostly because I like to wear them. I did a lot of traveling this month so maybe that's why it flew by so fast.

Oct 4 & 5 - It was General Conference this weekend. I listened to some great talks and felt very uplifted as usual. My favorites were Joseph Wirthlin and Jeffrey Holland. They just made me feel good.

Oct 4 - Brett and Angela came out to visit and watch GC with Mom. Everyone went to Mom's to visit and play games, mostly Dice, I think.

Oct 15 - Attended a training in Provo with other managers. It was called Coaching the Coach and was all about how to help the Service Manager coach the tellers better. As always, there was a sales focus but mostly we worked on ways to improve customer service and customer perceptions. Pretty good stuff.

Oct 16 - Attended the annual Central Utah Managers meeting. It was held at a beautiful cabin-type mansion up Hobble Creek Canyon near Springville. While most of the fall colors were faded, it was still a beautiful setting. Our morning breakout session lasted too long so we had to grab lunch and eat during another session. I felt bad I didn't have a chance to walk around the outside of the home (now owned by BYU) and see the views. We got to meet the new Regional Banking President for our area. I think he's going to make a lot of changes. Have mercy. After the meeting, I drove to Salt Lake and met up with Mark and Susan and had dinner. I finally got to see Jason and Rachel's new baby, Robert Brent. He is so cute.

Oct 17 - Susan, Mark and I drove up Mill Creek Canyon to do some hiking. We planned to go to the top of the canyon but the road was iced over and very treacherous. We ended going on a hike farther down the canyon. It was pretty steep and I didn't make it to the top even though I went farther than I thought I could. My feet have still not recovered. I think I have a bone spur on my heel and the hike did not help. We also visited the State Capitol which I hadn't been to in years. Susan and I argued about where the lion statute had been sitting when we visited with our little kids. I'm sure I'm right and I have a picture to prove it. The doors were locked to the House of Representative room but we found an open door to the visitors' gallery and snuck in. And watched the planes taking off and landing at the airport from the windows. Not to mention the train that stopped in the middle of town for a half hour. Oh the fun!! We also drove out to Salt Air and around the Ochre Mountain range. That evening we met up with Cheya, Myke and Mom who were headed to Oregon, Cassie, Alyson, Greg, Jenny Lou and Katie at the Olive Garden for dinner.

Oct 18 - Before Susan left for Cedar City, she and I went to the Cannery in Sandy and bought several cases of food storage. My boxes are now sitting in the middle of the spare bedroom. I don't know where to put them!! Then I drove out to West Jordan to see Jordan, Stacey and Lincoln. Stacey had the house all decorated for Halloween. She is very talented. We met Cassie at Ruby River for dinner. I spent the night there and got to play with Lincoln in the morning and after church. He is so much fun and is such a happy little boy. Then it was time to go home. I made sure I filled up in SL since gas prices there are plummeting and Vernal is still gouging. What's the deal??

Oct 24 & 25 - A Weekend to Remember. Wells Fargo rewarded all the managers in the state who reached 103% of their goals in August and September with a weekend at the Grand American Hotel in Salt Lake. The hotel was built in order to provide Salt Lake with a 4-star hotel for the Olympics. It was verrrry nice. Cassie and I stayed in a suite on the 23rd floor with an excellent view of the Wells Fargo building. Planned???? There were two TV's, balconies, a huge and gorgeous bathroom, beds turned down each night with candy on the pillow and robes laid out, etc. Verrrry nice. (It bears repeating) The restaurant was a disappointment. The food wasn't that great and is without a doubt the most expensive meal I've ever paid for. I'll chalk that up to experience. Saturday, Cassie and I went to one author's seminar at the Salt Lake Book Festival. Raeanne Thayne has published over 30 romance novels; and her talk was mostly about the popularity of the genre even though many turn their noses up at it. She scorns the term "bodice rippers" even though those are still romances. It was an interesting discussion but I remain unconvinced. I enjoy books that have romance but I don't think they fall into the same category that Thayne discussed--romances always have a happy ending, the heroine is a strong woman who brings out the best in her man, the man learns to be more sensitive, etc. Still she was giving books away to anyone who asked questions or commented, so I did. I now own The Cowboy's Christmas Miracle. I love any type of Christmas book so I was glad to get this one. As you can see, this cowboy is missing his hat, but he looks properly sensitive. Cassie and I then went to Best Buy to look over printers. Mine is defunct. I didn't buy a printer but I did get a new hard drive. It's still in the package but someday I will hook it up and figure it out. We went back and lounged in the luxury of our room for a while. We were a little surprised when room service opened our door to turn down the beds. What are those fancy door bells for?? I asked him to come back in an hour. I definitely wanted our beds turned down and candy left since I had given my box to Stacey and Jordan the night before. Then it was time for the Recognition Banquet. We had some very nice hors d'ouevres and a good dinner. I had bought a new jacket from a catalog and wore it that night. Imagine my surprise to see the manager from Provo with a jacket made of the same material. The style was a little different but it looked the same. She has very good taste. Each manager was recognized and Cassie won the fresh-flower centerpiece at our table. Nice and short, everything a banquet should be. We then went to a movie and back to the room to sleep in (dare I say it again?) luxury.

Books read or listened to:
The Book of Lost Things by John Connolly - A creepy fantasy in which a young boy finds himself in an alternative world where fairy tales are real and very sinister.
Winter Study by Nevada Barr (audio) - An Anna Pigeon National Park mystery which takes place in Michigan's Isle Royale National Park.
Bachelor Brothers Bed and Breakfast by Bill Richardson - The first book in a humorous series of two Canadians who turn their home into a literary inn.
Odd Thomas by Dean Koontz - Another first in series book, this time a mystery, about a man who sees and talks to the dead. Very highly recommended by Cheya.
Dawn by Elie Wiesel - Historical fiction dealing with the freedom fighters in British-controlled Palestine.
Murder at the Vicarage by Agatha Christie (audio) - A Jane Marple mystery where the least popular man in the village is murdered and the list of suspects is huge.
The Devil's Bones by Jefferson Bass (audio) - This is the second book in a mystery series involving a forensics scientist who teaches and solves crimes.
The Tenderness of Wolves by Stef Penney - This book takes place in cold, cold Canada in 1867. It tells the tale of a murdered trapper and a mother's trek to clear her son of the murder.
Something Wicked This Way Comes by Ray Bradbury - Two 13-year-old boys sneak out one night to see a carnival arrive in town in the wee hours of the morning. There is something very sinister about the carnival; and the two boys are quickly targets of the autumn people.
The Borrowers by Mary Norton - This book has been around for years and tells the story of a family of small people who live under the kitchen floor and borrow the things they need to live.
The Woods by Harlen Coben - Paul Copeland is a county prosecutor involved in a rape case. He soon become involved in solving a recent murder which reopens the case of four murdered or missing teenagers from twenty years ago.
I also finished another challenge which is always a good thing. I mooched some more books but didn't buy any. And it looks like I read a lot of mysteries this month.
Movies
Cassie and I went and saw The Duchess when I was in Salt Lake. It stars Kiera Knightley and Ralphe Fiennes. The acting and cinematography were excellent. I enjoyed it a lot.
TV
I'm still watching Dancing with the Stars. Cloris Leachman was finally voted off, but not before some better dancers left the show. I'm still enjoying this show. It's very entertaining. I'm not sure why I comment on what I watch on TV because it is just DWTS and Gray's Anatomy. Boring.
Overall Impression
I'm tired. I like traveling and always enjoy going out to Salt Lake to see my kids and grandson, but now I need to get things done around the house. But I'm just too tired. Guess I'll go to bed.

4th File 4th Picture Tag

2008-10-21T21:10:00.000-07:00

Alyson tagged me for this post. You take the 4th picture in your 4th file and post it. How easy is that? I had to count out files that were copies of pictures taken by others; but this is what I ended up with.

I took this picture early on a Sunday morning in April 2006. It was a surprise snow storm. I liked the way the rising sun lit up that hill to the west. Later that afternoon I took another picture from about the same angle because everything looked so different.

September Sentinal

2008-09-30T19:36:00.000-07:00

September is such a great month. Summer is almost over and there is a nip in the air. At least, there should be, but it's been pretty hot these days. But the nights are cooler. The leaves are starting to turn. I love fall. Here's what I did this month:

Sept 1 thru 8 - I was traveling!!!! YAY This is the week I went on a cruise to New Brunswick, Nova Scotia and Maine with Cassie and Julie. I did a post on the trip earlier so I won't say any more.

Sept 11 - Lincoln turned one today. I think it should be a national holiday. Because of Lincoln and the World Trade Center attacks. It will always be a memorable day for me. I remember exactly where I was when I first about the towers (sitting in my car before going to work, listening to the radio) and exactly where I was when I heard about Lincoln being born. (shopping in Walmart when Jordan called me on my cell phone.)

Sept 13 - I have not traveled enough this month so I drive back to Salt Lake for Lincoln's birthday party. Stacey had the best pizza for dinner and, of course, we had cake and ice cream. It was fun watching Lincoln with his cousins, Carter and Collin; and another friend, Seneca. Cassie and I represented Jordan's family and Stacey's parents, brother and sister-in-law; sister and friend; and Seneca's friends were all there. It was fun. I think Lincoln's favorite present was a big gift bag that he carried all over the house.

Well, that's about it. The rest of the month I spent reading and watching TV. It took me four weeks to finally get everything unpacked and the luggage put away.

Books Read

The Ride of Our Lives by Mike Leonard. A humorous memoir of a man taking his eighty-year old parents on a trip in an RV.

The Haunted Bookshop by Christopher Morley. A classic novel that involves a bookshop, young love and Nazi saboteurs. It was a fun read.

At Bertram's Hotel by Agatha Christie. This was an audio book. I love to listen to those English narrators reading her great mysteries.

Coraline by Neil Gaiman. Gaiman has a odd imagination. This book is geared toward younger readers. The illustrations and prose are creepy and great for the R.I.P Challenge.

Silas Marner by George Eliot. Another classic, I didn't care for this book about a recluse who becomes transformed after a little girl walks into his life.

Saffy's Angel by Hilary Mackay. A cute young adult book, it is the first in a series about a fun but dysfunctional family.

The Monster of Templeton by Lauren Groff. This is another audio book about a fictional version of Cooperstown, New York. It was pretty good, but not great.

The Thirteenth Tale by Diane Setterfield. A lot of other blogers really loved this book but I was less impressed. Again good, but not great. I'm anxious to see how Cassie likes it.

The Santa Letters by Stacy Gooch-Anderson. Tristi Pinkston asked me to participate in a blog tour for this book and I jumped right in. I mean, I got a free Christmas book. The cover is beautiful. Stacy is LDS and the book is easily recognizable as Mormon to other Mormons, but the message is pretty non-denominational. It's a little sappy, but I like that in a Christmas book. I like the message and it made me laugh and cry.

The Castle of Otranto by Horace Walpole. Published in 1765, this book is considered the first of the gothic genre. I thought it was hilarious, it was so over the top and there were somany stereotypes.

Wow, that's ten books. I also finished five challenges although I have posted on all of them. I joined one that ends on Halloween, reading creepy, gothic and mysterious novels. I've read four but I want to read a couple more. I'm currently reading The Book of Lost Things by John Connolly.

Movies

I bought Penelope but haven't watched it yet. I did watch The Great Debaters on DVD. It is a fantastic movie. I also watched a jackie Chan movie on the flight from DC to Phoenix but I can't remember what it is called.

Dancing with the Stars started on the 22nd. My early favorite is Brooke Burke. Gray's Anatomy also started a new season on the 25th. I swear if Meredith starts second-guessing herself again, I'm going to scream.

Overall Impression

I've always liked September. It's the start of school, high school football games, (just memories, I don't go any more), leaves starting to change and beautiful days. Mmmmm, fall.

The First Birthday

2008-09-22T17:58:00.000-07:00

Father & Son at Lincoln's birthday party

I can't believe that Lincoln is a year old. Where did the time go? And his father, Jordan, was born twenty-eight years ago. Yes, time really does fly. I love these two pictures with their bony baby butts. It is amazing how much my grandson looks like his dad did when he was brand new.

Here they are a year later. Obviously, they both like cake. Lincoln looked so much like Jordan when he was first born, but now he doesn't so much. His head is shaped differently. I wish I had some one-year-old pictures of Stacey to add to the comparison. Watching Lincoln at his birthday party, I saw some of his expressions that really reminded me of his dad, but he is definitely starting to look a lot like his mom also. It's pretty fascinating to see the wonder of a baby growing up and taking after each of his parents. I can't even imagine life without him and it's only been a year. A few high points this year is watching Lincoln learning to roll, crawl and now HE WALKS! He's a genius. I don't know if he still does it, but a few months ago, Lincoln trilled and rolled his tongue. He has the cutest expressions which just crack me up. Lincoln doesn't cry a lot but when he does, it's kind of scary. He has this deep growling cry. It's really more funny than scary. And he loves books, what more could I ask for?

The Norwegian Dream

2008-09-16T19:05:00.000-07:00

What could be a better than a cruise in the Northeast, someone else making your beds and turning them down each night, towel animals on the bed, all the food you could possible eat (and more) lots of rain and fog, and the tail end of a hurricane? Actually, it was a great trip (thanks, Dramamine). We saw some beautiful things and missed others. Laughed a lot, ate a lot, spent a lot of money, spent a lot of time in airports. Yeah, it was great.

Here is a picture of our lovely ship taken from Bar Harbor (Baa Haa Baa). Bar Harbor was our last stop. This is where the cruise balled up. We had to go through immigration before taking a tender to shore. Everyone on board lined up to go through and it took forever. So half our excursion was cancelled, but we still took a bus to the top of Cadillac Mountain where you can see the entire island. At least you could if it wasn't engulfed in fog. Even so this was a fun stop. Bar Harbor is picturesque and the harbor was beautiful when the fog burned off. Julie even got sunburned a couple hours after this picture was taken. There were lots of shops and a village green, just too many people. But that was the case wherever we went . With the exception of Hailfax, these are smaller towns that just got inundated with 1700 people.

Since I've done this completely out of order, maybe I'll go back and do a day-by-day run down.

August 30 - Left Salt Lake at 3:00 after spending the morning with Lincoln. We flew to Phoenix and spent the next five hours in that airport. Next stop - Charlotte, NC. We reached Boston Sunday morning and boarded the ship. (Cassie looks like a movie star, doesn't she?) We were late for a barbecue on the top deck that evening and almost had to beg for food. They were pulling dishes right out from under our grasp. Not a good omen, but the food and service improved vastly as the cruise continued.

September 1 - Landed in St. John, New Brunswick. The best greeting ever. There must have been twenty people handing women from the ship roses and the men got pins. We took a bus ride around the town, stopped at an old market where we bought souvenirs, saw the reverse waterfall (where the Bay of Fundy at high tide meets the river). We rode the bus to St Martin while the guide talked and pointed things out. At St. Martin, Julie and I had really good sea food chowder. Cassie had chicken strips. We walked along the shore and headed back to the ship. I slept a lot during the thirty minute bus ride to St. Martin and back. A lone bag piper in a kilt serenaded the ship as it pulled away from the pier. That was pretty surreal.

September 2 - Our first sea day. I really noticed the motion of the waves here and eventually took medication. Julie did as well but she was also coming down with a nasty cold. Cassie did fine and but bemoaned the fact that the ice cream shack on the top deck was closed because of the rain. We played dice and read. Learned about buying jewelry. Very relaxing.

September 3 - Halifax. This was my favorite stop. We took a hop-on-hop-off bus tour of the city which worked perfectly for me as we could stay longer at some stops but still have a guide pointing out sites as we rode the bus. We spent time in the Halifax Gardens (beautiful) and ate at a great Italian restaurant. Julie walked back to the ship as she was really unwell while Cassie and I continued on to the Citadel. This fort was built to guard the city from the French but wasn't finished until that threat was gone. Our guide, Corporal Steve, was a cute college kid, again in a kilt. I really enjoyed our time at the Citadel. The views were fantastic and we learned some great history about the city. Our next stop was at the Halifax Maritime Museum where we learned more about the Halifax Explosion. I was really interested in this piece of history after reading Barometer Rising, a novel which includes the tragedy.

September 4 - Coming into Sydney was beautiful, but it was a pretty ordinary town. We took a taxi ride to see the sites and saw a lot of churches and subdivisions. Odd. We did eat lunch at a great restaurant overlooking the bay and met a local walking his Westies. Cute dogs and he was fun to visit with.

September 5 - Another sea day with rain and fog. Julie was really sick this day and spent most of the day in our miniscule state room. I can't remember what Cassie and I did.

September 6 - I've already told you about Bar Harbor. I would love to see this place on a really sunny day.

September 7 - Debarked in Boston and found our way to the airport. This time we flew to DC, Phoenix, and finally Salt Lake. We were exhausted.

Dislikes: Constant motion on the ship. About two days back on land, I started feeling that motion again. Tiny room that was totally dark at night and hot. Not having enough time in the ports to really get a feel for the places, except for Halifax. The comedy show where guests told their supposedly g-rated jokes.

Likes: The food was fantastic. The Chocolate Buffet: tables loaded with different chocolate delicacies and chocolate sculptures. I loved the towel animals and the friendly crew (except those barbecue guys). Friendly townspeople. Great entertainment: The Jean Ryan Troupe of dancers and singers, a fantastic juggler, very funny comedian and so-so jazz singer. Denny, the cruise director, was an odd man but the act he and his team (The Fountains) performed at the crew talent show made us laugh so hard. Spending time with Cassie and Julie was the best.

Would I go on a cruise again? Sure, it is an inexpensive way to travel and the good outweighs the bad. I still prefer road trips because you have more options, but would love an Alaskan cruise, maybe the Mediterranean or even Scandinavia.

August Archives

2008-09-09T20:15:00.000-07:00

This is the month that I spent a lot of money. I ordered a bunch of clothes online to wear on my trip. Most of those got returned. I bought cameras, TV, shoes, and just general stuff. You know, spending money is really fun. But here's a general report of noteworthy happenings.

1st - I attended the bank's Recognition Event in Provo. It was held at the Elk's Lodge and I stayed at the Marriott. I love sleeping in hotels; nice firm bed, lots of channels on the TV, alone time. The event itself was fun. I was late and didn't get to scope out the prizes which really didn't matter in the end. My name was called about halfway through and all the prizes I had been hoping for were gone. But I did select a very nice set of luggage: brown flowery brocade design. Just the thing for cruise. (Stay tuned to learn how it fared on the trip. Details in a future post)

2nd - I got up early which is hard when you're sleeping in a comfy hotel bed and it's Saturday morning, but I needed to get back to Vernal for the Petersen Family Reunion. I made it just in time to say goodby to Uncle Donald and Aunt Eleanor and Cousin Eldon. The rest of the morning and early afternoon were spent mostly playing dice and visiting. It was a nice day with a light breeze cooling things off occasionally. I have a great family and it was fun to spend time with them.

12th - Went visiting teaching. I know this shouldn't be that noteworthy, but it is the first time in eight months that my partner went with me. She is the same age as my daughter but really fun; and we had a good time. She's a busy girl so I'm glad we were able to finally go out together.

13th - Saw the movie "Mama Mia" with my high school friends. If you went to high school in the 70's, I recommend going to this movie with similar age friends. Some of the references were hilarious and the music was great. Except when Pierce Brosnan sang and then it was just hilarious. I was telling someone about it today (a month later) and starting cracking up again. Very entertaining.

30th-31st - Drove to Salt Lake Friday night and stayed at Jordan's. That meant I got to play with Lincoln Saturday morning. We went to a store and Jordan parked in the back seat with the baby. I made mooing noises for him which he loved. He's so cute. I left the car with Jordan and Stacey so they had two cars while I was gone. That afternoon at 3 pm MST, Julie, Cassie and I boarded our plane en route to Boston via Phoenix, AZ and Charlotte, NC. We arrived in Boston at 9 am EST. What a long day and night. Our layover in Phoenix was five hours long!! We took a very expensive taxi ride to the boat and boarded. You'll have to wait for my post about the trip to learn more.

Books - I read or listened to eight books this month:

Johnny and the Dead by Terry Pratchett (audio) - Very funny

The Changeling by Zilpha Keating Snyder - A great young adult book

Niagra: A History of the Falls by Pierre Berton - Non-fiction, read for Canadian challenge. Very informative and interesting.

Breaking Dawn by Stephanie Meyer - The last of the Twilight series. The kind of book you can't put down but not my favorite in the series.

Sense and Sensibility by Jane Austen - Dare I criticize the great one? I'll just say this was one of my least favorite Austen books.

From the Mixed-up Files of Mrs. Basil E. Frankweiler by E L Konigburg - Another great young adult book.

Cold Comfort Farm by Stella Gibbons - probably my least favorite read this month.

Barometer Rising by Hugh MacLennan - Read for the Canadian Challenge and in preparation for my trip to Halifax. It was slow going at first, but the description of the Halifax Explosion was spellbinding.

I joined one challenge, R.I.P Challenge 2008, which is always a good one for the fall. I also finished the Decades, TBR, Heard It Through the Grapevine and the Chunkster Challenges. So I have six challenges to finish before December 31 and one to finish by October 31. That's about sixteen books because I do a lot of cross-challenging, so I think I'm good. Especially since I'm almost finished with one that works for two challenges. I feel like I'm pulling a fast one.

Movies - Mama Mia (see above)

TV - It was all about the Olympics. Why is it that you couldn't pay me to watch rowing but put it on the Olympics and I'm standing and cheering on the Americans? If they're not in the race, I'll find someone else to cheer for. Swimming is still my favorite to watch and what nail biters a couple of those races were. Michael Phelps was so impressive. Less impressive was the joint interview they did with Phelps and Mark Spitz. Wasn't there some obsure sport like badminton that we could have been watching? I like watching gymnastics but got a little frustrated with some of the scoring. I did have a hard time with table tennis because the ball moved so fast I couldn't keep up with it. I admit I didn't watch any wrestling, but was glued to the volleyball matches. Whatever, it was fun.

Overall Impression - It seems like the entire month was a count down to The Trip. And the Olympics, of course.

New Acquisitions

2008-08-17T17:54:00.000-07:00

As many of you know, I'm getting ready to go on a cruise in New England in September. I didn't want to take my old Minolta camera since its picture quality has really declined. A small pocket camera would be nice to not weigh me down, but which one?? The bank had a recognition event in which they gave away 100 prizes which included two small Kodaks and two small Samsungs and a Nikon D40 (not a pocket camera at all). Well, I didn't win any of those; I got a great set of luggage which was perfect. One of my tellers won the Nikon and brought it to work to show off. I could see it was way too big and complicated for me, but what should I get. I spent every evening the next week researching cameras. I looked at Sonys, Olympuses. Nikons, Casios, and Canons. I read the reviews and the product specifications and the sizes. I wanted to use the same batteries I already owned (rechargeable AA) and the SD memory cards. Then I read that I should actually hold the cameras in my hand to see how each one felt. Well, I live in a small town, but I drove up to Inkleys and tried out their small selection; and almost bought a Canon A580. A nice small camera which also had a view finder. Sony and Canon were the only ones who have that. I also found I didn't want a really big camera. More research showed the Canon has a really slow shutter speed. That nixed it for me because it is one of the problems I have with my Minolta. Actually, I was pretty tired of doing research so this is what I ended up with.

Panasonic Lumix LZ10

A 10.1 megapixel with a 5x optical zoom. It's small but has a nice little grip on the right side so it won't slide out of my hands like the other pocket cameras felt like they would do. It takes an SD card and AA batteries and has a fast shutter speed. But I didn't stop there, oh no . . .I bought a

Panasonic Lumix FZ18

What can I say? I'm a sucker for zoom and this one has an 18x zoom, plus 8.1 megapixels. And it is the same size as my Minolta which is manageable for me. It does take different batteries, so I bought two plus a recharger only to discover that the camera came with a battery and recharger. I now have three batteries and two rechargers. Rats, it never did tell me what came in the package. I'm a little intimidated by both these cameras because they are more complicated than my trusty Minolta so I will be studying the next couple of weeks. But they both have really good reviews and seemed to fit my needs.

Last month I bought an indoor antenna to see if I could get better reception than my old outdated one. Unfortunately, it did nothing for my TV, great reception for KJAZZ and nothing else. So I hooked the old antenna back up and it no longer works. In a fit of rage, I went to Walmart and picked up a 15-inch flat screen and hooked it to the new antenna. The reception of NBC, ABC and CBS is not great but I can at least watch it. And now I get FOX. So it is sitting on the dining room table and I watch TV while I work on the internet. I'm tired of researching so I'm putting off a decision on whether to get satellite or something else. I hear I can get a digital antenna that will be able to pick up the new signals next February and maybe I won't have to pay for TV. I need expert advice.

Well, I have certainly spent a lot of money this month and it's been fun. Stressful but fun. I hope I can figure out how to use these cameras and what to do about TV.

July Jingles

2008-08-05T19:02:00.000-07:00

What can I say about July. It was hot, hot, hot. We got seven drops of rain and it is crazy dry. Cassie, Jordan, Stacey and Lincoln all came to visit for the Fourth. We had a lot of fun watching Lincoln crawling. He made the craziest face when the pink signal showed up on the TV after a DVD finished. Yes, he is certainly the most amusing human being on the face of the plant. I found that he does not like to be in the grass. But he could only hold one leg up and he never put in down. So cute. On the night of the Fourth, we went to Cheya and Myke's annual picnic. Good food as always and lots of people. Cheya had people posing with her crocheted hats that she is selling online. Finally we took Lincoln up to the park to see the fireworks. It's fun to watch there because you are so close to them. Lincoln was fascinated with the lights and noise. Until he got sleepy, of course. It was fun watching him. It was also fun watching his parents ooh and aah to him. It's hard to believe my son is a father, but he and Stacey are great parents.

The only other highlight this month was going to Salt Lake to babysit Lincoln on the 18th. He is crawling even faster, standing up and making all kinds of funny faces and noises. I was totally worn out but it was so worth it. I've noticed a trend in my monthly reportings. They seem to revolve around the baby. It is his first year, maybe he won't so cute next year. Yeah, right.

The rest of the month seemed to revolve around work, church and going to the temple. Of course, I read, blog, and watch TV.

Books

I read or listened to eight books and joined one more challenge. I mooched five more books and bought ten from Amazon. My favorite was The Valley of Light by Terry Kay. One of my mooched books was written by him. I am currently reading Niagra by Pierre Berton. It's a chunkster that I am reading for the Canadian Challenge, plus it is non-fiction. Very interesting, but long.

Movies

I bought five DVDs of which I watched one: "Definitely, Maybe." It was cute.

The Batchelorette is over, She chose Jesse with the long hair. I liked him except for his hair. I'm still watching Nashville Stars and America's Got Talent, but that's about it. I did buy a new fifteen-inch flat screen TV and an indoor antenna. Unfortunately, when I attached the new atenna to my big TV, it would only picky up KJAZZ. So I reattached my old antenna but now I can only get ABC. I'm afraid it's time to get Direct TV or satellite or cable. Any suggestion? Rats, I hate to pay for TV.

Overall Impression

It's hot. The grass is burning up, my tree still needs to be trimmed, my home teacher came and cut down the weeds (that man deserves every blessing he gets) and we're still hitting our goals at work.

June Jazz

2008-07-11T19:16:00.000-07:00

Absolutely nothing happened in June. Well, that's not quite true. Cassie came and visited me on the 21st & 22nd. Or was it the week before?? Whatever. It's always wonderful to have her home even for a short time. She turned 26 on the 23rd. How did my baby girl get to be 26?? I'm only 24. I gave my first lesson in Relief Society on the 22nd since being recalled as a teacher. It felt good to be doing that again. And my branch met its goals for the quarter!!! In fact, I get to go to the recognition event in Provo on August 1 along with four of my staff. They are giving away lots of prizes (flat-screen TV, cameras, IPods, laptop, etc). Some prizes are lame so I hope I win something cool.

Reading
Finished three challenges and joined one. I might be catching up. I love the way challenges stretch me by making me read books I might never even look at. Sometimes that is good and sometimes not so good.
Books Read
Murder on a Girl's Night Out, rated 3.75 mystery
Too Soon to Say Goodbye, rated 3 memoir
The Fireman's Fair, rated 4.25 fiction
Law of Attraction, rated 2.5 non-fiction
Consequences, rated 3 fiction on CD
The Prizewinner of Defiance, Ohio, rated 4.5 non-fiction
The Fatal Shore, rated 3.5 non-fiction
Far World - I haven't written my review or rated this one but it was really good. I'm writing a review for a blog tour for the author. fantasy
It was a pretty lackluster month for reading, especially since The Fatal Shore took me two weeks to read. It's huge and has small print and is about the penal colonies that first settled Australia. I mooched ten books but gave away thirteen so I should be getting ahead except I bought four used books from Amazon. YIKES!! But The Fatal Shore was one I mooched away and that should count as three books. :)
Movies
Prince Caspian - This is the movie Cassie and I went to at the theater. I liked it better than the first Narnia movie. The prince is very nice looking.
27 Dresses - DVD
The Importance of Being Earnest - DVD
I joined the Disney Club and got some great DVDs. Most are classics (Summer Magic, etc) I love to watch but there were a couple of new ones.
TV
What can I say? I am a reality TV junky. This month I have really gotten into watching The Bachelorette. I like her, she's pretty straight forward and honest. I also like Nashville Nights (I think that's the name) except it's on about the same time as The Bachelorette. On Tuesdays I watch America's Got Talent. And then I catch the reruns of Home Improvement on Sunday.
Overall Impression
I seem to be watching a lot of TV this month, but managed to keep the lawn mowed. That's about all I do outside. The weeds are growing rampant and my cottonwood tree is getting scary. The branches are so long I'm afraid they will break. It looks really bad. It's been hot in the day; but, with one or two exceptions, sleepingly cool at night. I'm enjoying working at the temple one night a week and have had a few choice experiences there.

May Memo

2008-06-03T20:58:00.000-07:00

What on earth happened to May?? And where was I all month? These are the kind of questions that are slowly driving me insane, but crazy is cute, right? Here's what my feeble brain can recall:

May 3rd: I posted my first review that an author has asked me to do. That was kind of fun and kind of scary. I really like Tristi Pinkston (she's a blogging buddy) and I was worried about not liking her book. But it was very good, so no problem. The book, Season of Sacrifice, was based on her great-grandmother's journal and details a grueling trek across southern Utah and her family's foray into polygamy. Here's a link to my review.

May 4th: I was released as Relief Society President. Wow, what a rush. People ask me if I feel sad. Ummm, NO. I love the sisters in Relief Society and I can still feel that without being in charge. In fact, it's easier to feel that. Jean Beynon is the new president, she'll be wonderful. It's funny, she seems just as insecure as I was. . . even after two plus years. Maralee Richens is the first counselor. She was my compassionate service leader and, boy, did I appreciate her. Julie Justice is the second counselor. (It's a month later and she still hasn't been released as the Stake Young Women's President. Poor girl) Barbara Smuin is the secretary. She was my secretary also, the second counselor in the previous presidency and the secretary in the one before that and before that, she was the stake Relief Society secretary. I'd feel bad for her but she loves it and I know how indispensable she was for me.

May 11th: Mothers Day. This is usually a crappy day for me, but now I'm a grandma so life is wonderful. Besides, I've learned not to beat myself up for not being a perfect mother. My kids are wonderful in spite of me.

May 13th: Went to see National Treasure 2 with some friends from work, Lisa, Grace, Jenn and Julie. We got a party for hitting our goals in March and everyone voted to go to the movie. Unfortunately, only five of us went so the bank bought our tickets and treats and then I bought pizza for the whole branch the next day. But the movie was a lot of fun.

May 22 & 23: I went to Salt Lake to watch Lincoln while Stacey got things packed for the big move. He was so much fun on Thursday, but that night he developed a 104^ fever. It was pretty scary but with Tylenol and a warm bath, he cooled off. And he was so good even being sick. The next day, Stacey took him to the doctor and that made her feel a lot better. It was lucky that I was there so she had a car to drive. Funny how things like that work out. Of course, Lincoln still didn't feel very well and he wanted his mom. So I went shopping and spent a bunch of money.

May 24, 25 & 26: Memorial Day weekend. I drove back to Vernal on Friday and Cassie flew past me just after Strawberry Reservoir. She drives like a maniac. I don't think that car was made to go that fast. I hit a huge rainstorm just west of Roosevelt which was scary. Lots of water on the road and I don't see well with dark, wet roads. Saturday, Cassie drove to Grand Junction and back to visit a friend. I hope she drove slower. We played games at Mom's with the family and on Sunday. Susan and Julie were up from Cedar City and Mark from SLC. Monday morning was the annual breakfast. When the kids were small, we had this breakfast at the lake at 6 in the morning. Now, we're doing good to get to Mom's and eat at nine. Still, it was really good. Julie made a fantastic breakfast casserole, and there were pancakes with syrup, strawberries and whip cream. Yummmmy. Bacon, sausage, eggs, fresh fruit. (Should I mention that I am not doing well on my resolution to lose weight. What is the problem here?) Steve came over and helped me start the lawn mower so for now the lawn looks really nice. The rest of the yard and the house look frightful, but the actual lawn is green and trim.

May 28 & 29: Drove to Provo for a manager's meeting. Of course, I spent Wednesday evening shopping. The meeting was really good for a change, especailly if I can implement one or two of the many ideas thrown out. I found out yesterday that one of the managers that was at the meeting died suddenly this weekend. Red was such a great guy and I will really miss his humor at our meetings. He was a year or so younger than me. I should learn to not take life for granted.

May 30: We made our goals at the bank again. That's five months in a row. Guess I won't get fired this year.

Reading: I read or listened to thirteen books this month. One of these was another sent to me by an author, Don't You Marry the Mormon Boys. It was well-written and funny and also has polygamy in its story line. I think my favorites were Persuasion by Jane Austen and Making Money by Terry Pratchett. I finished three challenges and only joined one more. I'm catching up!!

Movies watched: National Treasure No 1 & 2, Dan in Real Life (again), and Becoming Jane. I really liked Becoming Jane. Anne Hathaway was great. I don't usually care for her but this movie was very good. I think I need to read Pride and Prejudice again, but I will try to stifle that urge.

TV: Well Kristy and Mark won Dancing with the Stars and rightfully so. And Derek and Meredith are back together. Cassie recorded Gray's Anatomy on VHS and warned me that her tapes don't work well in my player. I couldn't watch it but I did listen to it so I have a pretty good idea. But TV for the summer looks like a dry desert. Maybe I will do yard work and go for nice long healthy walks. Or I'll read and blog and crochet. Cheya gave me a cute pattern for hats.

Overall impression: Jordan and Stacey are planning to take my grandson all the way to Logan, like Salt Lake is not far enough away. Dang, this grandma stuff is hard. It rained a lot this month which would account for my lawn looking green. And we seem to actually have a spring this year. My lilacs are blooming and smell so good. I went on two shopping sprees so my credit card just earned me a bunch of reward points. And if I do much walking, those new clothes won't fit. Plus I bought a new drill to make my shed sturdier. Wonder when I'm getting around to that. It sounds dangerously like work. I also bought a grain grinder. When the drought hits, I'll be prepared. No wait, I need to buy some wheat and oats and other things to grind. I mooched quite a few books this month, both to and from, but I managed to only buy one. That must be a record. I may go hungry in hard times, but at least I'll be entertained. Lord, please bless my eyesight.

April Agenda

2008-05-01T21:13:00.000-07:00

April, the month of sunshine, showers and silly jokes. Well, that didn't pan out, so what did happen last month?
5th & 6th General Conference. This was President Monsen's first conference as prophet. It amazed me to see how he seem to assume the mantle more each session. The solemn assembly on Saturday mornig was absolutely inspiring to watch and take part in. And the smile on President Uchtdorf's face as he conducted was so warming. Great talks and a wonderful spirit.
9th Our ward held his annual auction to raise money for Scouts and Young Women's Camp. It had a phenomenal turnout. I spent most of the night in the kitchen cooking and serving hot dogs so that probably saved me some money. I did get to watch a 22-year-old bid $200 for a quilt. I wonder if having his girlfriend watching adoringly had anything to do with that. The auctioneer even gave me credit for making one of the quilts. Quit laughing.
11th thru 13th Mom and I went to Salt Lake and Brigham City. Read the next post down for more on this trip.
23rd I started working in the temple as an ordinance worker. This calling stressed me out, but once I got there and went on a session, I knew I was truly being blessed. At least once a week, I will be feeling some peace and a calm spirit.
28th thru 1st Wayne and Susan came from Virginia for a visit. Bret is graduating at the U on Friday.
30th It snowed for crying out loud.

Reading I read thirteen books last month. Peter Pan was my favorite. Finished one challenge and joined two more. I may need therapy. The review for one book, Season of Sacrifice, won't be posted until May 3rd as part of Tristi Pinkston's virtual book tour. I also agreed to review a YA fantasy book for another author, J Scott Savage, next summer. As part of that review, I get to do an interview. So take a look at the Farworld Blog Tour and tell me what you would like to know about this author and his books. Thinking of good questions is the hard part. I just started reading Persuasion by Jane Austen.

Movies watched Dan in Real Life

What's on the tube? I'm still immersed in Dancing with the Stars. Shannon Elizabeth got voted off last night. Too bad, I like watching her and Derek dance but not watching them moon over each other. I can't decide how much of these romances are real or not. I just want to focus on the dance, please. It's been months since Gray's Anatomy was on and I've been fine. But one show last week and I'm hooked again. Dang.

Overall impression It was too windy on Saturday to burn so I've missed my chance until the fall. It was so windy that a panel of my new rickety shed that replaced the shed the wind blew over last summer blew out. I need a new drill so I can screw those panels down instead of the staples that are now holding things together. If this shed blows down, I'm forking over some dough to get something sturdy. We met our goals at work for the month, but it's never enough. Oh dear, I'm whining. I hate that in others but it seems called for in my own circumstances. Actually, I'm glad we met the goals and hopefully I can master the rest. Does that make up for the whine? (fourteen years, two months and three days to retirement) Sorry, it's been a hard week.

Cousin's Party

2008-04-13T15:03:00.000-07:00

Friday morning, Mom and I drove out to Salt Lake because we were going to Cousin's Parties in Brigham City the next day. We were hoping to take Cheya with us, but it seems she has caught the bug that has afflicted the rest of her family this last month. (Bug seems like such a petty word for this nasty illness.) It was too bad, because both Mom and I got really sleepy on the way out even though we were listening to a book on CD, The Fallen Man by Tony Hillerman. (See review on Framed and Booked blog) I know Cheya would have kept the conversation going enough to keep us both awake. We stopped at the outlet mall in Park City and Mom was able to find herself a really cute dress and jacket. I bought a jacket as well. Then we headed into the city and stopped at Fashion Place Mall since we were planning on eating at The Cheese Cake Factory that evening. More shopping, more fun. Susan soon joined us, then Jordan, Stacey, and Lincoln. I bought him a cute outfit that looked just something his dad would wear. Except for the hat, I don't believe I've ever seen Jordan in a hat like that. Greg stopped at the restaurant and learned it would be a two hour wait for our party, so we bagged that idea, found Mark, Scott and Cassie outside the mall and headed over to Macaroni Grill. I must put a plug in for that place. Their service is impeccable. Our waiter was so good, except for maybe drink refills, but it was very busy. One of Stacey's ravioli's was empty, they replaced it and the manager came out to apologize and took care of the drink refills. I had the Chicken Tuscano soup and it was to die for. (Cream based with parmesan gnocci, tomatoes, spinach, mushrooms, mmmm) Lincoln was incredibly entertaining. I mean look at this face. He is such a good, happy baby besides being

hilarious. I think I only heard him cry once this weekend and that was at bedtime. I love him. If you want to read more about Lincoln and his family, click here. After dinner, we visited Greg and Jenny Lou's place. They have a fun dog named Apache, and Jenny Lou always has great stories to tell. The next morning, we drove up to see how construction was coming on the Draper Temple. It is going to be an impressive building and what a view. But what is up with those houses being built just above the temple? Some kind of gothic castle thing is going on. And big enough to be hotels. Then we picked up Greg and headed to Brigham. Mom met her cousins at the Maddox Lodge in Perry and had a great time with the 32 people who came. The younger generation (yes, that's me) met at the Idle Isle in downtown Brigham. There were fifteen of us: Cindy, Jane, Gordon, Greg, Mark, Craig, Gwen, Tracie, Susan, Eldon, Matt, Kaylynn, Pam, Roger and me. We had a great visit, but it sure is a long way to go for lunch. Then back to Salt Lake, drop Greg off to help get Katie ready for prom (she's a queen candidate), send Susan off to Cedar City and meet up with Cassie, Jordan, Stacey and Lincoln for more food. If you think these trips are all about eating, you're probably right. I got to visit with Stacey and Cassie for an hour or so later that night and help put Lincoln to bed. Next day, we headed back to Vernal. The weather was beautiful, so perhaps spring will make it after all.

March Monitor

2008-04-04T20:27:00.000-07:00

March comes in like a lion and goes out like a lamb. Whatever. Still I can actually believe spring may be coming. I hope I don't miss it in the mad dash to summer that we usually experience here in Vernal. Here's what happened:

March 5: Went to dinner with three high school friends, Nikki, Judy and Julie. Julie had just had another surgery on her foot and had the photos to show all her new hardware. I guess I am very fortunate.

March 15: Mom and I traveled to Salt Lake, picked up Greg and went on to Kaysville for my Aunt Mary's funeral. Mary was my dad's older sister and I hadn't seen her for a number of years. The funeral was very nice and it was great to renew acquaintances with any number of cousins: Brent, Arlene, Scott, Clair, and Inez are Mary's children. I also saw Roxanne, Becky, Alwyn, Mike and Joe who are Aunt Edna's kids. Mother was amazing as always with her memory of who married who and what their kids names are, etc. Scott pointed out a cowboy etching on the joint headstone for Mary and Vene. This etching was used to head Uncle Vene's article that he wrote each week for the Vernal Express back in the late 40's. I never knew he did that. It was a good family gathering and I'm so glad Mom pressured me into going.

March 18: Relief Society Birthday Party. I did nothing for this event except take salad. The committee did a wonderful job. The food: soup, salad, rolls and cake & ice cream, was great. The cake was yellow cake with a raspberry jam center and white icing. I found out later that the jam was used to hold the cake together when it cracked. It tasted so good. We made fleece blankets for the Children's Justice Center and put in an act of service we would do for whichever sister drew it out. I put in a car wash and Jill Espinoza drew it. I really need to go get her car and get it washed. I really need to wash my own car!! Then we watched a video of photos which Amber Meager had put together. There were a lot of tears shed as we saw photos of Shelly Slaugh who passed away last December (her mom in my counselor) and Uela Hansen before she lost sixty pounds or so in her cancer battle. She sure didn't look like she felt good that night and it was sad to see her picture of better days.

March 20: Eight of us went to the Care Center to visit with the patients there and help them open their Easter egg for the day. The Stake had put together Easter baskets on their Humanitarian day last month and this was the culmination of the event.

March 21-23: Easter weekend. Jordan, Stacey and Lincoln came out Thursday night; and Cassie showed up on Friday to spend the weekend with me. It was so fun having them all there even if my house is small. Lincoln got to sleep in my room which was so fun. He is such a cutie.

Anyway, we had a good time at Grandma Rae's, dyeing eggs and eating and playing games.
The Reading Front I joined three new challenges; sick, isn't it? and read eight books. I'm currently reading A Student of Weather by Elizabeth Hay for the Canadian Challenge and still working on the Book of Mormon.
Movies Watched August Rush.
What's on TV About all I watch is Dancing with the Stars. So far, Penn Gillette, Monica Seles, and Steve Guttenberg have been voted off. Adam Corolla, who dances with Julianne Hoff, made a great joke about the Mormons.
Overall Impression March is too windy, but it's great seeing buds on some of the trees and early greenery poking up through the dirt. And the snow is gone!!! I am so ready for spring.

February Features

2008-03-01T15:53:00.000-08:00

Doing a monthly recap is one resolution I intend to keep. So far, I haven't missed a month. Yay!!

Highlights

Feb 1 - Decided to start my resolutions for the year: Eat healthy, read the Book of Mormon, and exercise regularly.

Feb 4 - My 52nd birthday. We had german chocolate cake at work and I went to a movie with a friend. Thomas Monsen was announced as the next President of the church with Henry B. Eyring and Dieter F. Uchtdorf as counselors.

Feb 6 - The local McDonalds reopened after being torn down and rebuilt over a space of five months. I have mixed feelings because it's easier for me to avoid the other fast food places. But the owner is a friend so I went to the open house and it's really a nice bulding: wall of water, fireplace, Playstation, a huge play tree. Now if I can just stay away.

Feb 7 to 10 - Took a trip to Salt Lake to see my kids and grandson. Lincoln is so much bigger but even cuter. He is so fun to play with. He doesn't just drool, he screws his little eyes shut and blows. What fun?? Anyway I had to buy him new toys, didn't I? We ate out at California Pizza Kitchen for my birthday and I got to babysit while Stacey and Jordan went to a movie. The next day, Cassie and I went shopping: JoAnns, Famous Footwear, Tai Pan, and Target. Then we ate out again and Cassie, Stacey and I went to a play at the Hale Theater, "Lend Me a Tenor." We just barely made it but the seats were great and the play was fun. Cassie bought my ticket for my birthday. Isn't she sweet? The next day was time to head home. I got to visit with Alyson and Katie for a minute as we loaded Katie's stuf into my car for the trip home. Katie has been living in Layton but decided to move home. It was a fun trip. I never even got sleepy since the conversation just flowed.

Feb 17 - I had to talk in Sacrament Meeting with one of the Stake Presidency. The topic was on service. Yikes.

Feb 19 - Relief Society Book Review. There were just two of us there so we only discussed the book, "Drawing on the Powers of Heaven" for a minute. Besides, my copy fell apart. Next month, we are going to review "Twilight," and no, it was not my suggestion. We're hoping to get some of the Young Women to attend.

Feb 23 - Stake Humanitarian Day. About 100 sisters got together to make Easter baskets for the folks at the care center. Each ward also tied a quilt for its Relief Society closet. I was there until three doing ours. We were the last ones there and my back was killing me. Thanks to my mom who stayed and helped even though her ward finished hours earlier. We had really good soup for lunch. All in all, a good day.

Feb 29 - The month is over; and my branch met our goals one more time. I'm not sure what the bonus is; but there were only two branches in my area that met their goals. High Five!

Feb 29 - A look back on my resolutions: I took the Book of Mormon to work and refused to take anything else to read, so that resolution is being kept. The one I'm reading has comments and notes right alongside the script so I'm gaining lots of great insights. So far, I have exercised exactly zero times (Hang my head in shame) and really blew the eating right this past week. Well, I had to buy doughnuts for work when we hit our goals on Tuesday, didn't I; and I had promised pizza since January and McDonalds was just too enticing. I'm disgusted.

Books Read

**I Married the Klondike by Laura Beatrice Berton, Rated 4.5

**Look Me in the Eye by John Elder Robinson, Rated 4.25. The author left me a comment so that's always fun.

**The Blue Sword by Robin McKinley, Rated 4.75. Recommended by Katie, thanks very much.

**New Moon by Stephanie Meyer, Rated 4.25. I am now a Twilight junkie.

**Eclipse by Stephanie Meyer, Rated 4.5. And I'm in love with Edward and I like Jacob lots.

**Shadows on the Rock by Willa Cather, Rated 4. Recommended by Cheya, another good one.

**Playing for Pizza by John Grisham, Rated 3.75.

**The Chase by Clive Cussler, Rated 4

**The Alchemist by Paul Coelho, Rated 4.25

Currently reading

**The Book of Mormon

**Mark Twain by Ron Powers. It's 600+ pages and I'm on page 67. Partly interesting, partly contradictory and mostly a little boring. I sure hope it picks up.

Movies watched

**Twenty-Seven Dresses. This is the movie I attended with a friend from work. I really enjoyed it. Katharine Heigl has a flair for comedy. I liked her much better in this than on Gray's Anatomy. The ending was hilarious.

**Pride and Prejudice with Keira Knightley. Not nearly as good as the Colin Firth version but much shorter. I love Donald Sutherland but I prefer the Mr. Bennett in the other version. And Darcy grew on me. He was really cute. And what was up with Mr. Bingley's hair? It was a good thing he has 5000 a year.

What's on TV

Dance Wars is over. Bruno's team won. They will get a recording contract; but, based on the single they performed, I doubt if I will buy it. There were some great performers on both teams and the show was fun to watch. But it's two more weeks until Dancing with the Stars. And when does Gray's Anatomy start again?? I did watch the Oscars. Isn't it funny that they kept cutting the speeches short and then the show ended ten minutes early? And the red carpet show at the first was weird. I didn't see very many of the dresses and those were mostly presenters that you saw anyway. Guess I'll have to wait for People magazine.

New Acquisitions

Three new pairs of shoes. The cutest pair have one size 7 and one size 8.

Lots of great stuff from Tai Pan, Easter decor, a ceramic hen, wire basket and ceramic balls.

New clothes from the Dress Barn. I love that place.

Six new CD's from BMG: Bon Jovi, KT Tunstall, Hayley Westenra, Josh Rouse, Nora Jones and James Blunt.

I bought six books at Barnes and Noble, won a giveaway book, and mooched nine more. I mooched nine away so I really only gained seven books.

Overall impression

The month started out freezingly but we had a great thaw mid month. Of course, the farmers are worried because too quick of a thaw will hurt the water situation. It's still pretty warm but foggy the last week. I leave my house each morning in dense fog, drive into the sunshine after about three miles, then the fog has reached town by the time I get off, just not nearly as thick as it is at my house when I get home. I do love the fog except to drive in it. Today, I watched out my front window as it ebbed and flowed. First I can't see the house in the field across the street and ten minutes later, there it is. Great stuff. Things are going pretty well at work, except for teller gave notice. We're getting a transfer but haven't replaced the other yet. Hate that. Even so, it's been a pretty good environment for a while, and everyone gets along quite well. I'm keeping my fingers crossed.

January Journal

2008-02-01T20:03:00.000-08:00

Following Alyson and Cheya's examples, I am going to try to recap each month this year. Hopefully, it will help me be better at my journaling efforts. Unfortunately, January was a pretty boring month for me. But I'll try:

Highlights:

Jan 3: The bank set goals for each branch to meet on this day and earn a lunch for the employees. We made our goal!!! January is off ot a great start.

Jan 6: Visiting Teaching Workshop. How amazing to get visiting teaching all set for the year on the very first Sunday. The lesson went well, lots of comments were shared; and a spiritual testimony meeting ended the workshop.

Jan 22: Received eight packages in the mail containing 15 books, 2 DVD's and 2 CD's. What fun.

Jan 27: A dear sister in the ward, Donna Stewart, passed away just six hours before President Hinckley. This was a great day to celebrate the lives of two wonderful people.

Jan 30: Annual birthday lunch with Mom, Cheya, Myke and Verona at JB's.

Jan 31: For the first time ever, my branch met the special January goals set by upper management. Good thing we reached the goals early because the last four days of the year were deadly slow and boring. Next year's goals will be murder, but I'm basking in the glory now. Plus we receive an extra bonus. Yippee.

Books read:

Airborn by Kenneth Oppel

Marley and Me by John Grogan

Seven Lies by James Lasdun

The Hundredth Man by Jack Kerley

Mercy Among the Children by David Adam Richards

Eight Cousins by Louisa May Alcott

Rose in Bloom by Louisa May Alcott

Below the Salt by Thomas Costain

Nothing to Regret by Tristi Pinkston

On the Night You Were Born by Nancy Tillman

Five Children and It by E. Nesbitt

Salamander by Thomas Wharton

Twilight by Stephanie Meyer

Movies Watched

Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire (DVD, saw it first in the theater)

Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix (DVD, first time I've seen it)

What's on TV

Dance Wars - a new series that's okay but not as fun as Dancing with the Stars.

A bunch of reruns on Gray's Anatomy. I missed the only one that wasn't a rerun.

With the writer's strike, there's not much to watch; so I just read and blog.

Overall impression of the month:

It was so cold. Below zero temperatures for days and days. When it finally warmed up the last part of the month, we got slammed with snow and more snow. Then it was back to below zero. My gas bill is unbelievable because I hate to be cold. I start my car every morning to warm up and it makes a horrible high-pitched squealing noise. I know it's time to leave when the pitch lowers. I'm tired of shoveling snow and walking on ice. We've only had a few days of fog. I do love the fog, especially the frost left on the trees and bushes that glimmer when the sun finally does shine through. I just keep repeating, "It's almost spring, it's almost spring."

Laugh with Me

2008-01-25T18:58:00.000-08:00

A friend e-mailed this site to me today. I don't usually download these things because my computer is so slow, but this one didnt' take too long. I thought it was hilarious. Check it out.

http://www.chumfm.com/MorningShow/bits/march24.swf

Reflections on 2007

2008-01-06T19:01:00.000-08:00

I have so enjoyed reading other blogs reliving this past year that I decided, in a mood of introspection, to do the same. (Wow, that sounded deep!!)

1. The more things change, the more they stay the same.
It does seem like things are changing all around me. The town is growing by leaps and bounds, the family is growing, my ward got a new bishop, big staff changes at work, but I am still the manager at the bank and Relief Society President at the ward. I live in the same house (30 years), still read lots and spend way too much time on the computer. I can't even think of any major purchases. So is my life boring or merely comfortable? I'll have to think more on that.

2. Books, books and more books.

Let's just say reading is my favorite past time. Last year I read 109 books. My favorite book was definitely "The Book Thief," but there were many other great books finished last year. I truly got into the spirit of the Challenge which let me focus my reading more on books I already owned. I was pretty disciplined about finishing those challenges.

3. Bookmooch

I joined the Bookmoooch website in August and have since given away 76 books and received 68. That would mean I had made a small dent in the piles of books I own except that I bought a few books as well. I try to be good, but it's hard.

4. Trips

I did very little traveling this year; that could be why I'm in a funk. Yes, there were a few trips to Salt Lake, including a trip with my 50's friends to see "Little Women, The Musical" at the Hale Theater. I also drove to Moab for an annual bank meeting and, once again, saw very little of the surrounding countryside. This time I did make it down Moab's main street. The funnest trip was with my mom, sister and brother to visit relatives in Fielding, Utah. We spent one evening with my Uncle Donald, his wife, Eleanor, and my Aunt Betty Jean, going over old journals and listening to Mom and Donald reminisce. The next day, we drove over the hill to Clarkston and then into Logan. What a blast of memories when we ate pizza at Frederico's. That was a favorite haunt of mine when I was in college.

5. Most imporant of all!!!

All of this is just fodder building up to the real highlight of my year. Everything else pales before this momentous occasion. That's right, I'm speaking of the birth of Lincoln on Sept 11. He was born by C-section at 5:00 that evening and I'm the very proud grandma. I even spent five days babysitting while Stacey had to work. I was exhausted but elated. Do you think he will remember me? I haven't seen him for over a month.

Baby Blessing

2007-12-04T20:54:00.000-08:00

Last Sunday morning, I got up and drove to Salt Lake for the day. What a beautiful drive, wending my way through the snow covered mountains and that crisp, clean, cold, air. Even though the storm on Saturday was horrendous, I felt blessed seeing the beauty it left behind. The reason for my day-trip was to see my first grandson, Lincoln Clark, be blessed. I got to Jordan and Stacey's in time to see Lincoln being bathed. He produced his own geyser and got to be bathed again. What a joker. It was touch and go for a while after he somehow got lotion in his eye. He has a very healthy set of lungs. And what a tug at the heartstrings to see his big blue eyes brimming with unshed tears. But finally, he was ready. Of course, Lincoln was very handsome in his formal attire of white shirt, black pants, and black and white polka dotted vest. And we made it to the church on time. The star was fast asleep. So we were able to hear the blessing. Two of Jordan's friends from high school were able to attend and stand in the circle along with Stacey's two brothers and Jordan and Stacey's fathers. What an amazing experience to observe your son take his newborn and, exercising his priesthood, give the baby a name and a blessing. Jordan obviously put a lot of thought and prayer into that blessing because it was beautiful. He blessed Lincoln to always know that his Heavenly Father and brother, Jesus Christ, loved him and to feel that love. He talked of the gift of the Atonement and how it applied to him personally. He blessed him with the gift of discernment in his choices throughout his life and the gift of faith. Then he told Lincoln how thankful his parents were to have him here and how much they loved him. There was more about serving a mission, being married in the temple, being an example, and things I have forgotten. I should have written this post that day. Needless to say, I cried. I was so touched. Jordan and Stacey are amazing parents, so much wiser than I was at that age. And Lincoln is an amazing baby.

5 Things Meme

2007-11-18T20:08:00.000-08:00

Alyson tagged me to do this meme. It's a good thing, otherwise this blog may have died from neglect.

5 things I was doing ten years ago:

1. Working at the bank

2. 2nd Counselor in the Young Women's presidency

3. Teaching Cassie how to drive (not very well, I might add) Good thing she learned on her own.

4. Staying up late waiting for Jordan to come home.

5. Making angels for my Christmas tree.

5 things on my To-Do list today:

1. Make a shopping list for tomorrow

2. Clean the bathroom

3. Clean the kitchen

4. Write a book review

5. Get ready for home teachers

5 things I would do if I were a millionaire

1. Invest wisely

2. Plan for early retirement

3. Sell my house and move to Salt Lake

4. Travel

5. Make a will

5 Things I'll never wear again (or have never worn)

1. Halter tops

2. Bikinis

3. High heels

4. Bell bottoms

5. Wonder Bra

5 favorite toys

1. Lincoln

2. My computer

3. My camera

4. My books

5. My recliner

5 people to tag

Sorry, I draw the line. Alyson already tagged almost everyone I know in Blog World and I think the rest of you should just do this because it's fun.

A Trip Down Memory Lane

2007-10-30T16:18:00.000-07:00

After visiting the Salt Lake Book Festival, Susan, Mom and I traveled up to Fielding to visit with relatives. First we stopped in Brigham City and spent some time with Uncle Gordon, Aunt Carol and Cousin Pam. Gordon has been in the rehab center there, but we found him in good spirits and looking forward to returning home soon. Carol looks so much like my mother and it's joy to watch the two talking together. And Brigham City looked gorgeous in its fall colors. I'm glad there were still leaves left on trees, since Vernal is pretty bare. Next we traveled to Fielding for dinner with Uncle Donald, his wife, Eleanor, and Aunt Betty Jean. Mark and Davis met us there and we had a true feast. After dinner, we had the rare privilege of listening Mom, the aunts and uncle reminice about the past. Donald had some written histories of many of our ancestors. I need to get a copy of all of those. Great company and great stories. The next day, we traveled with Donald and Eleanor to Clarkstown, UT, just north of Fielding. After driving around for a while, we finally decided where aunts and uncles had lived in the past. Then we visited the cemetery which has a great view overlooking the Cache Valley. It's too bad there was such a haze from the California fires. We found Martin Harris' grave and others. It's a beautiful site with lots of elaborate head stones and markers. Finally, we drove into Logan and had lunch at Fredrico's. This was a favorite of mine from long-ago college days when we would walk up for salad and garlic bread. It was just as good as I remember. After a drive by the gorgeous Logan temple, we headed home. I love hearing stories about my ancestors, just wish we had recorded the tellings.

Fun Facts About Me

2007-10-07T12:25:00.000-07:00

A good friend sent me an e-mail listing with these questions and her answers. It was fun to learn a little more about her. I was supposed to answer the questions myself and send the e-mail back to her and also to other e-mail friend. I decided it might be better to share these facts with those who read my blog. I'm not a great e-mail correspondent. I changed a few questions because some related to sending out e-mails.

1. WERE YOU NAMED AFTER ANYONE? No, my parents made it up.

2. WHEN WAS THE LAST TIME YOU CRIED? Thirty minutes ago. I was watching a special about the Mormon Tabernacle Choir. A very sick ten-year-old girl had requested to meet with a few members of the choir. When she arrived at the hotel, she found the lobby packed with the choir and visitors. Then they sang to her and it was beautiful. And yes, it made me cry.

3. DO YOU LIKE YOUR HANDWRITING ? Not particularly

4. WHAT IS YOUR FAVORITE LUNCH MEAT? Tuna fish

5. DO YOU HAVE KIDS? A son and a daughter-in-law, a daughter, and a gorgeous grandson. (Please see the previous post)

6. IF YOU WERE ANOTHER PERSON WOULD YOU BE FRIENDS WITH YOU? Sometimes

7. DO YOU USE SARCASM A LOT? Unfortunately I do.

8. DO YOU STILL HAVE YOUR TONSILS ? Yes

9. WOULD YOU BUNGEE JUMP? Never! The thought gives me chills.

10. WHAT IS YOUR FAVORITE CEREAL? Oatmeal

11. DO YOU UNTIE YOUR SHOES WHEN YOU TAKE THEM OFF? Of course

12. DO YOU THINK YOU ARE STRONG? I used to be, but now, I'm not sure. I'm speaking mentally and emotionally. Physically, not a chance. I can barely open a jar.

13. WHAT IS YOUR FAVORITE ICE CREAM? Chocolate chip with those little tiny chips. Since that is almost impossible to find now, I'll say cherry nut.

14. WHAT IS THE FIRST THING YOU NOTICE ABOUT PEOPLE? Their smiles

15. RED OR PINK? red

16. WHAT IS THE LEAST FAVORITE THING YOU LIKE ABOUT YOURSELF? My weight

17. WHO DO YOU MISS THE MOST? My kids

18. FAVORITE HOLIDAY? Thanksgiving

19. WHAT COLOR PANTS AND SHOES ARE YOU WEARING? Black sweats and black fuzzy slippers

20. WHAT WAS THE LAST THING YOU ATE? Halloween sugar cookies

21. WHAT ARE YOU LISTENING TO RIGHT NOW? The between general conference sessions documentary

22. IF YOU WERE A CRAYON, WHAT COLOR WOULD YOU BE? Periwinkle, pretty color and neat word.

23. FAVORITE SMELLS? Rain, baking apples, fresh cut grass

24. WHO WAS THE LAST PERSON YOU TALKED TO ON THE PHONE? A customer

25. DO YOU LIKE THE PERSON WHO SENT THIS TO YOU? Of course, she's amazing.

26. FAVORITE SPORTS TO WATCH? Swimming, gymnastics & figure skating

27. HAIR COLOR? A lovely blend of dark blonde with golden highlights. I suspect it's naturally very gray, but I try to avoid that like the plague.

28. EYE COLOR? Green with flecks of brown

29. DO YOU WEAR CONTACTS? No

30. FAVORITE FOOD? This post isn't long enough. I love cheeseburgers and fries, everything at Thanksgiving dinner, pumpkin cookies, and let's not forget chocolate.

31. SCARY MOVIES OR HAPPY ENDINGS? Happy Endings!

32. LAST MOVIE YOU WATCHED? Transformers

33. WHAT COLOR SHIRT ARE YOU WEARING? Gray

34. SUMMER OR WINTER? Summer, but fall is my favorite

35. HUGS OR KISSES? I'll be safe and say hugs.

36. FAVORITE DESSERT? Chocolate cake

37. FAVORITE TV SHOW? Dancing with the Stars (How could they send Albert home?) and Gray's Anatomy

38. FAVORITE BOOK THIS YEAR? The Book Thief by Marcus Zusak

39. WHAT BOOK ARE YOU READING NOW? Woman in White by Wilkie Collins

40. WHAT IS ON YOUR MOUSE PAD? My mouse

41. WHAT DID YOU WATCH ON T.V. LAST NIGHT? I didn't watch TV last night

42. FAVORITE SOUND? Fog, it mutes everything

43. ROLLING STONES OR BEATLES? Beatles

44. WHAT IS THE FURTHEST YOU HAVE BEEN FROM HOME? St. John Newfoundland

45. DO YOU HAVE A SPECIAL TALENT? I can roll my tongue over both ways and curl it into a tube. It's really very impressive.

46. WHERE WERE YOU BORN? St. John, Newfoundland

47. LAST THING YOU BOUGHT ONLINE? Clothes

48. FAVORITE TIME OF DAY? Sunset

49. FAVORITE FLOWER? Peony

50. LAST CD YOU LISTENED TO? Five for Fighting "two lights"

Isnt' He Sweet?

2007-09-18T19:56:00.001-07:00

What can I say? Being a grandma is the best thing in the world. It was so fun to hold little LIncoln while he slept. I love those little huffy-puffy noises he makes when he breathes really fast. I love the wrinkles in his forehead when he raises his eyebrows. I love the way he gazes up at his mommy when she talks to him. I even love the way his face crunches up right before he cries. I love watching his mom and dad change diapers. (It's a team effort) I especially love that they got me up at 6 a.m. to watch him him after his early morning breakfast so they could sleep some more. Wow, three hours with just LIncoln and me. Leaving Sunday afternoon and not knowing when I could visit again was the hardest thing to do, knowing he will change so much before I see him again. I guess it's for the best because I would hold him forever if his parents would let me. Isn't he adorable?

Meme

2007-09-04T18:16:00.000-07:00

Booklogged has tagged me to do this meme. I like memes because they get me thinking about things that are tucked away in the recesses of my mind. Okay, most of these things haven't been tucked back too far and won't surprise a lot of you, but . . . live with it. I thought "tucked away in the recesses of my mind" sounded quite poetic.

Here are the rules:

1. Link to your tagger and post these rules.
2. List eight (8) random facts about yourself
3. Tag eight people at the end of your post and list their names (linking to them)
4. Let them know they’ve been tagged by leaving them a comment on their blogs.

So on we go to the Great Eight!!

1. I decorate my Christmas tree by themes. So far, I have an angel tree, a Santa tree, a snowman tree, a colors tree (big mutl-colored lights and lots of different colored and shaped bulbs, and a chartreuse tree (mostly chartreuse ornaments and wide ribbon with a little white and pink mixed in. As you can imagine, my Christmas decorations take up a lot of room in my house. I was going to post a picture from one of my family's progressive dinners (we go from house to house admiring the tree and eating a different course at each place), but . . . . . . . .
2. Blogger hates me. I did pretty good to get Blogger to let me do the title for this post. Adding a couple of pictures--out of the question. There was a good three months that I couldn't get into "Edit html" which created havoc on my admittedly basic posting skills. And everytime I edit an existing post, Blogger adds a few inches of extra space which I then have to edit out. What can I say? It's a love-hate relationship.
3. I am a reluctant Relief Society President. Love those sisters, but this is a trial of my faith. I guess it's just one more question to add to the list of things I need answers for when I get to the other side. Things like: Why are children starving in Africa? How come so many wicked people have it all and good people so little? Why wars? Aids? poverty? child abuse? Why me?
Important things like that. I don't want to see comments from any of you trying to make me feel better about this. Just let me wallow in my self-pity. But if you can answer any of the other questions, I loved to hear it and I'm sure Heavenly Father would appreciate it as well.
4. I am going to be a grandmother by the end of the week, or surely, the end of next week. Come on out and play, little Lincoln. Plus I get to stay and baby-sit for a whole week in November.
5. I raised two amazing kids as a single mother. Notice that I didn't say I raised them alone, because that was not the case. When I worked two jobs and went back to school for my degree, my mom watched my kids faithfully. She was always helping me get them to places and helping with costumes and school work, etc. etc etc. I also had the most amazing babysitter. This woman had fifteen kids of her own and took my two in and made them part of her family. The rest of my family were so good to include us in their family activities. Then there was the church and its members. How do you teach your kids all they need to know about being good, caring people by yourself? Thankfully, I didn't have to.
6. I am fifty-one. I read a book where the author said that fifty was the best time of her life. Hmmmm.
7. I love the commercial where a gorgeous man is standing in a large light-colored room, lots of big windows with gently billowing curtains. He leans on his hand against an elegant table set with china and crystal as he watches a beautiful woman gracefully enter the room in her flowing evening gown. The table tilts under his weight; he falls to the floor amid the crash of breaking dishes; and he jumps to his feet with the cutest sheepish grin. I haven't seen it for years, but I remember laughing out loud every time I saw it. I think it was an ad for a cleaning product but I'm not sure.
8. I love the fog. Not to drive in it, that's awful; but to sit in a nice, cozy room, wrapped in a fluffy blanket, reading a good book, scented candle wafting fragrance through the air, hot chocolate at the ready, and the silence of that thick, misty shroud surrounding my house and holding the world at bay . . . lovely.

Amazing! I had a hard time coming up with eight things because they really were tucked away. But this was fun. Hopefully, this will satisfy Tristi, who pointed out, "It's been very quiet over here, Framed."

I'm also breaking the last two rules. Thinking eight random things about me has taxed my brain so much that I can't possibly think of eight people to tag. Let's face it, Booklogged, you've already tagged most of the people who might do this meme anyway. But those of you who haven't been tagged, consider it done.

TV Give-Away

2007-08-12T15:28:00.000-07:00

Will wonders never cease? You can win a free flat-screen TV just by leaving a comment before August 17th at 5 Minutes for Mom. I was the 1777th comment and I'm pretty sure that should win me the big prize, but it never hurts to try anyway.

Disaster and Good Fortune

2007-07-27T22:22:00.001-07:00

My sister and her husband have gone on an extended vacation leaving their home in the care of their eighteen-year-old daughter. Naturally, there is a crisis at home as a huge leak from an unknown source floods their basement. This type of disaster would absolutely floor me and I'm not an eighteen-year-old. But Katie calls her parents and they get her started on the right course with cleaning services, the city, and the insurance. Another daughter, Jenny, lives close by and she rushes in to help. Somehow, the leak is stopped although the source is still unknown. That evening, fifteen people, family and friends, come over to help clean up as much water as possible. But the carpet must be replaced and that means everything in the basement has to be moved. After a family picnic the following evening, we plan to help move out all the furniture. I get there at 9 pm and have to park halfway down the street as cars line both sides of the road. After a few calls and not finding anyone home, Jenny reaches her bishop (leader of her congregation) to see is he can give advice. His teenage daughter is having a party at the time and every one of the kids volunteers to come over and help. With the help of my brother, nieces, nephews, a couple of neighbors, the bishop and all those kids, Jenny and Katie were able to empty the basement in less than a hour. With some leftover treats from the picnic, the kids merrily returned to their party hopefully knowing how much their service was appreciated. I was so touched watching everyone pitching in on a Friday night and having such a good time doing it. Myke and Cheya, you are so blessed to have such great daughters and friends. I was blessed to be there to witness it.

The Blogging Tips Meme

2007-07-25T18:24:00.000-07:00

Chris at http://chris-book-a-rama.blogspot.com/2007/07/blogging-tips-meme.html tagged me for this meme. This is an unusual one and, for a change, not book related (gasp!). So here goes:-

Start Copy-It’s very simple. When this is passed on to you, copy the whole thing, skim the list and put a * star beside those that you like. (Check out especially the * starred ones.)Add the next number (1. 2. 3. 4. 5., etc.) and write your own blogging tip for other bloggers. Try to make your tip general.After that, tag 10 other people. Link love some friends!Just think- if 10 people start this, the 10 people pass it onto another 10 people, you have 100 links already!

1. Look, read, and learn. ***-http://www.neonscent.com/

2. Be, EXCELLENT to each other. ***-http://www.bushmackel.com/

3. Don’t let money change ya! *-http://www.therandomforest.info/

4. Always reply to your comments. ***-http://chattiekat.com/

5. Link liberally — it keeps you and your friends afloat in the Sea of Technorati. ***http://chipsquips.com/

6. Don’t give up - persistence is fertile. *-http://www.velcro-city.co.uk/

7. Give link credit where credit is due. ****-http://www.sfsignal.com/

8. Pictures say a thousand words and can usually add to any post.****-http://scifichick.com/

9. Visit all the bloggers that leave comments for you - it's nice to know who is reading! -http://stephaniesbooks.blogspot.com/ ****

10. Make a blogger template unique: change the background colour, or add a background picture to your header. *http://chris-book-a-rama.blogspot.com/-

11. If you have a problem, ask. Bloggers are very generous with info. http://lifesapicture.blogspot.com

Here are the ones I am tagging:

Booklogged @ http://bookschatterblog.blogspot.com/

Alyson @ http://www.innuce2.blogspot.com/

Julie @ http://www.unetassedebijoux.blogspot.com/

Cardine @ http://www.cardinesblog.blogspot.com/

Katie @ http://rushinginto.blogspot.com/

Sorry, I could only think of five and I'm trying really hard not to tag Cassie. She is so mean when I do that. :>)

One-Word Meme

2007-07-13T18:53:00.001-07:00

This was stolen from Bookfool at http://bookfoolery.blogspot.com/, who stole it from soneone else. Anyway, it's making the rounds.

1. Where is your mobile phone? Purse
2. Relationship? None
3. Your hair? Fried
4. Work? Neverending
5. Your sister(s)? Journeyer
%. Your sister(s)? Teacher
6. Your favorite thing? Autumn
7. Your dream last night? None
8. Your favorite drink? Water
9. Your dream car? Lexus
10. The room you're in? Dining
11. Your shoes? Barefoot.
12. Your fears? Decrepitude
13. What do you want to be in 10 years? Retired
14. Who did you hang out with this weekend? Kids
15. What are you not good at? Lots
16. Muffin? Poppy-seed
17. Wish list item? Security
18. Where you grew up? Utah
19. The last thing you did? Work
20. What are you wearing? Jeans
21. What are you not wearing? Bikini
22. Your pet? Ants
23. Your computer? Slow
24. Your life? Lonely
25. Your mood? Resigned
26. Missing? Travel
27. What are you thinking about? Lawn
28. Your car? LaCrosse
29. Your kitchen? Messy
30. Your summer? Smoky
31. Your favorite color? Yellow
32. Last time you laughed? Today
33. Last time you cried? 2nd
34. School? Finished
35. Love? Someday?

Tag, I'm It

2007-07-11T19:41:00.000-07:00

I truly believe tag memes are evil. And as you will notice in my previous post, I am just evil enough to be dangerous. Hehe hehe heeeee. (evil laugh) Besides I like Tristi who tagged me. I think she may be the General Relief Society President someday and I want to stay on her good side.

Rule #1: Remove the blog site at the top of the list below, move all the blog site names up one, and add yourself to the bottom.

Sundial in the Shade

A Writer's Ramblings

Musings from an LDS Writing Mom

LDS Writers Blogck (Connie S. Hall)

Tristi Pinkston, LDS Author

Framed @ Life's a Picture

(Sorry, Blogspot is not letting me get into html so there's no sense trying to post a link.)

What were you doing ten years ago?

I was a new accounts person for First Security Bank raising two teenagers.

What were you doing one year ago?

I was the manager for Wells Fargo Bank, living the empty nest syndrome and serving as Relief Society President in my ward. This was also the year I turned fifty (horrors!!) but I reconnected with some high school friends resulting in a fantastic year.

Five snacks you enjoy:

1. Chocolate peanut clusters

2. Potato Chips

3. Kettle corn

4. Chips and salsa

5. Large glasses of ice water

Five songs you know all the lyrics to:

1. Puff the Magic Dragon

2. Little Red Hood . . . "you sure are lookin' good, you're everything that a big bad wolf could want. Aahooo." Well, maybe I don't know them all, but the kids and I know the most important ones.

3.. I Wanna Hold Your Hand

4. I am a Child of God

5. Jingle Bells

Things you would do if you were a millionaire:

Invest it until I was sure I had enough to quit my job and move to Salt Lake, buy a condo, and babysit my grandson, and travel whenever I could.

Five bad habits:

1. Eating too much

2. Procrastinating

3. Spending too much time at the computer

4. Not putting things away so that I can find them again

5. Chewing gum

Five things you like to do:

1. Read

2. Travel

3. Blog

4. Go to the temple

5. Spend time with my family

Things you will never wear again:

1. A bikini (I shudder at the mere thought)

2. High heels

3. My drill team uniform

4. The size 4 jeans with the cute gold foot-prints on the butt.

5. My wedding ring (Notice I didn't say any wedding ring, just the one that was mine. The marquise is now hanging from a lovely gold chain.

Five favorite toys:

1. My computer

2. My TBR list

3. My camera

4. My car

5. My books

Where will you be in ten years:

Hopefully, I will be retired and on my way to far away lands.

Five people to tag:

Julie

Cardine

Alyson

Katie

Cassie, I'm sorry, but Booklogged is on vacation and I can't think of anyone else.

The Ultimate Test

2007-07-04T11:10:00.000-07:00

You Are 32% Evil

A bit of evil lurks in your heart, but you hide it well.

In some ways, you are the most dangerous kind of evil.

How Evil Are You?

An interesting test, don't you think? Some of the questions are quite twisted and I'm glad I could answer no to those. But some questions did stir up old memories. I hope I have repented enough. But if you have to be evil, the most dangerous kinds is best, don't you think?

Celebrating a 25-Year Milestone

2007-06-26T18:14:00.000-07:00

It's hard to believe that my baby is twenty-five. How did that happen?? Wasn't she a beautiful little girl? Still, she grew up to be just as beautiful and a sensitive, talented, and caring individual who is so much fun to be around. In fact, I got to spend the weekend with her celebrating this milestone. We spend five hours on Saturday at a spa being thoroughly pampered. The only time we spent together was for our pedicures but it was still wonderful. We had massages, which totally hurt my back (I'm still sore three days later) but all my muscles were so relaxed that it was okay. Truthfully, the masseuse really pushed a bit too hard, it hurt sometimes. I may not repeat that part again unless I can get someone a touch more gentle. My manicure was also very relaxing. Does anyone not like to have their hands rubbed? Then dipped in hot parafin? And now my hands are so soft and my pretty pink fingernails are just barely starting to chip. Am I supposed to repaint nightly? Luckily toe nail polish last much longer. I adore pedicures. Even more than my hands, I love to have my feet rubbed. When it's a trained professional doing the rubbing, so much the better. So Cassie and I sat soaking our feet, eating our lunch while our tootsies were lotioned, parafinned, buffed and painted. I know it's not a job I would love to have, but I'm thrilled that some people are so good at it. Both girls told us that our feet were in good condition unlike the next client whose rough skin was filed at for twenty minutes. I've let my feet get that rough, at times using them for scratching posts so I could really relate. Finally, we were treated to facials. Sheer bliss. Well, not the part where she extracted the blackheads, that hurt like the dickens. And why is a woman approaching menopause afflicted with things like painful facial extractions, and questioned about my use, or lack of use, of sunscreen and dehydration from not drinking enough water? I ask you? If my skin is so dehydrated, I shouldn't have any blackheads. Of course, I can't deny the dry patches, I can't see the blackheads, and I just found out that my foundation doesn't have sunscreen in it. So I will just stay indoors. But I digress. Back to . . . Sheer bliss. You lay on your back and the technician cleans your face, then moisturizes it, (this process also includes your shoulders and upper chest) then she gently pats you down with really hot, moist towels, then a gentle massage which includes your arms and feet. Then more hot, moist towels, then more moisturizer. I kept falling asleep only to wake up with a gentle (genteel?) snort. I really wanted to stay awake to enjoy it all, but it was too relaxing. The facial really was the crowning experience of the whole day. If I could afford it, I would do it all on a monthly basis. Eventually, my back would buck up and my blackheads would disappear.

After the spa experience, Cassie and I went shopping. First Ikea. She loved it because there were a lot of cute things at really really good prices. I thought there were way too many people. I find I don't like crowds very much. But I managed to spend a goodly sum. Next, Jamba Juice. Very refreshing. Then on to dinner at Buca di Beppo with Cassie's friends, and Alyson, Jordan and Stacey. I got to see the first pics of my gestating grandson. I oohed and aahed of course, but I really wasn't sure what was what. Still, there is one picture of his face that looks just like Jordan. Dinner was very good, I suggest the salmon or the margherita pizza. It was fun to watch Cassie with her friends. They seem to be a great bunch. And I always love to see Alyson. We ended the evening at the Laughing Stock, an improvisational group, who do routines similar to that Drew Carey show. Most were hilarious, but too much time was spent in between with the actors joking amongst themselves. I think Cassie really enjoyed her birthday, and I was happy to celebrate a very meaningful day for me as well.

Dancing with the Stars

2007-05-24T18:55:00.000-07:00

Since I have faithfully devoted my Mondays and Tuesdays for the last ten weeks to Dancing with the Stars, I believe it deserves a post. I've watched the show for two seasons and the last part of Season Two. Finally, the couple I rooted for through the whole thing was named champs: Apollo Anton Ohno and Julianne Hough. Is it because she is from Utah? . . . a little. Or because they match each other so well? . . . there is that. How about I loved Apollo when he won the Olympic Gold and even when he didn't. I admired his focus but also the grace with which he handled all the attention. The fact is: these two really look great on the dance floor and Apollo showed improvement every week. Julianne is so cute and so is Apollo. And let's not forget the other contestants this year. Joey Fatone, although a little cocky, really shone from the very beginning. He would try anything and most of the time it worked. He was so fun to watch. Laila Ali surprised me. I couldn't picture a professional boxer being so graceful and what an attitude! I was always impressed with Ian Ziering. I thought he was really good, but the judges didn't seem to see it that way. Maybe he wasn't quite as loose and relaxed as the first three. The most amazing was Heather McCartney. What she was able to do with a prosthetic leg was quite inspirational. Of course, you had to deal with the skimpy costumes, (Yes, Edytta, you're very nicely built, now cover it up!) and the wardrobe malfunctions. (It was a crack-up with Billy Ray's watch got caught in his partner's wig.) As you might imagine, figure skating and gymnastics are my favorite Olympic sports, but with Dancing with the Stars, you get to know the contestants better and see them more often in various performances. The last ten weeks have been a great escape for me. Now it's over and maybe I will get a little yard work done.

Financial Activity

2007-05-05T15:04:00.000-07:00

On May 15, we are having a financial activity at church. There will be a speaker telling us how to avoid Identity Theft and then we will be playing a game based on the Game of Life. I have a roulette wheel so eveyone can spin to find their monthly income. I will have them roll a pair of dice (hopefully a pink and blue) to find out how many kids they have, and each couple will pick a housing card and a transportation card to find their monthly house and car payments. There will be another set of cards which will say if they have savings, budget, pay tithes and offerings, etc. But I need help with some life situation cards. I'd like each couple to have to take five cards with different situations on them, like medical emergencies, vacations, etc. Some will just say to add or deduct from their balance, some will be based on whether they budget, pay tithing or save, and some will involve the roll of a dice or be based on how many kids they have. It's been years since I've played this game so I am asking for suggestions on what to put on these cards. Humorous is good, but remember this is a church group. Please Help!!! If any of you are in my ward, please keep these ideas to yourself but be sure to attend since it will be fun and there will be prizes (small, but still).

History Tag

2007-04-16T21:21:00.000-07:00

I was just tagged by Tristi at her blog with this history meme. You know me, I love these things. After I'm done, I'll tag five more bloggers. Here we go:

1. Go to Wikipedia and type in your birth date only -without the year.

February 4

2. List 3 events that occurred that day:

1789 - George Washington is unanimously elected to be the first President of the United States by the U. S. Electoral College. (I love George.)

1933 - Senator Huey Long of Louisiana gets the Governor to declare a bank holiday. The reason cited in the holiday declarationwas that the US broke diplomatic relations with German on February 3 and February 4 in 1917. February 3 was not declared a bank holiday. (What happened to this very important holiday?? I think both the 3rd and the 4th should continue to be banking holidays. Please write your congressman.)

1974 - The Symbionese Liberation Army kidnaps Patty Hearst in Berkley, California. (And to think I let getting a promise ring on my 18th birthday take precedence over this!!)

3. List 2 important birthdays:

1677 - Johann Ludwig Bach, German composer d. 1731 (Ahh, Bach)

1947 - Dan Qayle, 44th Vice President of the United States

1948 - Alice Cooper, American musician ( I cheated and picked three, but I really liked the contrast between Quayle and Cooper)

4. List 1 death:

2006 - Betty Friedan, American feminist, b. 1921 (Interestingly, she was also born on Feb 4. So is it her lucky day or not?)

5. List a holiday or observance:

World Cancer Day (Odd sort of holiday, isn't it? Let's call it "Day of the Framed" instead.)

Now I get to tag five other bloggers. Hmmmm, let's go with:

If I didn't tag you, please feel free to take part anyway. Thanks, Tristi, this was fun

TOMB OF THE UNKNOWN SOLDIER

2007-04-13T16:49:00.000-07:00

I received the following article from a friend and decided to share it all with you. I think visiting the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier was one of my most memorable experiences while visiting Washington D.C. Learning more about the ritual and the men who volunteer for this duty was very fascinating and moving for me.

On Jeopardy the other night, the final question was How many steps does the guard take during his walk across the Tomb of the Unknowns ------All three missed it .

Tomb of the Unknown Soldier
1. How many steps does the guard take during his walk across the tomb of the Unknowns and why? 21 steps. It alludes to the twenty-one gun salute, which is the highest honor given any military or foreign dignitary.
2. How long does he hesitate after his about-face to begin his return walk and why? 21 seconds for the same reason as answer number 1
3. Why are his gloves wet? His gloves are moistened to prevent his losing his grip on the rifle.
4. Does he carry his rifle on the same shoulder all the time and if not, why not? He carries the rifle on the shoulder away from the tomb. After his march across the path, he executes an about face and moves the rifle to the outside shoulder.
5. How often are the guards changed? Guards are changed every thirty minutes, twenty-four hours a day, 365 days a year.
6. What are the physical traits of the guard limited to? For a person to apply for guard duty at the tomb, he must be between 5' 10" and 6' 2" tall and his waist size cannot exceed 30. Other requirements of the Guard: They must commit 2 years of life to guard the tomb, live in a barracks under the tomb, and cannot drink any alcohol on or off duty for the rest of their lives. They cannot swear in public for the rest of their lives and cannot disgrace the uniform {fighting} or the tomb in any way. After two years, the guard is given a wreath pin that is worn on their lapel signifying they served as guard of the tomb. There are only 400 presently worn. The guard must obey these rules for the rest of their lives or give up the wreath pin. The shoes are specially made with very thick soles to keep the heat and cold from their feet. There are metal heel plates that extend to the top of the shoe in order to make the loud click as they come to a halt. There are no wrinkles, folds or lint on the uniform. Guards dress for duty in front of a full-length mirror. The first six months of duty a guard cannot talk to anyone, nor watch TV. All off duty time is spent studying the 175 notable people laid to rest in Arlington National Cemetery. A guard must memorize who they are and where they are interred. Among the notables are: President Taft, Joe E. Lewis {the boxer} and Medal of Honor recipient, Audie Murphy, {the most decorated soldier of WWII} of Hollywood fame. Every guard spends five hours a day getting his uniforms ready for guard duty.

ETERNAL REST GRANT THEM O LORD, AND LET PERPETUAL LIGHT SHINE UPON THEM.

In 2003 as Hurricane Isabelle was approaching Washington, DC, our US Senate/House took 2 days off with anticipation of the storm. On the ABC evening news, it was reported that because of the dangers from the hurricane, the military members assigned the duty of guarding the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier were given permission to suspend the assignment. They respectfully declined the offer, "No way, Sir!" Soaked to the skin, marching in the pelting rain of a tropical storm, they said that guarding the Tomb was not just an assignment, it was the highest honor that can be afforded to a service person. The tomb has been patrolled continuously, 24/7, since 1930.

God Bless and keep them.

Enrichment Night

2007-03-21T19:55:00.000-07:00

CHARITY NEVER FAILETH

**Quit groaning, this is not an exhortation to devote more time to the poor and needy. Surely you all know me better than that, even though Charity is my middle name. (Said with all the sarcasm that my self-criticism can deliver) I just want to journal a wonderful experience the ladies of my ward shared yesterday evening. It was the annual Relief Society Birthday dinner, and we invited the sisters only. Some men grumbled but, honestly, do they really, sincerely care that Relief Society has been around for 160+ years? I think not. To begin the evening, we met in the RS room to hear a special musical program presented by a women's choir of 15 women in the area. It's not a large room so we were quite close to the choir. I had to sit on the front row, which was great for me. The program consisted of songs and dialog taken from scriptures and church history. Some of the songs were "The Pure Love of Christ" and "Charity Never Faileth" by Julie and Lex De Azevedo, "Sisters in Christ" (you may have heard this sung by Gladys Knight), and "As Sisters in Zions." Truthfully, I haven't always loved "As Sisters in Zion," but it is growing on me; and this choir had mastered it. I liked their rendition of "Sisters in Christ" even better than Gladys Knight's, and hers is very good. They ended the program by singing "We Rejoice." It is such a triumphant anthem to the glory of the gospel and God's love for us. A truly fitting ending. I know most of the audience were choked up and I saw some tears from the performers as well. On the back of the program was printed this quote:

"Music is well said to be the speech of angels, in fact, nothing among the utterances allowed to man is felt to be so divine. It brings us near to the infinite." Thomas Carlyle

It really did seem that we had just heard angels sing to us. I know everyone who was priviliged to attend left feeling a little closer to divinity. We all need to look for these kind of experiences to refill our lamps in a world that is so draining.

My Visual DNA

2007-03-09T21:01:00.000-08:00

Read my VisualDNA™ Get your own VisualDNA™

MOOD: SOFISTICATE

You can be both calm and peaceful, and you like to feel free to explore your environment. You can be a little nostalgic and you love revisiting familiar places and memories. (Really, I always want to go somewhere new.) When it comes to art, you're definitely unconventional. You appreciate precison and hard work. As for music, You're a discerning (Oooh, I like that) listener - romantic and passionate. (ditto) You love the buzz you get from watching music live - there's nothing like it. Your choice of treat shows you love being a little bit naughty. Being good all the time is a bore. You've got a good sense of fun and maybe an infectious giggle. (Is this saying that I'm a saucy wench?)

FUN: ESCAPE ARTIST

You really value your 'quiet time' - to recharge and reconnect with yourself. You're not afraid to take yourself away from people and explore your imagination. (It's so true) For kicks you like to indulge in your great passions. You are probably happy spending time alone, and your drive and curiosity will take you all over the world. When it comes to holidays, you'll take experience over comfort every time, whether under canvas or under the stars. (Whatever. Give me a Hilton next to that beautiful scenery.) You love the chance to be in the wilderness and the freedom of being in charge of where you're heading. (I love the wilderness as long as I don't have to sleep there. Being in charge is highly overrated, but as long as Cheya's done all the research on the best places to go, I'm okay. In our family, no one is in charge.) What grosses you out? You like people to be well-groomed, with a tight bod and heaps of sex-appeal. (Everyone but myself) Wobbly bits and hairy areas are a complete turnoff. (Aren't they trivializing the total grossness of that fat, hairy back?)

HABITS: JUNKIE MONKEY

Even if you have a healthy approach to life, you still have your vices and a craving hunger drives your needs! (Well, that's not very flattering.) So you'll supersize it, you love convenience and that taste . . . (Guilty) Clean and pure - your choice of drink shows that you care about your health and make sure you're putting the right stuff in. (I try) As for the home, you have a very cool and contemporary taste. It's not just about function - your environment has to be as stylish as you are. (I just really like the windows, but I can live with stylish. Wish I was.)

LOVE: HOME SOUL

You're a real home soul. You care deeply about family life and all that comes with it, the love a child is very special. (Am I getting fixated on this new grandbaby?) When you think of freedom - you think of living for the here and now. (Yeah, but's what's gonna happen to me in the next life??) You're pretty fearless and take any opportunity given you. (Snort!!)

This was a fun exercise, and some things are pretty true. To be very honest, I almost chose the guy reading on the toilet as a treat. It just tickled me. And I had a hard time deciding on my favorite holiday and scenery. I've enjoyed seeing this on some other blogs as well. Hmmm, I guess I never really knew your guys.

A Weekend in the City

2007-02-26T19:59:00.000-08:00

I spent the past weekend in Salt Lake with my four fifty-ish friends. We are continuing our new tradition to celebrate our friendship by finding fun and interesting things to do together. Truthfully, Ann is the one who has come up with the great ideas, but Nikki, Marla, Judy and I are eager followers. So Saturday morning, we traveled to Salt Lake and met Marla who flew up from St. George. We stayed at Little America and had lunch in their wonderful dining room. The afternoon was spent shopping and I bought four books. (A small amount compared to some of the others) It's so fun to discuss books with these women. Then dinner at P F Chang's where we all ate too much. That night we attended a performance of "Little Women," a musical presented at the Hale Centre Theater in West Valley City. It's theater in the round and we had front-row seats. That made it up-close and personal. Judy had bought everning gloves for all and we were very elegant even though we didn't take the time to change into our dresses after shopping. The play was superb, beautiful music, fantastic voices, and a great story. I had to take my gloves off to wipe a tear from my eye since I didn't want mascara stains on them. I definitely want to go to future productions at the Hale. On Sunday morning, we attended a sacrament meeting at a gorgeous old church on 4th South that was built in 1909. We arrived early and explored. They don't make churches like that now with the beautiful woodwork and stain-glass windows. The regular ward-members made us feel so welcome. Another great idea of Ann's that we all appreciated. Then it was back to Little America for their famous Sunday breakfast bar. Wonderful fresh fruit. Cheya, you would die for those raspberries and the blackberries were even better. After seeing Marla off on the shuttle to the airport, we headed for home, missing the worst of the snow storm that blew in that afternoon. I know that there was great conversation except I slept most of the way home. I am fifty-one after all. Judy, Nikki and Ann are still young 50-year-olds.

memoirs of a Birthday

2007-02-06T18:41:00.000-08:00

I celebrated number 51 last Sunday. Usually, I don't say much about birthdays since . . . well, it's 51 . . . nuff said. But this was a nice day. I went to church. I gave the lesson in Relief Society and there were lots of good thoughts and ideas shared. Several people wished me Happy Birthday. I was told I didn't look 51. Is it okay to lie in church? Sacrament Meeting was particularly spiritual. I went home and got on the internet while I ate a quiet dinner. My mom stopped by and gave me a book for my birthday, always a welcome gift. My daughter called and we chatted for a long time. She's such a sweetie. Then my son called and gave me a great present. . . I'm going to be a grandma in September! What a fantastic birthday.

What a Life

2007-01-30T21:41:00.000-08:00

*I thought it was time to just do an update on my life. I'm a month into 2007 and approaching the big 51. That's seem so much older than 50. According to my brother who turns 60 next month, I shouldn't be complaining. It continues to be bone-chillingly cold although we are getting above zero during the day. Apparently, this is the colder winter in 34 years. I'm hating life and haven't even got the gas bill yet. My brother from Virginia visited this weekend and the family gathered at Mom's for dinner and birthday cake. We sang for my sister-in-law and me. And yes, we blew out all the candles. She's 58 but looks much younger than me. Today, some of the family drove to Salt Lake for a farewell lunch with Wayne. I know

Mom and Steve went but I'm not sure about the Weber's. I had to stay behind for a much needed root canal. Just after Christmas, I hurt my tooth eating candied popcorn and finally got around to getting it fixed. It's has been quite painful lately. The endodontist said the tooth is cracked and I'd better get a crown as soon as possible. That would be the 14th, the soonest my dentist can get me in. Sounds like I'm on soup and jello for a couple of weeks. At least this year's Valentine's

Day will be eventful. Tonight, we reviewed "The Goose Girl" by Shannon Hale in a Relief Society activity. I suggested it since I thought it was such a wonderful book. I know one family in which the grandmother, mother and 8-year-old daughter have all read it since we picked it the first of December. Actually, the daughter has read it two times along with a couple of Hale's other books. I think she will be a great book blogger someday. The book was a huge success with all ten ladies who attended. One had even visited Shannon Hale's website and printed off a quiz about this book. It's alarming how many details I'd forgotten since I read it in November. Next month we are reviewing "The Five Love Languages" and "Where the Heart Leads." (LDS Fiction) I went to Amazon to get used copies of each. There are several different "Love Languages", so I got the one for singles. Who knows where that may lead. Here's hoping things warm up in February. It's hard to turn the page when you're mummified in blankets.

Ten Things I Love that Start with "T"

2007-01-24T20:11:00.000-08:00

I have seen this meme on a few other blogs so I asked to be assigned a letter. Thank heavens it wasn't "X", but "T" was great. Here we go in no particular order:

T*T*T*T*T*T*T*T

1. Technology -- I don't always understand how to work everything, but I love my computer, my car, TV, DVD, cell phone, medical advances, etc. I would make a lousy pioneer.
2. Time -- I sure wish I had an endless supply of this. I remember watching the movie, "Groundhog Day", and feeling so antsy at first, but later thinking how wonderful it would be to do all the things he was able to do by repeating the same day over and over. Just think how many books I could get read.
3. James Taylor -- I love to listen to James sing.
4. "Trinity" -- This book was written by Leon Uris and, along with "Exodus," is my favorite of his works. (I've read most of them) Conor Larkin is one of the most romantic male characters I've ever read. I think I fell in love with him when I read this in my early 20's. I may have to read it again although I've read it a few times already and it is a big book. Maybe when I'm in the mood for a good cry.
5. Trees -- What a barren waste the world would be without big, tall, leafy trees. I love to sit under one, listen to the breeze move through the leaves, and watch them turn bright, gorgeous colors in the fall.
6. Temples -- I love the feeling of peace I achieve each time I visit an LDS temple.
7. Thanksgiving -- My favorite holiday is the time I get to eat wonderful food and spend quality time with the family.
8. Theater -- There's nothing like attending a live production.
9. Tolerance -- Not of crime or cruelty, but of cultures and ideas. Wouldn't the world be a better place if we just tried to accept others who are different than we are?
10. Tolkien -- "The Hobbit" and "The Lord of the Rings" trilogy have been among my favorites since I first read them in 8th grade. I sure wish I could get my set back from my daughter or daughter-in-law, whoever has them.

I actually came across a few "T" words of things that I hate that deserve a mention: trash, traffic, tempers, tambourines, and toupees.

NEW LYRICS

2007-01-20T09:22:00.000-08:00

Last February, I celebrated my 50th birthday and a friend at work gave me a copy of this e-mail. I just ran across it and laughed again. So in honor of my upcoming 51st (gasp) birthday, I am sharing these profound sentiments with all of my blogging fans.

SOME OF THE ARTISTS OF THE 60'S ARE REVISING THE HITS WITH NEW LYRICS TO ACCOMMODATE US BABY BOOMERS. THEY INCLUDE:

1. Herman's Hermits - Mrs. Brown, You've Got a Lovely Walker

Wasn't Herman the cutest thing? Major crush

2, Bee Gees - How Can You Mend a Broken Hip?

3. Bobby Darin - Splish, Splash, I Was Having a Flash

4. Ringo Starr - I Get By With A Little Help From Depends

5. Roberta Flack - The First Time Ever I Forgot Your Face

6. Johnny Nash - I Can't See Clearly Now

7. Paul Simon - Fifty Ways to Lose Your Liver

8. Commodores - Once, Twice, Three Times to the Bathroom

9. Marvin Gaye - Heard It Through the Grape Nuts

I love Grape Nuts

10. Proco Harem - A Whiter Shade of Hair

Only my hairdresser knows for sure

11. Leo Sayer - You Make Me Feel Like Nappping

12. The Temptations - Papa's Got a Kidney Stone

13. Abba - Denture Queen

14. Helen Reddy - I an Woman, Hear Me Snore

Does anyone watch Gray's Anatomy?

15. Tony Orlando - Knock 3 Times on the Ceiling if You Hear Me Fall

16. Willie Nelson - On the Commode Again

17. Leslie Gore - It's My Procedure and I'll Cry if I Want To

It had a good beat and you could really dance to it.

WE ARE GETTING OLDER, BUT ALSO BETTER, hopefully.