INKLINGS

CDO?

2012-01-31T11:17:00.000-08:00

I have been making more Christmas stockings. Keep in mind these aren't finished yet, because I can't buy the fake fur in town, plus I need to embroider names before I sew the final seams. This puts me 14 ahead. Do you think I should quit now? :0)By the way, CDO is OCD...obsessive compulsive disorder...but I like it alphabetized. ( I stole that line from Pinterest.)

IDLE HANDS ARE THE DEVIL'S WORKSHOP :0)

2012-01-28T13:38:00.000-08:00

We went to the State Wrestling tournament last night and today, because our grandson was competing. I don't know if you have ever been to one of those, but there is a lot of waiting between matches, so I took along the Christmas stockings I have been making, to do hand work on them. This morning a couple came in and sat next to us, and the woman was sewing the binding on a child-size quilt. She leaned over and said to me, "Oh, someone else who has to keep busy at these things. I'd go crazy waiting all that time between matches without something to work on." I told her me, too. I said, "And now we have each other for company. Even though other people were reading books, doing homework, and on their laptops, I was getting a lot of weird looks last night for sewing." Not only that, but a little boy, whom I judged to be about 8 or 9, suddenly ran down the aisle to where I was sitting, and lifted up my sewing box lid and looked in. I looked at him, startled, and he ran back to where his mother was sitting. I turned to Dee Ice and said, "Did you see that? I wonder if he thought I had treats or something in there?" and the man behind us kept laughing in disbelief.

A SCOUT IS HONEST

2012-01-25T19:26:00.000-08:00

Dee Ice had Pack Meeting tonight, and I tagged along. When I walked in, the cubmaster said, "Oh, the artist is here." (Um...artist?) The boys were making signs for the window display they have to put up this week and they have to do all their own work, even any lettering. (The display will also include items they have made throughout the year, such as their Pinewood Derby cars and their birdhouses.) So I wasn't sure why they needed an outside "artist", but the cubmaster said she wanted me to draw things on the chalkboard if any boys weren't sure how to draw that item, so they could get an idea of what it looked like. They hadn't been drawing very long when one of the boys wanted me to draw a campfire. As I began drawing the logs, he said, "That is the most awesome log I've ever seen!" I said, "Oh, baloney, I thought a scout was supposed to be truthful," and he laughed. He persisted as I drew the campfire, "That is the best drawing of a campfire I have ever seen," and I said, "Um, a scout is honest, remember that one?" and he laughed again. A little later another cub scout asked me to draw a rake. (I think that one had something to do with their service project.) I drew a very simple rake so it would be easier for him to draw. He said, "Oh, I don't like that rake." Suddenly he said, "Oh, I'm sorry, I'm sorry, that rake will be fine," and he threw his arms around me and hugged me. Well, I did tell them a scout is honest and truthful. :0)

WHY DEE ICE CANCELLED HIS ROAD TRIP

2012-01-24T13:11:00.000-08:00

Dee Ice was going to go with a friend to Idaho to another friend's retirement party today, but with the weather doing what it is doing, he changed his mind. I took this picture last night, but we woke up to even more snow this morning. Our walks and driveway, however, were plowed. A neighbor took his ATV that has a snow blade on the front around the neighborhood. How nice is that?

WHAT I'VE BEEN DOING LATELY....

2012-01-23T15:44:00.000-08:00

I have been making Christmas stockings. It seems I always do a Christmas project in January, and this is for the three people we will be adding to our family in a couple of months, although once I was in the mood, I made eight more for future family members. Those don't have the fake fur on the top yet, since I can't buy it in town any more, plus I have left one side seam open so I can more easily embroider the names on. Now that I have made 45 of them altogether, it is getting harder to come up with the ideas for them, but they've been kind of fun to make.

GOING....GOING.....GONE....

2012-01-21T13:34:00.000-08:00

I didn't work for most of the time when I was raising kids, although I did do 17 years of daycare. When we finally stopped moving around enough to buy a house, I did go to work, and at that time my youngest was in 2nd grade. I worked first as a substitute teacher for 26 schools, so that I could turn it down if my kids were sick or had a school program or something, and then a little later went to work as a teacher's aide, which I loved. In fact, I loved it so much that I thought at one point that I would never be able to give it up. But I did. I didn't have any benefits when I worked for that school district, but when we moved here, I worked as a teacher's aide for 6 months, and I did have benefits there. I built up a little retirement fund of about $500. A few years later, they decided to pay it off to me and not have to keep such a small amount on the books. They sent me the check, and just a few months later the school district asked me if I would like to take the GED classroom at the jail, and I did, so I went right back to work. This time I opted not to bother with the retirement fund, but the school district put a small amount in each paycheck for me, and it slowly began building up again. It has been a few years since I worked at the jail now, but I get my retirement benefits statement quarterly. It came today. I guess after them paying me off once, they are now going to make me wait the full time to get this, which I think will be about age 65. I told Dee Ice we won't have to worry about it at all though. Every time the statement comes, it is down more from what it was. This isn't really a good time for investments. I figure at the rate it's going, there won't be a single penny of it left by the time I am 65. :0s

THE BETTER TO SEE YOU

2012-01-20T11:43:00.000-08:00

I have a confession to make: I haven't been to the eye doctor for 15 years - until this morning. I was supposed to get a diabetic eye exam last year, and I didn't. I told the doctor I kept putting it off because they told me to bring a driver, and with Dee Ice on fire call for over half of the year I didn't have anyone to drive me home. Then when fire season is over, the holidays begin. So after the nagging of my insurance company and general practitioner, I finally made an appointment. My eye doctor wasn't even mad at me. Guess why? He said my eyes are in fantastic condition. :0) He even told me that in the future I don't have to bring anyone to drive me home, because of how good my eyes are. ( I bet Dee Ice wishes he'd known that BEFORE my 3 hour appointment.) He did the whole exam on the bottom line of the eye chart. I told him I think my eyesight has actually improved over the last few years, and he said it is because I have slight cataracts, so slight that he doesn't think they will ever be a problem. In the meantime, they act like contact lenses and have improved my vision. He also said he doubts I will ever have to wear glasses. He did offer to give me one contact so I wouldn't have to wear reading glasses, but I declined. I rub my eyes all the time. I don't want contacts. I have reading glasses all over the house, because I buy them at the dollar store. You know, by the bed, on the desk, by the sewing machine, etc. He didn't get mad at that, either; he just laughed. He thinks it is okay. He told me diabetic eye exams are important because they can detect problems at their earliest time. The eye is the only place in the body where you can see veins and arteries, and an exam can detect such things as kidney problems before you begin to have symptoms. I have never had my eyes dilated before, so I'm wearing sunglasses for a few hours, even in the house, but that eye exam wasn't as bad as I'd heard they were. But do as I say, not as I did, and get an eye exam if you need one.

WHAT MAKES ME SMILE....

2012-01-18T18:27:00.000-08:00

One of my good friends called me the other day. We both used to live in Flaming Gorge at the same time, and now we both do not, but we stay in touch. She and her husband are retired, but they teach Hunter Safety classes, and that is what they had been doing all day before she called. They have taught 1091 young hunters so far! That is quite a contribution to their community. As we were talking, she said something that kind of struck me and made me think. She said she has been crocheting doilies like the one her grandmother used to have, one for each of her sisters and one for her. She said, "If I don't have a quilt on or a crocheting project, I am not happy. I am just not happy." I realized I feel the exact same way - no, I don't crochet doilies or make quilts, but I always need a project going to be happy. My projects right now are scrapbook pages of kids and grandchildren for a family history book I am keeping, and making Christmas stockings. My favorite time of the year to work on Christmas projects is January. I have made a stocking for each member of my family (although some have never been here on Christmas Eve to see it) and I wanted to make 3 more for Lightning Strikes' new family. Two of those are finished, and the third just needs one seam sewn to finish it, but I decided to work ahead and make several more for the future as long as I am in the mood. I don't like to watch tv without something to work on (and actually do not watch much tv) and I like being able to create. I also need a book on hand, and my classical cds. And if I am not doing any of those, then I am probably going to feel a little depressed. Someone told me once they were excited to go to heaven so they could lay on a cloud all day and do nothing, and have someone to wait on them (???), but to me that would be pure hell.

SHOPPING SPLIT

2012-01-16T14:35:00.000-08:00

KMart had the laundry detergent I use on sale today, so I went to get some. Dee Ice stopped to look at a display at the front, and I went on back to look at the 90% off Christmas clearance. (5 rolls of wrapping paper and 3 packages of bows for $3...I know you want to know :0D ) On my way back there, I ran into an ex co-worker of Dee Ice's. She had a look of concern on her face and stopped me to ask me if Dee Ice and I were still married. I said we were, and said, "He's right up there looking at clearance items, see? But I wanted to look at the Christmas clearance." She suddenly got embarrassed looking and said, "Well, I thought maybe his retirement got to you and you kicked him out!" I will never cease to be amazed at the things people say to me, not if I make it to be the oldest person in the world.

TWO NEGATIVES THAT CAN'T MAKE A POSITIVE

2012-01-15T11:50:00.000-08:00

Forget what they taught you in math, 2 negatives do not always make a positive. Negative 1: During class today at church (we teach 4 year olds) Dee Ice told the children that they were all very cute. One little girl sitting next to me said in a very serious voice, "I'm not." I said, "Oh, yes you are, you are very cute." And she was. She said, "No, I'm not cute. My mom told me I'm not cute, and I know I'm not cute, because she is always mean to me." She's FOUR YEARS OLD. Does that make your heart hurt like it did mine? Negative 2: We had a visiting speaker today in church, and his main message was being kind to everyone. Then I think some of his personal opinions began to take over. He closed his talk out by saying no one should ever say these 3 words the way many people do now: Really, seriously, and whatever. He said if you ever asked Jesus Christ to do something for you, He would never respond with "Really?", so we shouldn't either. Really, Mr. Speaker? You found that in gospel doctrine? Seriously, it seems to me that personal opinions ought to be left out of Church sermons. He said if you use these 3 terms, you are not really a good person. Whatever. (And when I had this discussion after church with Dee Ice, he said, "Well, in your case he left out one more. He forgot "hmmm".) My name is Inklings. I'm a good person, and I use these three words: really, seriously, and whatever. And I plan to avoid anyone who thinks I'm not a good person if I do. :0)

CAN'T BELL THE CAT, THOUGH :0s

2012-01-14T12:49:00.000-08:00

Dee Ice and I went to the store today looking for grass seed. We are tired of the cat eating our house plants, so after finding the very last sprig of green frond from our fern thrown up in front of the door, we decided to go look at a chia pet we'd seen a few weeks ago. When we realized the chia pet grew wheat grass, we changed our minds and went to the grocery store and bought some wheat grass sprouts there. (Chia pets: $15.99/wheat grass at the store:$1.59. No brainer.) We brought it home and planted it in the fern's pot. The cat isn't interested in it all, but maybe she is just full of fern right now, and will try it later? I told Dee Ice I hoped we weren't stuck with a useless wheat grass plant now, and he looked at me incredulously and said, "You may not be able to kill a plant, but it won't bother me at all!" While we were looking at the chia pets, a woman was looking over the Christmas clearance nearby. She told me she was looking for bells. She said Santa's reindeer left her granddaughter one of their bells one Christmas when she was little, and ever since, and the granddaughter has saved them all in a collection. Each one is different, and some are new, some are antique, some are small, some are big. I thought that was such a cute little Christmas tradition. It made me wish the reindeer had left bells for my children. :0)

RINGER

2012-01-13T08:45:00.000-08:00

My daughter, Lightning Strikes, got engaged last night. I was expecting it. Her boyfriend called Dee Ice a few days after Christmas to tell him he loves our daughter very much and wants to be with her forever. He wanted to know how we felt about that, and Dee Ice told him we were very happy to hear it. He lives 8 hours away from her, but he and his 2 little kids drove to her town Wednesday. I wondered then if he was coming to propose, and he was. They called me shortly afterwards to tell me, and she said she was posting a picture of her ring on FaceBook, so I got on to see it. There were no comments yet when I got on, but as I sat there, one after the other came up and I continued to sit there about a half an hour in amazement at how many people commented. I saw a couple of comments that said something to the effect of, wait, didn't you just meet this guy? Technically she did, but they have been online friends for 6 years, as he dated someone else, married her, had 2 kids 10 months apart, and got divorced about 3 years ago. He and Lightning Strikes had decided when they met on LDS Singles 6 years ago that the distance between them was so great that they would just be friends and write emails back and forth, and they became very close friends. Last summer they began texting, and would text back and forth all day. Late Thanksgiving night she was telling me about their texting and how important it had become to her. I said, "Then maybe you should kick it up and start talking on the phone." She said it was a good idea, and she would ask him about it the next day. To her surprise, the next morning he told her he thought they should start talking on the phone, and that night they had a 3 1/2 hour conversation. They continued to talk long hours on the phone, and he decided to drive there to meet her. They liked each other even more in person, and like he said, decided they had something rare and should try a long-distance relationship. I think most of her friends are happy for her, those of us in the family who have met him feel happy and absolutely calm about their decision. His family also feels absolutely calm and happy about their decision, including his 2 cute little kids. The minute he walked through the door with a sleepy, crying little girl, I immediately thought, "This is the one for Lightning Strikes." I knew then that it was just a matter of time. And do you want to know why it is so easy for us to all accept how fast this happened? His parents dated 2 weeks before they got engaged. His brothers dated 1 week before they got engaged. Dee Ice and I dated 3 weeks before we got engaged. We're all still married. :0)

A PICTURE IS WORTH A THOUSAND WORDS...

2012-01-12T19:22:00.000-08:00

I just finished making this red Christmas scrapbook. I made it out of fabric, like you would make a bookcover, and slipped it over a 3 ring binder. I slightly pad the fabric. I made the green one years ago, but it is so full I really think I need to transfer a few pages into the red one. Each year I take the photo Christmas cards plus any kids'/grandkids' Santa pictures, and make scrapbook pages out of them. I keep the color scheme in red-green-white, and cut up other Christmas cards to fit in the odd empty spaces where there aren't pictures. It has really been fun to have this scrapbook. I will admit I stole this idea from my friend Anne, when we lived in Flaming Gorge. I had to go back and do the best I could with past years, but it is something I do each January now. These books are full of wonderful pictures and memories of our family and friends. One year I found a thank-you note that MJ had written Santa and I put that in there. (MJ, I will let you take it out now that you are grown up.) It really touched me, because although kids write letters to Santa asking for things, not many kids write a thank-you after Christmas. I just couldn't bear to throw away pictures of people we care about, and I am really glad I decided to do this.

MONSTROSITY

2012-01-12T11:39:00.000-08:00

We went to the store today and passed the toy section. I noticed a cute little display of dress-up clothes for girls. I have a small dresser full of dress up clothes and accessories for when the granddaughters come to visit, so I was interested. Then I saw the big sign promoting them: Be yourself. Be Unique. Be a MONSTER. Seriously? Gee, and I have been a little worried about little girls expecting to grow up to be princesses.

LIAR, LIAR, PANTS ON FIRE!

2012-01-11T19:42:00.000-08:00

It was our women's church group tonight, and I was going to skip it. Then Dee Ice came home from scouts a little bummed out - no kids showed up for it after he'd gotten everything ready earlier in the day. I figured if I didn't go to our church group, I'd be as bad as the kids, so I went. They had some things going on, but they played a getting-to-know-you game where you tell 3 things about yourself, 2 truths and 1 lie. It was pretty interesting to hear some of the unusual things about people. Here were my 3 things: 1. I used to live in Alaska 2. I used to live in a log house in Montana that didn't have any closets or cupboards 3. I had a baby in the car. Which one do you think is the lie? (Of course, my family knows the answer.) When I got home Dee Ice said, "What did they do for church tonight?" and I replied, "They taught us how to lie. :0)

I STILL WANT JON HUNTSMAN FOR PRESIDENT :0)

2012-01-10T11:57:00.001-08:00

TENUOUS CONNECTIONS

2012-01-10T11:56:00.000-08:00

I have had something on my mind for some time now, and decided today I am going to blog it. It seems to me that people don't connect with each other as much as they used to. I love all the technological things we have today, and in some ways connect even more through them (ie: more frequent e-mails, more phone conversations), but sometimes I think they and other things get in the way of our relationships with friends and family. We have gone to visit our family sometimes, and the grandkids run out and hug us, say, "Hi, Grandma! Hi, Grandpa!" and then run back to the video games they were playing before we came, or the movie they are watching, or the computer they are on, never to set foot out of their room again. I have heard other parents and grandparents say the same types of things happen to them, so it isn't just us. Or you are in a room full of family, and suddenly you realize almost every person is watching tv, texting or talking on their phone, reading something, or on their laptop, even though the group is seldom together. I noticed last summer when all of my siblings were at my parents' house that most of the group was so busy going to do fun things or see interesting sites that they actually never really visited much with my parents, who at 85 and 86, may not be here many more years. Or even one. Ditto for visiting other siblings. I found myself sitting alone with my parents for hours at a time, while Dad wryly commented that he sure hadn't expected the house to be that quiet that week. I e-mail family frequently, but have had such things happen as people who call and ask me a question that I'd already answered in an e-mail a few days before, only to have them say, "Well, I really don't check my e-mail much." I used to have a group of people I only heard from at Christmas, but there seems to be a growing trend among them to not send Christmas cards any more. It doesn't bother me to not get cards from people I am regularly in touch with, but I miss hearing from people who are special to me, and who now don't even connect once a year. I was grateful this year for several friends who e-mailed me on receipt of our Christmas card and told me they weren't sending cards out, but wanted to connect through a note. We have not had much contact with Dee Ice's brothers and their families since their mother died 2 years ago. She was the family glue, I guess. Several years ago one of the brothers decided we should all quit giving family gifts and just call each other on the holidays instead. Dee Ice called for several years, but he never had phone calls back, so he quit. No calls from brothers at all. Now we never see them unless we go to them, never hear from them even at Christmas, and the e-mails I write them are always unanswered. Once, quite a few years ago, we got notice that we were being transferred to another community through Dee Ice's work. We had been quite involved in that community, and people kept telling us they didn't know how they were going to manage without us. I began to wonder if they could, too. :0) I said something to that effect to Dee Ice, and he said, "Do you want to know how much people miss you when you're gone? Put your hand in a bucket of water and take it out. The hole in the water is the hole you leave behind you." I thought that was a pretty harsh statement at the time, but maybe he is right after all?

STILL WANTING HUNTSMAN FOR PRESIDENT

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

I picked up the SL Trib today and was so happy to see on the Opinion page that the Trib is supporting Jon Huntsman for president. Someone told me the Boston Globe is, too. I am so happy I don't have to be the lonely supporter anymore. :0) I don't expect him to get the nomination this time, but quite frankly, I think Obama is going to get re-elected. So I am hoping for Huntsman in the next go-round. He thinks like I do and that is the first candidate who ever has. My mother hates him, because although he opposes gay marriage, he supports civil unions. I like him a LOT. It is so plain to me that he is the best qualified candidate that I can't understand why everyone isn't on his bandwagon. Remember, I live in Utah, and he was our governor, so I have seen him in action.

STILL REMEMBERING

2012-01-08T12:42:00.000-08:00

I noticed after teaching Primary today that one of the little girls (who is fairly new in the ward) had left part of the handout she'd colored. (It was a little game they had in a baggie to color and take home to play.) Instead of worrying if she had all the pieces, I just picked up an extra handout and told Dee Ice if we saw her on the way out, I'd give it to her, and otherwise I wouldn't worry about it. He said he had seen that family leave right after church, so he figured they were gone. Well, as we approached our car, we saw this family in a van right next to us. They started up their van as we got close to the car, so I motioned the mom to roll down her window, and then gave her the handout. She pointed to our rear window and asked me how I knew 13 and 44. Several years ago, a few weeks before their senior year, 4 boys that my daughters know had gone school clothes shopping in Provo. On the way home they began to pass a car, realized a semi was coming in the other lane, so tried to get back into their own lane. They weren't fast enough, and the semi clipped the car and took out the back seat, killing 2 of the boys. 13 and 44 were their football numbers, and someone made a bunch of vinyl stickers to put in car windows that said, Remembered: 13 and 44. You don't see many around now as people have bought new cars, and you can't buy the stickers any more, but we still have ours. So I told this woman that the 2 boys were friends of my daughters. She said, "I had to wait and see whose car it was. One of them was my brother."

A SONG OF ICE AND COLD

2012-01-07T18:11:00.000-08:00

We drove about 200 miles today to see our grandson baptized. In fact, Dee Ice was the one who baptized him. We left early, as snow was forecast, and we drove through about 12 miles of a snowstorm, then the weather and roads looked pretty clear. We took the grandson and his family to lunch afterwards - McDonald's, because the kids never get to go and they wanted to play on the play place. When I asked them what they wanted to order, 2 grandsons told me ice cream. I vetoed that right away and told them they had to have food. I guess I am a mean grandma, but those kids lived with me for a total of 16 months and you think they would have known me better than to even ask. I think they had a good time there, and you will be happy to know that as they finished up, I took them up to the counter and bought them ice cream, but only the ones who'd eaten their food ( I didn't care if they ate their french fries or drinks). So I had to make 3 trips to the counter before they all got their ice cream, but the lady taking our order was loving it. Dee Ice hurt his back somehow and was hurting bad enough that we left for home about 1:30. I drove. This time we had enough snowstorm that I think we only had about 12 miles of good weather. When we were going through the canyon and it was getting scary, Dee Ice asked me if I was managing the driving okay. Then he said, "Never mind, I forget that you're used to it." I am. I used to live in Flaming Gorge, and we lived on the top of the mountain. I have driven in many a white-out where you had to look at the reflector posts to stay on the road. Compared to that, today was a piece of cake.

ROAD TRIPPING WITH THE BEACH BOYS, CHER, AND THE BEATLES

2012-01-06T20:06:00.000-08:00

We took a little road trip today, all Dee Ice's idea, and I was basically just along so he didn't have to drive alone. Dee Ice had tried to see if any of his ex co-workers wanted to go to the retirement party of someone he knows in the regional office in Ogden, but no one did. So I went with him. He said this was strictly his trip and he wasn't stopping anywhere, just going straight up and straight back. We left about 7:30 a.m. I have been de-junking my house, and I had an old stereo and a stack of record albums that I offered to the kids, and MJ was the first person to tell me she wanted them. We took those along and decided we'd stop long enough to drop them off, since we had time. Before we got there, Dee Ice said I should just stay at MJ's house and skip the party, since I don't know any of the people who were attending and he tends to go off by himself once he gets to those things anyway. That, and the fact that MJ had the day off with no plans. So we ran her errands and visited until Dee Ice came back to get me. He had a great time, the party went longer than anyone thought it would, Dee Ice stayed longer than that until MJ and I started wondering if he'd gotten in a car wreck or something. I was glad to see at least one of my kids. Wish I could have seen the rest. And did I mention that when we had been on the road about 45 minutes this morning, one of Dee Ice's friends called to say he'd changed his mind and wanted to go along after all? Good timing, Max. :0s

A RESOLUTION WITH WINGS

2012-01-04T12:12:00.000-08:00

We had to go to the pharmacy for a diabetes RX today, and while we were there, Dee Ice picked up a free guide on healthy eating. It showed calories, carbs, and portion sizes. It provided a little light reading for lunch. By light, I mean laughing in disbelief. A portion of meat should not be bigger than a pack of cards. A serving size of rice or pasta is 1/3 cup. Dee Ice said he has never eaten only 1/3 cup of anything in his life. :0) A serving of cheese is a portion the size of your thumb, and a serving of baked potato is 1/4 of a medium potato. Seriously??? Dee Ice said, "I think Native Minnow has the right idea...death by banana cream pie."

BUNCO!

2012-01-03T20:59:00.000-08:00

My parents live in a tiny town where the population is less than 200. I did not grow up there, but my mother did, and my parents bought her family home and remodeled it when Dad retired. That town has held a Bunco party every year since before WWI. Yes, WWI. All ages play, from small children to great-grandparents. Friends and family from out of town also come for this. Everyone brings some kind of potluck treat to share. I don't know if you have ever played Bunco, but you set up long tables in a U shape, with one "head table", and play in groups of 4. Each group has 3 dice. The head table rolls one die and calls out that number, then everyone starts playing at once. You play in pairs, with the person kitty corner from you. This is how you score: 3 of the number gets you 15 points. 2 of the number gets you 5 points. One of the number gets you 1 point. 3 of any other number gets you 5 points, also. You play until a team at the head table gets Bunco - 21 points. Then whoever is ahead in the other groups wins. The winners move forward, and the losers stay where they are, but one loser changes seats so that each time you play, you are paired with a different partner. The exception is at the head table, where partners stay paired until they lose.Earlier today we didn't think we would go this year, but at the last possible moment, we changed our minds and went. Luckily I had a good-sized bag of assorted chocolate Christmas candy, so I took that as my potluck. I was in the same group as my parents several times, and when I would get on a "hot streak" of rolling the number, my mother would say, "Inklings, stop that right now," and I would not roll the number again. After awhile I found myself at the head table, partnered with a local man I'd been partnered with before. We won several rounds. Soon my mother and Dee Ice came to the head table. The man said to me, "Don't you dare listen to your mother up here! You act like a teenager. Rebel!" I laughed and told him I would think like a fifteen year old. I guess it worked - we beat Mom and Dee Ice. We stayed up there for quite a few rounds, but after awhile we lost and had to move. I was surprised that there were 5 cash prizes this year, $30, $25, $20 for the top 3 winners, $20 and $25 for the lowest players. And no, neither Dee Ice nor I won any money at all, and neither did my parents, but it was fun.

WAKE THE DEAD

2012-01-02T12:51:00.000-08:00

I almost never take a nap. In fact, my daughter told me this morning that the only times she remembers me taking one was when I had migraines. (FYI: I quit getting migraines after I quit taking estrogen.) But yesterday when we went to 9:00 church (we alternate with another congregation between 9 and 1 every other year) I realized I wasn't due to take my diabetes medicine until 9:40, so I just took it at the drinking fountain in the foyer. I am supposed to take it with food, but figured it would be okay since I had eaten breakfast before I left home. It wasn't okay, and it made me rather sick. I am also wondering if I am coming down with a cold, so I shocked Dee Ice yesterday after church by telling him I was going to lay down for awhile and sleep. I was also feeling very cold, another think that doesn't happen very often to me, so I wrapped up in a couple of blankets. I woke up suddenly when Dee Ice came bursting through the bedroom door. He said the house seemed very quiet, and he thought I was dead. It's a good thing I don't panic like that when Dee Ice naps. I think my blood pressure would soar. :0)

GOODBYE 2011!

2011-12-31T21:22:00.000-08:00

Mexican food and a rodeo to see 2011 out. We sat close enough to the rodeo grounds for me to get manure flipped up on my face as a bronc bucked by. :0)I first noticed this when I was listening to some interviews with bull riders at a televised rodeo in Las Vegas, but it hit me that they all have high voices. That leads me to wonder, which came first, the high voice or the bull riding? Something to think about if you're a cowboy thinking of bull riding in 2012.

Wow.

2011-12-31T14:38:00.000-08:00

Change For A Dollar Movie: Is he asking for Change, or is he asking for CHANGE? Follow a man as he affects multiple peoples' lives with just one dollar, proving that it doesn't take much to be the change in someone's life. Written and directed by Sharon Wright.My friend Janice sent this to me. It's worth the ten minutes. Something to think about as we go into 2012.

HALLMARK MOMENTS

2011-12-30T13:30:00.000-08:00

Today I made caramel popcorn for the little granddaughters who are visiting. Their dad and grandpa can have some, too. :0) The 7 year old got a bag of popcorn out of the microwave and said, "Are we having one of those grandmother/granddaughter things?" Yes, we were. If you want to have one of those kinds of things with the kids in your life, here is the easy recipe: Pop 2 bags of microwave popcorn, removing the unpopped kernels. Melt in a pan, stirring constantly: 1 c brown sugar, 1 cube margarine, and 30 large marshmallows. When marshmallows are melted, quickly pour over popped popcorn and stir until well coated. Pour onto wax paper to cool. I'm not going to lie, I always double this. When I was in a crucial caramel popcorn moment, the doorbell rang. Dee Ice answered it. It was one of the 5 year olds from our CTR4 Primary class. He had a present for us. It was this clock. How cute is that?

CHOCOLATE ICE CREAM CAKE ROLL

2011-12-29T13:25:00.000-08:00

Mix together: 1 c flour 1 tsp baking powder 1/4 tsp salt 1/4 c baking cocoa powder Set aside. In a bowl, beat 3 large eggs until very thick and lemon colored, about 5 minutes. Gradually beat in 1 c sugar. Blend in 1/3 c water and 1 tsp vanilla. Slowly mix in dry ingredients. Generously grease a 15 x 10 x 1 inch jellyroll pan that has been sprinkled with flour. Pour batter into pan and bake at 375 for about 12 minutes. Loosen with spatula and turn out onto a terry cloth towel that has been sprinkled with powdered sugar. Roll up cake and towel and let cool about 1 hour. Unroll, remove towel. Fill with vanilla ice cream or you may fill with whipped cream. Roll up just cake and slice to serve. Optional: top with chocolate ice cream topping.

PUMPKIN CAKE ROLL

2011-12-29T13:20:00.000-08:00

Pumpkin Cake Roll: 375 oven FILLING: 1 c powdered sugar 6-oz cream cheese 1/4 c margarine (1/2 stick) 1/2 tsp vanilla Combine ingredients and beat smooth. Set aside CAKE: 3 eggs 1 c sugar 2/3 c canned pumpkin 1 tsp lemon juice 3/4 c stirred and measured flour 1 tsp baking powder 2 tsp cinnamon 1 tsp ginger 1/2 tsp nutmeg 1/2 tsp salt 1 c chopped walnuts Beat eggs on high for at least 5 minutes, then gradually beat in sugar. Stir in pumpkin and lemon juice. Mix dry ingredients together and fold into pumpkin mixture. Generously grease a 15 x 10 x 1 inch jellyroll pan. Sprinkle well with flour. Spread batter in pan and bake for 15 minutes. Turn cake on terry cloth towel that has been sprinkled with powdered sugar. (Loosen edges with a spatula or knife) Starting at narrow end, carefully roll towel and cake together. Let cool. Carefully unroll. Spread with cake filling and then roll back up without towel. Wrap with plastic wrap. Chill. Slice to serve.

KIDS BRING THEIR OWN LOVE

2011-12-28T09:29:00.000-08:00

We had fun this week meeting our daughter's boyfriend and his kids. He was nervous about that, but he needn't have been. Dee Ice and I love kids. Look at how much we enjoy our Primary class at church. We have 6 adopted grandchildren, and all but one came to us as children rather than babies. The ages of the older ones when they came into the family ranged from 5 to 9, and the first time we saw each of them, it was love at first sight. We love all of our grandchildren just as though they'd been born to us. These 2 little kids we just met came in just like they were already grandkids, too. They even ran to us to hug us goodbye when they left, and told us they loved us. The little 3 year old girl told us right before she left to "wait right there" for her until she came back again, and then added as she was ready to walk out the door that we "can always talk on the phone". My grandmother said 2 things to me that come to mind as I write this: One, that kids bring their own love, and two, that we are a family who loves adopted children easily. This morning the boyfriend texted my daughter that his 4 year old son said, "I liked going to that house where you kept hugging (Lightning Strikes)." I thought that was pretty cute. We liked it, too. My mother asked me, "Are you comfortable with him bringing his kids to your house?" in a tone that made me think she wouldn't have been. I told her, "Very!"

OH, SHOOT!

2011-12-27T14:55:00.000-08:00

We have the tradition to go shooting glass Christmas ornaments the day after Christmas. We buy these glass balls on clearance sales, yards sales and second hand stores. Unfortunately we cannot buy the bullets the same way. :0) (It's worth it to us or we wouldn't keep doing it. Our kids love this event.) We thought we'd only have a group of 3 this year. Two, since I never shoot. However, we ended up having Our 2 oldest sons bring 2 of their kids, Lightning Strikes, her boyfriend and 2 kids, and us. Even the little children enjoyed shooting, and LS's boyfriend's 3 year old hit an ornament right off, although I have to admit it was sheer luck. The boyfriend is a police officer, and he brought along an AR-15. We were all impressed with that. I hope you all had as fun of a Christmas as we did, because we have had a great couple of days! Our sons and their kids went home last night, Lightning Strikes left before dawn this morning to go home to work, and her boyfriend and his kids left about noon to go home to another state. It's a pretty quiet house all of a sudden, except for the sound of the washer and dryer going as I wash all the sheets. :0)

A HAPPY CHRISTMAS TO YOU ALL!

2011-12-25T11:01:00.000-08:00

Christmas is quieter this year, because we only have Lightning Strikes at home, although Dr. Psycho and his 2 youngest kids are coming later this afternoon. We did see Native Minnow and his oldest son on their way to AZ on Friday night, though. Last night we did our traditional Christmas Eve thing - we drove around looking at Christmas lights while listening to Beaver's Own Christmas, a cd that was made by a group of locals years ago. We used to live there. Then we came home to sticky dough rolls (I let myself eat one), eggnog (not me, it's one thing I don't mind giving up as a diabetic) a chocolate orange, which I do mind giving up, and a cheese ball and crackers. Since Christmas is on Sunday this year and we have a special Church service at 1:00, we decided to hold the turkey dinner off until around 6:00 and had waffles with Cool Whip and strawberries for breakfast. Lightning Strikes and I were sitting there eating our waffles, and happened to see out the window a little girl riding a pink bike, all dressed in pink winter wear. She was pretty wobbly on the bike, and soon we saw her take a spill. She got up, looked around, brushed her self off and was fine, but then she noticed who we think was her brother running towards her from down the block. She threw herself to the ground and began to sob. Well, why cry without an audience? :0) The boy helped her up, and she ran over to the bike and threw it across the yard and stalked off. He came after he with the bike, and pretty soon she was on it again and riding wobbily down the sidewalk. What a funny little Christmas vignette.

SCROOGE OR SANTA?

2011-12-23T10:41:00.000-08:00

I am missing my kids this week, because several of them are spending Christmas with their in-laws this Christmas, but we were lucky enough to have two sons, and two grandsons visit over night this last week, and a daughter is coming for the weekend. We have had several of our kids from church stop by to give us goodies and cute notes. The parents have let their children bring them to the door while they watch from the car, and it has been so sweet and fun to see them. This bottle of m and ms was delivered last night by a cute little blonde. Another sweet thing came to me via Facebook, when one of the moms messaged me that her daughter could not stop talking this week about the Nativity we had the kids do on Sunday. I guess she really enjoyed that, and I was glad her mother was thoughtful enough to message me and tell me that. (Her little girl was a sheep :0) ) On the opposite side of that coin, I will tell you about another Facebook message I can't stop thinking about. I am FB friends with a young mother who went to our church in Montana when we lived there. I am between her and her mother in age, and her mother worked in Primary when I was Primary president there, so she friended me a few months ago. The mother has had some serious surgery and had to be in a rehabilitation center afterwards for some time. Now she has moved in with her daughter until she gets back on her feet. It turns out that the daughter is also in the middle of moving this week. They will be changing towns, and also schools for the kids, but basically they are moving from one suburb of a city to another suburb of the same city. A lot of changes for kids at an emotional time of the year, and her young son has begun acting out. His mother has given him the "Santa's elves are watching" speech, yet he still refused to help pack up his room, and he yelled at his sister during a spat that he wished she'd never been born. Typical kid stuff, to me, but the mother is very upset. She wrote on FB that she warned him to be nice or Santa wouldn't come, yet he keeps acting out. So she wants to not let him have any Christmas presents this year. She wants to keep them until his birthday, which is in May, and even then, only give them to him if his behavior is good. She wanted to know what her FB friends thought of that. I didn't comment. To be honest, I was shocked and horrified that she was even thinking of doing that. To my surprise, people have been writing her comments saying she shouldn't give her son his presents, that they have done the same thing in the past to their children, despite disapproving parents, in-laws and other family members. One man said only "mean parents are good parents in the long run". Seriously? My heart aches for any child who is deemed bad enough not to get some kind of gift from Santa. I can only hope that sometime before Christmas Eve, this woman and anyone else contemplating keeping presents from their children will get a change of heart and feel the true spirit of Christmas. Isn't Christmas about remembering the Christ child, focusing on those we love, giving unconditional love, like our Savior Jesus Christ gives us?

CANDY STICK

2011-12-21T08:47:00.000-08:00

The doorbell rang last night, and there stood one of the little girls in our Primary class, holding this candy stick. It was filled with wrapped candies such as miniature chocolate bars and Hershey's kisses. Attached was a little poem that said: "If I could make a candy stick that was as sweet as you, it would be gigantic and weigh a ton or two! A candy stick that big would be awfully hard to eat, so instead I made a candy stick filled with love and yummy sweets!" What was sweeter was the thank-you note with it, thanking us for being her Primary teachers at church this year. PS The stick was made of pvc pipe and covered with wrapping paper and cellophane, in case you want to steal this idea for neighbor gifts.

REAL CARDS

2011-12-19T10:53:00.000-08:00

I thanked a woman at church yesterday for the birthday card she sent me. I was surprised to get it, as I hardly know her, but she and her father are 2 of the people I took extra garden vegetables to this year. She had quite a black eye and I was very tactful and asked her how she got it. :0s She said she bumped it on the car door as she got in. I told her that when my grandson was little, his mother got him out of the car and bumped his eye on the corner of the door. It cut above his eye deep enough to need stitches, so we had to take him to the ER. He kept crying, and the doctor kept asking me how his eye got hurt, asking questions that made us think he thought his mother had abused him or something. I get that they see a lot of that, but when you are on the receiving end and it's innocent, it gets annoying. Anyway, my grandson cried so much that I got out a little notebook and pen to let him draw. He drew a picture of himself, but it only had one eye. His mother said, "Why do you only have one eye in this picture?" He replied, "Remember? You hurt it on the car door?" The doctor quit asking the same questions over and over after that. We think he was crying so hard because he thought he only had one eye, not because he was hurt. As I went to teach my class, another woman at church hurried after me and handed me a belated birthday card. On the outside it said: Don't listen to people who say you're old! On the inside it said: Just let it go in one hearing aid and out the other. Happy Birthday. I SAID HAPPY BIRTHDAY!! I also got a funny one from my daughter. On the outside it said: (with dogs dressed up) Regular bitching prolongs your life by 5.8 years. On the inside it said: We're gonna live forever! Happy Birthday. And to the side, a dog saying "Proving once again, only the good die young." :0)

BEARY MERRY CHRISTMAS TO ALL

2011-12-18T07:18:00.001-08:00

Only one week until Christmas, and I wish you a wonderful one. And no, we don't live in Dutch John. But we used to. :0)

CONVERSATION WITH MY GRANDSON

2011-12-17T14:25:00.001-08:00

Grandson: (on telephone) Thank you for the birthday card and money, Grandma.Me: Did you have a fun birthday?Grandson: Yes.Me: Well, that money is to buy yourself something fun.(Sound of phone dropping)Grandson: ( in the distance) Yay! Grandma said this money is to buy myself something fun!Me thinking: Oh-oh. His brother DID buy an iguana with all of his birthday money. I may be in trouble here. :0s

TIRED OF SNOW?

2011-12-16T12:13:00.001-08:00

They are, too.

CHILE VERDE RECIPE

2011-12-16T09:18:00.000-08:00

1 lb lean pork loin 2 fresh garlic cloves 1 onion 1/8 cup vegetable oil 4 T flour 2 c hot water 3/4 c green chile 2 jalapenos 1/8 to 1/4 ground cumin 2 peeled chopped tomatoes seasoning salt to taste Brown meat with onion and garlic until brown. Season with seasoning salt or salt. Add flour. Stir, then hot water. Stir until juice starts to thicken. Add green chiles, cumin, tomatoes, jalapenos. Simmer until meat is tender. Serve with it tortillas. Roll chile verde inside hot tortillas with cheese, then smother on top with chile verde.

A YEAR OLDER IS BETTER THAN THE ALTERNATIVE

2011-12-15T07:41:00.000-08:00

62 years plus 6 weeks ago, this is what I looked like. This was the peak of my cuteness, and it has all gone downhill since. Last Sunday the woman in charge of the Christmas program rushed over and asked me to be one of the readers. She said she need an old woman to read the part of Elizabeth, the mother of John the Baptist, and realized I'd be perfect. Sigh.....happy birthday to me. :0)

BLESSINGS BIG AND SMALL

2011-12-14T15:37:00.000-08:00

The small: While Dee Ice was taking his Webelos scouts to Home Depot so they could build something out of wood there (Home Depot does it for free with the kids as a service to the community), I decided to go to the second hand store again, even though we went yesterday. Several years ago when I taught in a co-op preschool that MJ attended, I was somehow delegated to do a community Nativity program with the children. I needed costumes, but I had a box of material my grandmother had given me several years before, ends from fabric rolls at a sewing factory. They made very nice costumes for the Nativity, and I even had some sheep. Because I have a large Primary class at church, I thought I might need an extra costume this year, and I remembered that last year after Halloween I bought a pony costume on clearance for $2. Or in this case, a donkey costume. :0) My angel costume looked a little bedraggled, but I had a large piece of eyelet material I decided to make into a new angel costume yesterday, and some rhinestone sew-on stars to sprinkle here and there, but it needed a sash. So today - even though I hadn't seen anything yesterday like what I needed - I went back. I found 3 large plastic candy canes for 25 cents each. Shepherd crooks. I also found a clear white sash with sparkly dots here and there on it for my angel sash. The Big: After I bought these things, I decided to go to the dollar store for red paper napkins. They are the only place in town where I have found red napkins, and I wanted them for my Christmas dinner, since a few years ago I made Santa napkin rings. The red point of the folded napkin makes the Santa hat, the other part the Santa "body". I pulled into the parking lot where the dollar store is, and I had no sooner done so, than I came to a complete stop, not knowing why on earth I was driving that way. Not two seconds later, A car came speeding out between 2 parked cars, the driver's head being turned the other way and not even knowing I was there. I would have been creamed without a doubt. Someone was watching out for me for sure today!

I HOPE HE ISN'T ASKING SANTA FOR A PORCHE....

2011-12-14T11:24:00.000-08:00

(Don't worry....this picture was taken about 18 years ago. Evidently Dee Ice wasn't a good enough boy then to get a Porche:0) )

HAND IT TO ME

2011-12-13T12:36:00.000-08:00

Last week I told Dee Ice that I wanted to go to the second hand store. He asked me why I wanted to go, since we had just been a few days before and hadn't bought anything at all, but I told him I just had a feeling to go, so I wanted to go. We did. I didn't find anything interesting, but Dee Ice found a brand-new fleece vest with the price tags still on. It was originally $70 but he got it for $15. The rest of that story is that he has looked in every men's clothing section we go into for about a year trying to find one he likes, and this was the first one he found. We went today, and I found MJ one of the Harry Potter books in hardcover that she has been wanting for $2. While I was there I ran into my neighbor, and we talked for a few minutes. She said that awhile back she had wanted to read a book on prayer. Her son-in-law told her she could borrow his, but she had to leave her camera until she brought it back. He wasn't taking any chances on her returning it. I get that. I have decided not to loan books that I want to keep anymore since letting about 50 books be borrowed (I am not exaggerating) and never getting any of them back. I will only lend books I don't mind losing now. Anyway, she was on her way to KMart today, and as she passed the second hand store, she had the feeling to go in. When she went in, she found this book she wanted, in hardcover for $2. She had looked online for it new or used, to no avail. She said she'd had to return her son-in-law's beat up paperback, and she was so excited to get her own copy after wanting it for a couple of months. That's what keeps me going to second hand stores. You just never know what you are going to find there.

HE KNOWS WHEN YOU'VE BEEN BAD OR GOOD

2011-12-13T08:46:00.000-08:00

My kids hate it when I put family pictures on my blog, so usually I don't. But it has been long enough ago when these were taken that I doubt anyone would recognize them from these. Then again, maybe I've been bad enough blogging that Santa just took away one of my gifts......but hey, I've never felt that gifts were the most important part of Christmas, anyway.

WHY I LOVE TEACHING 4 AND 5 YEAR OLDS AT CHURCH

2011-12-11T16:52:00.001-08:00

This last week one of the children in our CTR4 class had her tonsils out. So did her older brother, although I didn't know about him until today. So the night before her surgery, I took her a little gift bag with some small things I'd gathered. I told her and her mother that it was for after her surgery, to help her recovery along a little bit. There was nothing big inside, but this is what I put into it: 2 tootsie roll pops, a get well card, a "a princess crown and wand", a notebook and a pen, a tiny cloth doll I'd made to fit into a baby carriage ( that you buy in packages at the dollar store) with a blanket and tiny bottle (also in baby shower packages at the dollar store), a paper-doll like baby with clothes and another tiny bottle, but made out of felt with embroidered designs on the clothes, 2 glow-in-the dark bracelets, and a sheet of Christmas stickers. Today I talked to her grandpa, and asked him how she was doing. He said she was doing pretty well, but he had to tell me a story. He said her surgery was first, and he brought her and her mother home from the hospital while her dad stayed with the brother during his surgery. He carried her in and put her on the couch, but she had only laid there a few seconds when She got groggily up and walked into the kitchen. Her grandpa hurried after her, not even thinking she was fully awake and worried that she would fall. He got there just as she climbed up on a stool and reached for the gift bag that her mother had put on the counter and forbidden her to touch. She made her way back to the couch and went through the things I had gotten her. Her grandpa thought it was pretty cute that getting that bag was her first fairly conscious thought. I thought so, too. The sad part to this story is that we lose this class in 2 weeks, when they move on. And then we get the rowdy little class we have watched in horror all year. Yikes! :0) Don't worry, we always feel this way when we change classes.

AN OPEN LETTER TO THE MOST CREATIVE AUTHOR THERE IS

2011-12-10T16:22:00.001-08:00

Dear J.K. Rowling, I am having Harry Potter withdrawals. Could you please just write a prequel? Or some kind of magic university years book? Love, Inklings

A DECEMBER SURPRISE

2011-12-09T13:37:00.001-08:00

Dee Ice and I were looking for some pictures, and we ran across a few that we don't remember getting or where we got them, pictures of him growing up. Included in the pictures was this one, taken during WW II in 1942. We don't know if it was right before his parents got married, or shortly after, but this is of his mother and father. How cute is it?

SANTA CLAWS

2011-12-09T06:40:00.001-08:00

Shopping is done, presents are delivered, cards are sent, and now the tree is up. Unfortunately I walked into the room shortly afterwards to discover the cat shredding a present. Grrrrr......I did use my alpha female voice on her, and a spray bottle. But when I got up this morning, there were Christmas village things scattered, and a few tree ornaments. She needs a night watchman, who carries a spray bottle. :0(

CONVERSATION WITH DEE ICE

2011-12-08T08:56:00.001-08:00

Dee Ice: I've been thinking lately that we need to get a new car. This one is getting pretty old and has a lot of miles on it.Me: I've been thinking the same thing. What kind of car do you think we should get?Dee Ice: A Porche.Me: Funny, but what kind of car, really?Dee Ice: A corvette.Me: A red one? Are you having a mid-life crisis?Dee Ice: No.Me: Good, because I was going to have to tell you that you are too late to have a mid-life crisis. You aren't going to live until you are 126.:0)

A FUN ENDING TO A SAD DAY

2011-12-07T17:29:00.001-08:00

We went to our friend's funeral today. It was an all day event between the travel and the funeral itself. We were told that last night's viewing was so much larger than expected that the mortuary decided to change where the funeral was held. Instead of the church, it was held at the stake center, and it was filled with people. One of her daughters asked everyone who had ever been taught by her to stand up, and about 1/3 of the people there stood. The schools there were all let out for the funeral because so many of the staff and her former students wanted to attend. She received some great tributes and a wonderful send off.We didn't get home until dark, and it was about the time we usually eat, so Dee Ice just pulled into a KFC. We ordered the food and they put his name on it, then he went to the restroom. While he was in there, his first name was called, but I went up to get it. The young man with the food had a strange look on his face. He said, "Is your last name (Inklings)? Pronounced that way and not the way it is spelled because your husband gets mad when people pronounce it that way?" I said, "...yes..." wondering why Dee Ice had put our last name on the food, looking down and seeing it was only his first name. The young man continued,"And did you take 2nd graders to lunch every day and wear a toe ring and write us a poem about school lunch being all brown?" I laughed when I said, "Yes...." He said, "Well, I'm Connor, and you used to take me to lunch in the school lunch room every day and teach reading in our class." I told him I was glad he recognized me and talked to me, because he had changed a bit since 2nd grade, and I would never have recognized him. It has been ten years. But I found the lunch poem: Have you ever wondered about your school lunch? The things that you eat and the things that you munch? Do you wonder just why the cooks fix what they fix? And why they keep feeding you mystery meat sticks? That mystery meat! Tell me, just where do they get it? Does it graze in green pastures or do they just net it? Does it come from the country of Talamazoo? All I know is it tastes just like Elmer's white glue! On the menu it said, "Popcorn chicken" one day. Popcorn? I love it! I yelled, "Hip hip hooray!" I can't wait to eat popcorn! I'll eat it up quick, but send back to the colonel these pieces of chick. One day in the lunch line the lunch was all brown. It was brown side to side and brown up and brown down. Not one sprig of parsley, not one drop of fruit jumbo. "How now, brown chow," was all I could mumble. And then the cooks dipped up some stuff they call glop. I don't know what it is, I just wish they would stop. And then my stomach gave such a sick little plop When they dropped all that glop on my tray with a slop. Every once in awhile school lunch is delicious! When I take my tray back, it has all empty dishes. On those days, I tell you, I eat every crumb. I love to eat pizza with cheese on it. Yum! Now, about this school lunch, I will give some advice: Be it chicken and noodles, spaghetti or rice, Just eat it. Just eat it. Just eat it, I say... If you don't, YOU'LL BE HUNGRY THE REST OF THE DAY!(Do! You! Like! How! Many! Times! I! Used! Exclamation! Points?) (And I am left with one burning question: how did I escape all the lunch ladies not putting out a contract on me for that poem? :0s )

NO STOCKINGS WERE HUNG BY THE CHIMNEY WITH CARE....

2011-12-06T13:52:00.001-08:00

Today as I recorded a purchase in my check book, I saw the date December 6. December is flying by, and 3 weeks from now Christmas will be over and done with. I heard on Fox news that 1/3 of shoppers are done shopping. I'm in that 1/3. I sent my Christmas cards yesterday, except for a few I am waiting on addresses for. I have most of Christmas dinner bought, except for those few things that have to wait until just before. The tree is up, but that is all. No lights, no decorations, just sitting in the middle of the living room. It's been there since Sunday, but only 2 people live here now, and no one is urging us to do it, so we still haven't. I told Dee Ice we can always follow his family's tradition - their tree was never put up until after the children were in bed Christmas Eve. One morning the boys woke up,anxious to see what Santa bought, but they could not rouse either of their parents, who had been up most of the night getting Christmas ready. So the boys had Christmas alone, then ran off to see their friends. Their mother cried all day long over that.

WHERE IS DEE ICE? ( I CAN FIND WALDO)

2011-12-05T16:50:00.001-08:00

Our 15-year old grandson is staying with us for a few days, while his dad is having meetings in Las Vegas. (Our grandson is taking high school classes online, so he has been doing them here, in case you are worried.) Today Dee Ice asked our grandson if he wanted to go for a little ride with him. I was in the kitchen getting dinner ready to go. A little while later they came back. Dee Ice had a Droid phone with him. Hmm...I may never know where he is in WalMart now. We walk along shopping, and suddenly I'm alone, and I look back, and there he is, reading FaceBook on his phone. Now Dee Ice is getting Droid lessons from our grandson, who knows much more about it.

AS SHE LAYS DYING....

2011-12-04T08:41:00.001-08:00

We had bad news a couple of days ago. A friend of ours went in for knee surgery, and ended up with complications. She got a blood clot that went through her heart, and into her lungs. She was life-flighted to the St. George hospital, where she was listed in critical condition. Now she is on life support and there is no brain activity whatsoever. She has a daughter in Germany who got a flight out as soon as she heard the news. Every time Dee Ice's Blackberry registers a new message, we wonder if that is the message telling us she is gone. This woman is an incredible person. She charms everyone she meets. When her girls were teenagers she decided to complete her teaching degree and become a teacher. She was an amazing teacher, and was teacher of the year. After she was eligible to retire, she did, to take a job as a naturalist at the visitor's center in Bryce Canyon, where she taught classes and presentations to tourists. She loved it. Of course, she loved it, beautiful Bryce Canyon and people around. It was right up her alley. Recently she received a very prestigious award give to only a few people in the state. She said she was very surprised, but I wasn't surprised at all. When I first heard that she wasn't expected to live, I stubbornly believed that a miracle could still happen, she could rally and get well. Now that I know she has no brain activity, I know she is already gone, but her daughters need that last warm contact with her. I will mention here that she once told me she wished we could arrange a marriage between one of her girls and my youngest son. It was when they were both quite young. I told her I could never make my kids do anything, but if she could, to go for it. I told her I'd love sharing grandchildren with her. :0) My heart goes out to her husband and daughters, and other family members. Her husband lost his mother just a couple of weeks ago, and their sister-in-law and brother-in-law had to fly home from Africa for that. Christmas is certainly going to be sad this year for that family. Did I mention that this woman also pierced my ears? :0) And she did a very good job. She told me I'd feel prettier every time I look in the mirror. A light in the world is about to go out soon, and it is going to be so sad without her.

LE MISERABLE

2011-12-03T06:59:00.001-08:00

Eight years ago when our two youngest girls were home, the girls and I would go for long walks together. We would sometimes find money on the street, so we began picking it up and putting it in a jar when we got home. We decided we'd save it for "something special". Yesterday MJ and I took it to her bank, which has a coin sorter. It came to $37.92. She put it in her account and last night rounded it off to $40 and wrote a check to the LDS Humanitarian fund. In a third world country, that will be the equivalent of about 6 weeks wages, and will do a lot of good towards constructing wells so communities can have safe drinking water, or towards immunizing children against disease. Dee Ice and I monthly give money through the LDS church to help local needy people, and occasionally to others, too. We could give every penny we have and it would still be a drop in the bucket to what is needed, so we have settled on the premise that we will help people as we are moved to. I often see people begging for money here and there. Sometimes I give, sometimes I don't. Occasionally I drive by, feel like I should help even after I have driven a few blocks away, and turn around and go back. Sometimes we have decided to donate money to someone, then see them be so irresponsible with their money that we have changed our minds. But yesterday in Provo we saw something that I am still thinking about. We had left IHop after lunch, and due to some construction and heavy traffic, had to turn the opposite way of where we needed to go. We drove a short distance to the WalMart parking lot, turned around in it, and came back out. A young woman was standing there where the parking lot enters the street. She was holding a corrugated cardboard sign that said, "Family Homeless, anything will help". It was bitter cold outside and the wind had a bite in it. She looked very cold, despite a jacket, knit hat, and gloves. Her face looked red and chapped from the cold and wind. She looked miserable, defeated, embarrassed, and sad, and she touched my heart like no beggar has ever done before. I turned to Dee Ice (who was driving) and said, "Family homeless..." and reached for my purse, trying to decide how much to give her, knowing if I gave her every penny in it, it still wasn't going to be enough. This young woman saw me say that and was looking at me. However, she was in a hard place to pull over to and the traffic was heavy and crazy. Given how the traffic was and where we were, Dee Ice couldn't pull over and had to go with the flow of traffic. I was still looking at this young woman and she was still looking at me. I saw her face - I can't describe the expression on it to let you know enough what it was, except that it kind of crumpled a little and she looked like she was about to cry. The look on her face would break your heart, and it broke mine a little bit, too. I kept wanting to go back, but the traffic was just worse and worse, and we didn't. Finally I decided the only thing to do at that point was to pray for her, and I did. Now I am wondering.... how long is that look on her face going to haunt me?

DOWNTOWN SALT LAKE CITY

2011-12-02T21:20:00.001-08:00

We had to go see my cardiologist this morning. Um, and why do I have a cardiologist if I have a healthy heart? I told Dee Ice I was going to tell the doctor that I was done, and was not coming back again. Be firm. So....I have another appointment in June. Sigh. We were able to have lunch at IHop with Native Minnow and his son (Don't worry, I had harvest grain blueberry and nut pancakes with sugar free syrup and scrambled egg substitute), and saw MJ and her husband for about an hour and a half. I wanted to see the lights and Nativity on Temple Square, but after circling the square three times and finding no parking spot in sight, we had to settle for just looking at the lights as we drove. None of my pictures of the temple turned out, and the only reason I got the pictures above is because we were stopped at a red light. Did I mention we drove home in a snowstorm that got worse the closer we got to home? Because we did. So fun.

SUBBING-FOR-SANTA

2011-12-01T18:01:00.001-08:00

Last year my daughter made a doll house for the Sub-for-Santa program in her area. After Christmas the craft store had a clearance sale, and she got another doll house and furniture for less than she paid for the doll house kit last year, so she is doing another one. I used to make this doll food for my girls and their doll houses, so she wanted me to do it for these Sub-for-Santa doll houses, too. She and I made the food last Friday, and I painted it this week. We made 3 sets so we could keeps some on hand for another time, although I did use up the ends of the dough for a few extras here and there. If you want to know how to do this, cut the crusts off of some white bread, then crumble it into a bowl. Drizzle white glue over it liberally, and begin working it into a ball. Keep kneading until it is smooth. You may have to add more white glue, but you want it to be very pliable and easy to work with. You form the food and put it on a cookie sheet to dry. I line mine with foil, because when I paint the food, the foil keeps it from sticking to the pan. If you do it on newspaper, some of the paper comes off onto the food. Use a garlic press for spaghetti. Use a toothpick to texture oranges or the hamburger patties. You will probably have to glue things like egg yolks to eggs, etc, and I cut small circled out of clear plastic lids to hot glue the spaghetti and meatballs onto. Those in particular are a little fragile. I did the same when I made the french fries. Cut circles of corrugated cardboard to put the pizzas on. I used small medicine dosage cups to cut out the pizzas. I also have several toy rolling pins I use to roll the dough out. After I finished I wished I'd tried tacos. Next time. (If you double click on the picture, you can see the food better, and probably even tell what it is.)

AMAZING GRACE.....:0)

2011-11-30T11:55:00.001-08:00

We went to WalMart today and ran into a guy we know who'd been fishing. He said one of the guys in his party had caught a 25 lb trout recently. He said that one was a wall hanger, not an eater, and told Dee Ice he should go fishing with him one of these days. Dee Ice told him he'd caught a 32 lb mackinaw one time in Flaming Gorge that was 42" long. It was the exact length and weight of our 4 year old daughter (MJ) at the time. We had our son Dr. Psycho on a mission then, so there was no way we were going to mount that. We couldn't afford to. Later the lodge was horrified and said they would have mounted it for free and kept it there with Dee Ice's name on an engraved plate, just for the publicity. So then this guy countered with another story. He said once he went fishing with his wife and they were the only ones at the lake on a free fishing day, until a troubled girls' home brought 10 girls up to fish. One of the girls was from Russia. Some girls were more interested in chasing water snakes than fishing. This guy was fishing with 2 poles, both souvenirs from when he had served LDS missions, once to Denmark and once to the Ukraine. He left his Ukraine pole in the water and went to check on something, and when he came back, it was gone. He wondered if one of the girls had taken it, but he had no choice but to just fish with the pole he had from Denmark. He cast out and snagged something and began pulling it in. It was his pole from the Ukraine, and it had a large fish on it. He called to the girl from Russia to come grab that pole. She did, and reeled in a 25 lb fish. He told her she'd caught the fish, so she could take it home. He said she cradled it the rest of the time like you'd hold a baby. But that was not the most amazing thing about our trip to WalMart today. When we first came in, I looked up and saw 3 officers from the jail walking towards me, all officers I knew from when I worked there, and the lieutenant who had made my job so miserable I had to leave. I am not going to claim any of us was comfortable meeting that way, but we all said hi. And guess what? The lieutenant said hi first. Will miracles never cease?

THANKFUL AFTER THANKSGIVING

2011-11-28T13:26:00.001-08:00

Three hours after the last of the family went home, we discovered a leak under the kitchen sink. Here are the reasons I am thankful for that: 1. It happened after Thanksgiving instead of when I was cooking for 24. 2. It happened when the hardware store was open, so that Dee Ice didn't have to follow his own advice, "Never start a plumbing project when the stores are closed." 3. We caught it when it was only a small drip, before it caused a lot of damage.4. Dee Ice knew how to change it out, so we didn't have to call a plumber. 5. It happened after all the family went home. 6. When we went to the hardware store, they told us our faucet had a lifetime guarantee, and we got a new one without having to pay a cent. For all that I am very thankful!

SAGE ADVICE

2011-11-28T07:06:00.001-08:00

Even though I am old enough to be her mother, I am friends with a neighbor girl down the street. We always stop and talk awhile when we see each other, like when I ran into her a couple of weeks ago and we were both shopping for Thanksgiving. I was doing a big family dinner here, and she was furnishing the homemade rolls and stuffing for dinner at her in-laws. she confessed that she always is a little worried before big family gatherings, because someone or other in her family always has a big fight. I had to laugh at that. I told her I completely understand, because we have had some pretty bad fights during our family gatherings, too, and I thought we were the only ones. There's nothing that can cause me stress faster than people in my family being ornery with each other. I told her that the past few years I have started praying not to have contention about November 1. She said she'd have to try that. :0) I also give this neighbor the coupons from my paper that I don't use, and the last time I dropped some off for her I picked a big bunch of fresh sage. I put a rubber band around it and told her how to dry it. She was excited - she'd priced it at the store and said I'd given her about $30 worth. (She also told me later that the stack of coupons I gave her saved her $15 on her grocery bill.)I told her my mother-in-law had told me to start my stuffing with boxes of Mrs. Cubbison's herbed dressing, but to always add extra sage. I saw this girl at church yesterday. She immediately told me she'd thought about me on Thanksgiving, wondering if we'd had anyone fighting. I told her we'd had a contention-free holiday. I also told her I'd thought of her that day, and wondering how it went. She said they had also had a fight-free Thanksgiving, but they still had one family meal left to do together that day. I wished her luck. :0) She said, "Oh, and I used some of the sage in the dressing this year. Everyone kept telling me it was so good, the best I'd ever made, and what did I do different? And I just kept saying I had a 'secret ingredient'."

GOBBLING AND WOBBLING

2011-11-25T11:40:00.001-08:00

My parents and 22 other people came for Thanksgiving dinner, and that wasn't even all of us. My mom said that on their way here, they saw a flock of wild turkeys running across the road. Of course they were running away the day before Thanksgiving. :0)Thursday morning I got a step stool out to get the china down from the top shelf in the cupboard. I had to stand on the top of it to get it. My mother got worried and called to me to get down before I fell. She said she'd get up there and get it. :0) I quickly called out to everyone in the house, "My 86 year old mother who has to use a cane is getting senile! She thinks I am going to let her stand on this stool with her cane and get the china down." Immediately I thought to myself, Oh-oh, you've gone too far this time. Everyone started laughing, but the one who laughed the hardest was my mom. Whew! :0)

A REAL CARD

2011-11-22T15:02:00.001-08:00

Nene said in a recent comment that she'd just apologize to the guy I offended in person, she probably wouldn't sit down and make a card. I didn't make a card - then. This is my collection of cards on hand that are for the most part ready-to send. What I do is this: when I am in the mood, I sit down and make about 25-30 cards. I have over 200 in this plastic shoebox. I have a section especially for birthdays, sympathy, I'm-sorry, thank you and congratulations. I also have a holiday section, although my Christmas cards are in another box like this one. Half of my cards are blank, so I can make what I need in just a few minutes by adding whatever I need to for the occasion. That way I always have cards on hand, and always make them when the mood strikes me. I think I do send more cards this way, because it doesn't require a trip to the store to do it. Last week I sent a thank you card to the friend who sent me the Libera Christmas cd, and she sent me back a thank you for my thank you. :0) How often does that happen?

STICKING ONE'S HEAD IN THE SAND...

2011-11-21T08:54:00.001-08:00

After I wrote that last blog I still had some people tell me you can quit being diabetic. Let me explain:If you are allergic to cats, you can have a cat-free home and never have any allergy symptoms. But then one day you go visit your great-aunt Gertrude, and discover she has two cats, Romeo and Juliet. (Neutered, of course. Well, you know ROMEO AND JULIET is a romantic tragedy.....) :0) All of a sudden all your allergy reactions are in full force. So yes, you can go on a diabetic diet, lose weight, and join a gym, and your blood sugar can be completely normal. You can go off your metformin or insulin and have no diabetic symptoms whatsoever. But if you were truly non-diabetic, you would then be able to eat whatever you wanted, gain weight, and quit exercising and not have your blood sugar go up. Of course, if you don't think you are diabetic any more, then you are not testing your blood for blood sugar, so how would you know? Someone told me recently that they were diagnosed with diabetes a few weeks ago, and they had extremely high blood sugar, twice as high as my highest ever reading, and he never had the symptoms nor felt sick. (My disclaimer here is that I did see some symptoms, as he was always drinking water, but he insisted it was healthy to drink water and he was just being healthy.) The truth is, if you gain back your weight, start eating sugar, white flour, lots of carbs, etc, your blood sugar is going to go right back up to diabetic levels, because you are still diabetic. So anyone who wants to can fool themselves all they want that they are not still diabetic, but I know that I am always going to be, and I need to continue to act like a diabetic. I don't want all the consequences that diabetes can lead to - limb amputation, kidney failure, blindness, heart disease and so on. Because here is another fact about diabetes. Diabetes is a progressive disease. That means you can go for years controlling your blood sugar, exercising and being careful with what you eat, and one day your blood sugar can spike and not come down, and you will have to increase your RX dosage or go onto insulin. It won't be that you've cheated, like some friends and family will accuse you of, it will be because diabetes is a progressive disease. I was told over 30 years ago that I had high blood sugar, so I began being careful right then. I was able to stave off diabetes for 30 years, but last year, even though I was being even more careful, I crossed over to be officially diabetic and had to go on metformin. Okay, I am not talking any more about diabetes, no matter who argues with me. I just have to do what I have to do. You do what you want.

NOT SORRY NOW

2011-11-20T10:42:00.001-08:00

I have made 2 more people mad lately, or at least annoyed. One told me he was just diagnosed as diabetic, but said if he exercises, eats right, and loses weight, he won't be diabetic any more. Another man - at the graveside service before it started - told me he used to be diabetic, but wasn't any more. I told them, "Guess what? Once a diabetic, always a diabetic. You can do all that and go off your diabetes medicine, and have normal blood sugar, but you will always be a diabetic and will always have to watch what you eat." It's kind of like alcoholism, only your addiction is sugar.They both argued with me heatedly, but I didn't back down. I told them I am diabetic and have been told by forty-eleven doctors that once you are diabetic, you will always be a diabetic. (Okay, maybe not forty-eleven. Probably only forty-ten.)They still disagreed with me quite vehemently. I get it. No one wants to be diabetic. I hate it, too. I will hate being diabetic for the rest of my life. I will feel deprived for the rest of my life. But you've gotta do what you've gotta do, and no putting your head in the sand is ever going to change it. And if you don't, you will have to live with some very not-nice consequences of diabetes, which are not worth being able to eat whatever you want. I should have mentioned to these 2 men that one is impotence. That might have gotten their attention. :0)I was nice while I disagreed, and this time I'm not wrong. I'm not giving out any "I'm sorry" cards this time. :0)

SILVER LININGS

2011-11-19T18:24:00.001-08:00

We went to Dee Ice's aunt's funeral today. She was 89, and that is a life well-lived. She went to bed holding hands with her husband, and they fell asleep that way. He awoke a little later to find she was dead, still holding hands. The silver lining to funerals is the family and friends who are there. They bring people together like nothing else does.

After the funeral Dee Ice's cousin came to us and told us she was having a lunch at her house for the family, so we went to that. That was probably the nicest funeral luncheon I have ever seen, and it allowed us to visit more. This sewing machine above was in the dining room. It belonged to Dee Ice's great-great grandmother, and she used it to sew burial clothes for the people in the area.

I WAS WR...WR....WRO....(W-R-O-N-G)I

2011-11-18T17:20:00.001-08:00

I just dropped one of these to a cashier at the grocery store. I don't know how it is where you live,but starting about this time of year, every time you go to a checkout, they ask if you want to donate money to some cause. Sometimes I do. Sometimes I don't. Sometimes I don't want to donate to something EVERY time I go to a checkout. I like to choose the charities I donate to carefully, because I found out that some charities take 80% of their donations for overhead. That's why I like donating through the church, because 100% of the money goes to help people, and the church helps people of all religions, all over the world.So the other day this cashier asked me to donate to the local food bank. I said I didn't know if I wanted to, because someone had recently told me that they charged people for the food that was donated,and that just seemed wrong to me. I knew immediately I'd made him very mad, and he told me that wasn't true, that he takes people to the food bank all the time and they had never been charged. I asked him if it was just our local food bank that didn't charge (because I felt like I had a reliable source telling me otherwise), and he said he had worked with EVERY food bank in the state. (Okay, I'm going to have to call a BS on that one, I doubt he has worked with every food bank.) So I told him okay, then, I would donate some money. Actually, I used to be a cub scout leader, and I have walked so many miles over the years passing out scouting-for-food bags, and I have given food to those drives several times a year. I have also given money, and Dee Ice and I give $50/month to our church to help needy families in our ward. In fact, there is a scouting-for-food drive tomorrow, and I have a sack of groceries sitting by the door, ready to go.But I came home and googled the food bank online. I pulled up a newspaper article and went to the website, and found out that no, the food bank does not charge patrons a dime.In fact, for every dollar donated, they can get 7 times that amount of food. I also talked to the person who told me that, and she said no, it wasn't the food bank, it was another charity that bought food wholesale and sold it to needy people wholesale, to help their families out. So then I knew it was time to take out one of these cards I made on a whim a few months ago. I wrote an "I'm sorry, forgive me note" and when we went to the grocery store tonight, I dropped it on the counter where he was working.I have about 9 similar cards left. I sure do hope it takes me a L-O-N-G time to use them up! :0+

CAUTION: CONTENTS ARE VOLATILE :0)

2011-11-17T17:20:00.001-08:00

What do you think? Do children outgrow their parents? I have been wondering this for quite awhile now. It seems like the longer children are out of their parents' home, the less they keep in contact, the less they visit, the less they need their parents. Of course, that is the goal of a parent: To teach their children to not need them and to be able to manage on their own. I have a friend who doesn't live near me. She writes to me that the more time goes by, the more she and her husband realize that it is just the two of them. Of course, she has 5 sons and no daughters, and I do remember President Hinckley saying in a conference talk one time that he felt blessed to have daughters (he had sons, also) because daughters are so thoughtful and checked in on him so often after he lost his wife. My friend said she feels like she is her kids' Bed and Breakfast, because they come to visit, eat breakfast, leave their parents home while they hunt, fish, tour the area, and visit their friends, then come home to basically just eat and go to bed. Another woman I know has 4 daughters and a son. One son and two daughters live in her neighborhood, the rest live out of state. She says her daughters call and visit often. She rarely sees her son and he only calls when he needs something.When I took parenting classes to keep my foster parent license current, the instructor told us that the strongest family bond is not the parent-child bond, but the sibling bond. The reason for this is because siblings have longer family relationships than anyone else. Their parents die and the siblings live on, hopefully for another generation of time. I know that my kids prefer for the most part not to visit us unless they have siblings coming, too. They like the opportunity to see each other. Most of the time. :0)I have kids who keep in touch quite often. I have other kids I only hear from occasionally. I do realize as a parent that most of my kids are busy raising their kids, working their jobs, and so on, but I am not writing this just because of my kids, but because of things other parents have been saying to me, and watching my own parents, aunts and uncles as they age. I will say, however, that I finally decided to blog this because I have a son mad at me today, and he put an article on FaceBook and made the comment he was putting it on for his mother to read. It is titled (I can't remember the exact title and am too lazy to go look it up...) something along the lines, "I ruined my kids' lives." (One of my kids may tell him I blogged this, but he doesn't normally read my blog.) But it wasn't my kids who first triggered these thoughts, it was watching other parents I know and their children. So what do you think? Do children outgrow their parents? And maybe it is good in a way if they do, for if they felt the grief a small child feels at losing a parent, they could hardly stand it, and death of a parent is part of the plan.

SURPRISE, SURPRISE, SURPRISE...

2011-11-16T17:42:00.001-08:00

After Dee Ice and I took off to Idaho on the spur of the moment, I realized I had ordered some Christmas gifts online, and that they would be delivered while we were gone. So we called a neighbor and asked if they would keep an eye out for them, and they did. When we went to pick them up yesterday, I was surprised to see an extra package, but thought maybe one item had been shipped separately for some reason.Nope - to my surprise, it was this Libera Christmas cd from a good friend of mine. She is the one who first introduced me to Libera, and we love this group. That was such a nice surprise! It is a beautiful cd.I had another surprise the same day. When I logged on to FaceBook, I had a message waiting. To my surprise, it was from a woman I haven't talked to in 15 years. She wrote me a sweet thank you note for being her counselor when she was the ward Primary president. She said she couldn't have done it without me, although I know she could, and in fact did after I was put into the Young Women's organization. She also thanked me for helping me with her children. She had a baby at the time, and sometimes when he was fussy and I could see she was feeling overwhelmed, I would take him and get him to sleep, or hold him for the rest of the church meetings. This lady told me that baby is now preparing to go on an LDS church mission in a few months! How time flies when it isn't your baby!Those two things really made my day, and something else did, too. My brother, his wife, and their 19 year old son came to stay with us for the day, and overnight.I knew they were coming, but didn't know they were coming in the morning instead of late afternoon. It was fun seeing them all, especially as we won't see our nephew for 2 years. He is going on an LDS mission also, to Bolivia. I love these kinds of surprises. :0)

TO PARIS AND BACK

2011-11-14T09:08:00.001-08:00

We went to Idaho last week. We had some business in Paris, Idaho. (What, you thought it was Paris, France? Well, I wanted you to for a second.)Dee Ice is trying to sell the tiny 0.14 acre of land in the middle of a small town near there that can't be built on and only 2 people could possibly want. So wish us luck. If we can't sell it, I guess we will let our family camp on it, since it is near Bear Lake. (above) Bear Lake is usually the most perfect turquoise color, but this is November and it was in a wintery mood.

We also own 26 acres of a dry farm in that town. This is about one acre of it, and the other 25 looks almost the same. Here's a funny story about this land: We went to a family funeral up there and decided to take a ride by our property. To our great shock, the farmer who has his farm right next to it was farming it, driving his tractor. Luckily I was driving and refused to stop, just kept driving for another hour to let Dee Ice cool down before he confronted him. :0)And then he farmed it TWO MORE YEARS. Sigh. We got the sheriff involved and now Dee Ice has a friend whose house faces our property, and he tells us he will contact us immediately if the guy ever farms it again.

This is the 0.14 acre we are trying to sell. The woman who is thinking of buying it has already taken it over. That is her trampoline in the middle of it. Dee Ice's grandmother's house used to sit on this property, but it was in such disrepair that his mother left in her will that she wanted the house torn down. She didn't want people storing junk in it or housing animals in it, so last year we had our son-in-law tear it down.

Afterwards we went to the town cemetery, where several of Dee Ice's family are buried. His grandparent's headstone did not look good at all. We drove back to Paris (no stores in the other town) where he bought some Lime Away, water and paper towels, then back to the cemetery so he could clean it. He used a whole bottle and not all of it came off, but the next time we go we will bring better cleaning supplies. An old man was there, and he walked over to see if we had family in that cemetery. Soon he left, walking. We went to the grave where he'd been, and think it was his wife's, who recently passed away. As we left the cemetery to go back to Paris, he was walking down the road. We thought about offering him a ride, but we had the back seat packed with stuff and didn't, thinking he must live nearby. Later, when we went back to the cemetery with the cleaning supplies, he was several blocks futher, still walking, and we felt guilty.We spent the next few days doing some Christmas shopping of items we can't get in town, visiting six of our children, their spouses and our grandchildren, and visiting the widow of Dee Ice's close friend who died a few months ago. The visits are never long enough, it's hard to visit everyone you want to because of work, school, and their busy lives, and I did not want to come home. But I did.

EPITOME OF SWEETNESS' DRESS

2011-11-08T09:50:00.000-08:00

This was supposed to be the dress E of S was blessed in that was bought by her grandfather. It is a dress and slip, and a type of coat to be worn over top, also a bonnet. She wore the bonnet long after the dress was too little. I do not know what kind of material this is made of, but it is yellowing somewhat. There were eleven boys in a row before she was born, and she was the first girl in 2 generations, so there was much excitement at her birth. Her grandmother said she was "a rose among thorns". :0)

MJ'S BLESSING DRESS

2011-11-07T19:10:00.001-08:00

BLESSING DRESSES

2011-11-07T12:29:00.000-08:00

This is the dress Dee Ice was blessed in, much to his dismay. Yes, when he was a baby, even the boys were blessed in dresses. His grandmother carefully and exquisitely sewed and embroidered this handmade silk dress for his blessing. My daughter( Lightning Strikes) was also blessed in this dress when she was a baby.

This is the dress I was blessed in. It was made from a surplus World War II parachute by my mother's cousin, and embroidered by her, also. She wanted to do something special for my mother, who was married for six years before she was able to have children. I blessed my daughter (Lindsay Logic) in it.Now I am getting ready to give these and other blessing dresses which I purchased, to my 4 daughters, but I wanted to get a picture to remember them by.

CARDING....

2011-11-06T09:27:00.000-08:00

I have begun making Christmas cards. The first year we were married we had zero money, but a book of stamps. So I made some cards for some family and friends. By the time we could afford to buy cards, it had become a tradition, so I keep making my own. This desk is one I bought at a university surplus sale for $40. It is very old, and Dee Ice refinished the top surface to remove all the stains and scratches. It is full of scrapbooking-type supplies. I have been collecting them over the past 20 years and I have a lot. Some I have bought, many were gifts, many more came from yard sales. My daughters tell me all the time that they wish they lived closer to this desk. I am brave to post this picture, but the desk isn't always this messy. But I am sure it will look just like this until the cards are done. A neighbor asked me once in a shocked voice if I realized how much money I have into these art supplies, and I told her I have rarely spent more than a few dollars a month on it, and it is my coke money. (I don't drink sodas) And I bet I have not spent nearly as much as she has skiing. It is all about what vices you have. :0)

FISH TACOS

2011-11-04T10:07:00.000-07:00

Dee Ice has been wanting to try fish tacos, but when we go to the Mexican restaurant, he ends up ordering something else. Sunday night on our sibling chat everyone began talking about making fish tacos, which they do all the time. So I decided last night that it was time to try them. This is the recipe I used:FISH TACOS 1 pound of fresh or frozen skinless cod, orange roughy or other fish fillets (The recipe also said you could cook frozen breaded fish fillets according to package directions and use that instead, so that is what I did, since I had some here) 2 T butter or margarine, melted 1/4 tsp ground cumin 1/8 tsp garlic powder 3 T mayonnaise or salad dressing 1 tsp lime juice 1 1/2 c shredded cabbage or coleslaw mix 8 corn tortillas, warmed to package directions Thaw fish if frozen. Rinse and pat dry with paper towels. Cut fish crosswise into 1/4" slices and place in single layer on baking pan. Combine butter , garlic powder and cumin and brush over fish. Bake in 450 oven for 4-6 minutes or until fish flakes easily with a fork. Meanwhile, in a medium bowl stir together mayonnaise and lime juice. Add cabbage. Toss to coat. Spoon some of coleslaw mixture onto corn tortilla and add fish. This recipe suggested adding mango salsa ( I didn't) Mango Salsa: In a medium bowl combine 1 1/2 c chopped and peeled mangoes or peaches, 1 medium sweet red pepper, seeded and finely chopped, 1/4 c thinly sliced green onions, 1 jalapeno chili pepper finely chopped, 1 T olive oil, 1/2 tsp finely grated lime peel. 1 T vinegar, 1/4 tsp salt, 1/4 tsp black pepper.I liked the fish tacos, but I have a confession - I have only used corn tortillas to put in things like enchiladas, not for tacos unless I buy the hard kind in the package. My tortilla package did not tell how to cook them, so I cooked them in a small amount of cooked oil, on both sides, and drained them on paper towels. I thought the fish tacos were still too oily. So here is my question - how do you cook them to prevent that? Yes, I know, dumb question, but remember, I was raised my a mother who didn't cook much, because she hated to. Now all of her kids cook, go figure. :0)

TRICKED AND TREATED

2011-11-01T12:15:00.000-07:00

We had more trick-or-treaters than usual last night. We didn't count, but we went through most of our candy, and we had a lot of candy. We think we had at least 80, and maybe more. I think it was due to such mild weather. I did hear that the area of town where all the expensive houses are got about 600 trick -or-treaters, though! That reminded me of when I was growing up in Omaha and my dad would count the trick-or-treaters. I don't think they got 600, but I remember them getting 300-400,and the doorbell would ring until midnight, even when they turned off all the lights and went to bed. Kids would ring it until someone came to the door, and sometimes we'd be out of candy and start giving nickels. Dad would run in and borrow nickels from my piggy bank.I trick-or-treated until I was 11, then my parents wouldn't let me go out any more, but I had a lot of big trick-or-treaters last night, some brazen enough to come without costumes. One kid bigger than me asked me how many candies he could have, and was put out when I said one. (We were giving out the snack-sized candy bars and packages of candy such as Skittles and licorice.) By that time our candy was getting low and I was worrying about running out, but I think that is a piggy question to ask, quite frankly. One of my daughters said she was a little annoyed that some kids asked her that, and she'd say one, then the kids would grab a handful and the mothers would smile at them and let them take as much as they wanted. A friend of mine was annoyed when she got parent and grandma-age trick-or-treaters along with their kids. They had their own bags to collect candy.I did have some kids grab handfuls and some kids take each one out of our assortment, and I didn't say anything to them because they are little, but when there are adult-sized kids out there, they need to practice some Halloween manners.We hit the after-Halloween sales today, and there wasn't much left when we got there. That was a shock, because in years past they have had Halloween stuff on sale for a couple of weeks or more. I don't know if they stocked less this year, sold more, or if some people just really loaded up, but there were some pretty bare shelves there this morning. Dee Ice did manage to score a few packages of candy, though.I will confess to you that I am a weird person who hates to dress up. Not only that, but I never liked to dress up, even as a kid, and when I had to I would always dress as a gypsy or witch, but one without warts. :0) If I ever have to dress up again, I am going as an old Abby from NCIS - I have already bought a black t-shirt with skulls on it at a 90% off sale, and I scored a lab coat from the 2nd hand store. I would just have to draw on her tattoos and put my hair in pigtails.I had another surprise this morning to find my jack-o-lantern unsmashed. There's a first!Because I am the oldest child in my family, I saw family rules change a lot as the years went by and my parents got more kids. So I ask you this question - especially to my siblings: At what age did you stop trick-or-treating?

THANK YOU, THANK YOU, THANK YOU

2011-10-31T12:15:00.000-07:00

This past month Dee Ice and I have been teaching lessons to our Primary children about giving service. Yesterday the lesson was about thanking those who give service to us. It focused on the ward Bishop, who is the unpaid clergy of our church in individual units. I talked to our bishop ahead of time and he told me some things about his life - like the fact that he has lived in 28 states!!! And I thought I had moved a lot! I took a picture of him on my digital camera. After I had given all the clues, no one had guessed who I was talking about, not even his granddaughter. So I walked around and showed them the picture on the camera. At the end of the lesson I had the kids make thank-you cards. I made a basic card with my scrapbooking supplies to give each one, and stamped inside with the 4 thank-you stamps I have. The kids decorated those cards. The lesson book called for paper flowers on sticks, with each child decorating a flower. I knew there would be several classes teaching this same lesson and figured he'd be over run with flowers, so we gave the flowers to the Primary presidency and music people, and the cards to the bishop, and I added a few candy bars with the cards.I know how much time it takes to be a bishop, because my dad was an LDS bishop most of my life as I grew up. Later on, after I was married and no one knew that, someone said critically, "Have you ever noticed that the bishop's kids are the worst acting kids in the ward? It's been that way in every ward I've lived in. Don't you think so?" I said, "I guess I should warn you that I am biased, because I am a bishop's kid."I don't think the bishop's kids have been the worst kids in the wards I have lived in, but if they are, maybe it is because the bishop has to give up a lot of his spare time to serve. I always understood that as a kid when my dad was tied up with other people and their problems. Plus I had a dad who worked out of town most of the week.When I did go to give the bishop his cards yesterday, there were 2 vases filled with paper flowers in his office already. I handed him the cards and told him we'd done cards and candy instead of flowers. He confided he was most excited about the candy. :0) I did have quite a few children asking me how to spell "love" and "Bishop" yesterday, though. I wrote it on the chalkboard. I asked the bishop if he wanted me to e-mail him the picture I took, and he did. This morning I had a thank you note for my thank you note in my in-box, because that is the kind of guy bishops are.

HAPPY HALLOWEEN!

2011-10-31T09:28:00.001-07:00

Have fun and be safe tonight!

PUMPKIN SEEDS

2011-10-29T16:25:00.000-07:00

My daughter called for this recipe today. It is a yearly tradition for our family.For every 1 cup of UNWASHED seeds, mix: 1/4 tsp worcestershire sauce 1 T margarine 1/2 tsp seasoning saltSpread on a cookie sheet and bake for 2 hours at 250 degrees. Stir every 20 minutes. They are done when seeds are crisp, dry and golden

APPLE PIE FILLING

2011-10-29T16:22:00.000-07:00

Sterilize 7 quart jars and fill with apple slices. In a large pan, make this filling: 4 1/2 c sugar 1 c cornstarch 2 tsp cinnamon 1/4 tsp nutmeg 1/2 tsp non-iodized salt 3 T lemon juice 10 c cold water Stirring constantly, heat until mixture is thick and bubbly. Our over apple slices. Seal with lids and process in a cold pack canner for 45 minutesDon't get your jars too full or they will bubble out and you will have to process it over again like I did today. 42 years of canning and that has never happened to me before. Learn from my mistake, since doing it over is not fun. :0s

THE FUNNIEST WOMAN IN THE WORLD...AT LEAST TO ONE PERSON :0)

2011-10-28T18:35:00.000-07:00

In the town where I used to live, I worked in a middle school and then an elementary school as a teacher's aide. In the elementary school I was the back-up aide for a young boy who was in a wheelchair. If his aide was out, I would get him on and off the bus, take him to lunch, etc, although I did not work in his classroom with him like his regular aide would. I haven't seen him for ten years, and it is weird to realize he is in college by now, not a little boy any more at all.Tonight I read on Facebook that he went to a Tri-wizard Tournament at a university, and that my FB friend got to hold his wand that was actually used in the movies. This young man also owns an invisibility cloak from the movies. I am sure they had more than one of both of those in props, but it is pretty cool, nonetheless, He was able to meet Daniel Radcliffe in person.I don't know how famous this young man's dad is in the world, but he is famous in our state, so I am sure the dad was able to pull a few strings to arrange that meeting.I met the parents one night, and his mother said, "What in the world are you?" I said, "What? What do you mean?" She answered and said, "Well, my son says that I am the most beautiful mother in the world, and he has something he says about each person he meets, so what are you in the world?" I laughed and told her I am the funniest woman in the world*. This kid would tell me that every day.One day .....about this time of year...he said, "Mrs. Inklings, My dad loves the Wizard of Oz, and every Halloween my family dresses up as characters from the Wizard of Oz. My dad always dresses up as the Wicked Witch of the West, and my sister"...who is also 'famous'.... "dresses up as Dorothy. I've been thinking and thinking about who to dress up as, and I can't decide. What do you think I should dress up as?" And immediately I said, "Toto!" Oh. My. Goodness. If looks could kill, I would never have begun this blog. :0) I realized right off that I had really hurt this little boy's feelings. I quickly said, "I'm just kidding." He turned his head away from me in stony silence. Even though I apologized and tried to make amends, he would not speak to me for the rest of the day. I really did feel badly about it, but by the time I got him off the bus the next morning all was forgiven. But I am not going to lie to you, I still have to smile to myself when I think of it.* Hmm....he could have been referring to my looks :0)

Caramel Popcorn

2011-10-27T14:58:00.000-07:00

I put the same picture of caramel apples on FaceBook that I did on this blog yesterday. This morning a woman who used to be in my Young Women's Church group (about 40 years ago in another town when I was her teacher) wrote underneath, "I want Dee Ice's apple". :0) It so happens that we again live in the same town,and she teaches school here. So this morning Dee Ice and I took her my caramel apple and a card that said, "Dee Ice's apple for the teacher". She was startled when I first handed it to her, but then she burst into laughter, with all her students staring at her, wondering why. She was still laughing when I left the school. Dee Ice says if she says anything to him about eating his apple, he is going to tell her he ate his, and stole mine to give to her. :0)I decided to take Caramel popcorn around to the 2 people I am to give to, plus I took some to the women I visit for church. In case you forgot how to make it, it's easy and good: Pop 3 bags of microwave popcorn, making sure you get out all the kernels. In a large pan melt together 1 c. margarine, 2 c brown sugar, and 60 large marshmallows, over medium heat, stirring constantly. Pour over popped popcorn and then spread on wax paper to cool. I made 2 batches this morning. One batch used up the rest of the marshmallows that I made Rice Krispie treats with a month ago, and those marshmallows seemed to take forever to melt. I used a new bag of marshmallows for the 2nd batch, and it melted so much faster it was amazing. Just a tip.

SPOOKED.....

2011-10-26T17:42:00.000-07:00

The doorbell rang tonight, but no one was there....just these treats and a note that said we had been hit by the Phantom Ghost. Do you get Phantom Ghosts in your area? I hung the ghost picture in the window so he won't come again, and now we have 2 days to help him hit 2 more people in our neighborhood. I did happen to see a little dark-haired girl from our last year's Primary class running frantically to her mother's van that was parked by our basketball hoop....but no, I'm sure I didn't see any ghost tonight, right? (wink wink)

CAT BURGLAR

2011-10-25T15:04:00.000-07:00

I made folded-over ribbons with rhinestone stars sewn on them today for my Primary kids to wear when they have done a service for someone. This is part of my lesson for Sunday. But as I sewed, the cat jumped up on the couch and sneaked furtively closer to my sewing box, where she grabbed a spool of thread in her mouth and tried to run with it. I grabbed it back. She tried to fool me by laying on the couch for a little bit, then she sneaked one paw around the sewing basket and tried to steal the safety pins I was sewing into the ribbons. Anytime she finds a pin cushion, she takes it and runs. She hides it until night, and then she takes all the pins out, one by one. I find them all over the house the next morning. What is this obsession the cat has with the sewing basket? And especially PINS? Tell me quick....I'm on pins and needles. :0)

HOMEMADE OREOS

2011-10-24T15:46:00.000-07:00

The Primary teachers were asked to furnish 2 dozen cookies each for the kids' Halloween Party tomorrow night. I decided to make Spider cookies. To my surprise, the recipe made exactly two dozen.Homemade Spider Oreos: 1 pkg. chocolate cake mix, 1/2 c margarine (1 cube) and 2 eggs. Mix with mixer until blended. Drop walnut-sized spoonfuls of batter onto greased cookie sheet. Bake at 350 degrees for 10 minutes. Spread cream cheese frosting on a cookie, cut pieces of string licorice for legs onto the frosting. Add a second cookie of similar size for the top. Place M&Ms on with a dab of frosting for the eyes.

GIVING

2011-10-24T13:50:00.000-07:00

When I walked into church yesterday, one of the men in the congregation, who happens to be in a wheelchair, motioned for me to come over. So I did. He handed me an envelope and told me how much he'd appreciated the vegetables from our garden that we have brought to him through the summer. I told him he'd done us a favor to take them, since we had more than we could use and it is sad to see them go to waste. When I opened the envelope, there was a thank you note inside and a sheaf of papers. He had given us copies of some stories he had written. He used to live with his wife on a 20 acre section of land in Colorado, and the stories were about the wildlife they'd had on their property. After his wife died, he moved here to be with his daughter, who was living alone and undergoing cancer treatments. In fact, that is how we got to know them. I took them dinner one night when she was sick, and they enjoyed the tomatoes and cucumbers so much that I just kept bringing them when we had too many. She is the one who sent a thank you note through the mail, and now he has thanked us, too. His stories were how he felt he could share back. Dee Ice and I sat down this morning to read them. When lunch time came and I needed a tomato for the BLT Dee Ice wanted, I realized we'd had a lot of green tomatoes ripen at the same time, too many for us to eat. So of course, we took some of the red ones to this father and daughter. We knew they would be appreciated there. :0)

GORP...AND CHOCOLATE

2011-10-22T17:30:00.000-07:00

There is a silver lining in every cloud. My son's elk hunting companions had to go to a funeral today in a town about a half hour north of us, so they dropped him off here on their way so we could visit. We had a good visit. He has had some resentment about some things that happened growing up, and we talked about a couple of them today. One was when I made him play football in high school. He came home and said he wanted to play, and in truth, in that small high school. almost all of the boys played. But after a few weeks he wanted to quit. He said he didn't like it any more. I wouldn't let him. I told him he had made the decision to play, and now the team was counting on him to be there all season. I said he would always be able to decide whether or not he played a sport, but once he made the decision, he had to play all season. He stormed at me and cried all the way to every practice, but I stayed firm that he had to play out the season. He resented me for that for a long time, but today I told him I am not sorry and would do it over again in a heart beat. He said now that he has all of his kids in school, from kindergarten to high school, he agrees with me. He said he has made the same rule with his kids. That was a surprise. My son told us he felt like we had too many rules when the kids were growing up, but guess what? We started out with hardly any rules at all. The rules came along as the family problems did.The not quitting family rule came about when one of my kids began quitting every thing he did if he wasn't winning, whether it was sports or Monopoly. He would do it at any point in the game when he thought he wouldn't win. I have always thought it is important to finish whether you win or not, and also that it is important to learn how to lose. I still believe that. I read a quote the other day by Wayne W. Dyer: "You don't need to be better than anyone else, you just need to be better than you used to be." Great quote, huh? On another note, Lindsay Logic called me the other night and said, "Did you make GORP*?" I said I didn't. She continued, "But it's Autumn and you always make GORP in the Fall." I answered, "No, I always make GORP for my hunters. Your dad doesn't hunt any more." She said, "It's a fall thing, and he could eat it sitting on the couch while he watches tv."After she hung up I asked Dee Ice if he wanted me to make GORP. He didn't. But don't feel too sorry for him, because, as he pointed out, he had an unopened bag of Indulgent Trail Mix in the truck.*GORP is good old raisins and peanuts, in case you didn't know. But seriously, add M & Ms to it if you really want it to be good.

HOW I GOT GRAY HAIR :0)

2011-10-21T16:24:00.000-07:00

My daughter called me today and asked, "How'd you do it?" I answered, "How did I do what?" And she asked me how I raised seven kids. Her husband had surgery a couple of days ago and was feeling a little rough today. Her little girls have been good all week, but were a little hyper today. So that her husband could have some peace and quiet, she took the girls and a niece to the fun park. That is what prompted her phone call.The funny thing is, earlier today I told Dee Ice, "I look back on when I was younger, and wonder how I did it all." I raised seven kids, did daycare for 17 years for more kids that I have not taken time today to tally, and worked for 8 years for the school district (working at the jail was under the school district - one boss paid me and 2 bosses bossed me :0) ) I made hot meals every night and baked cookies and other desserts 6 days a week. I had big gardens in the summer and bottled the produce. When my boys couldn't have store bought bread with milk in it when they were little, I made all of our bread, and I didn't have a bread machine. I did it the old fashioned way. I had jobs through the church and also did things like 4-H. I averaged 5-7 loads of laundry a day. The washer and dryer went from morning until night, with more laundry on Monday and after football games when my 3 boys played football. When we moved across town I used to joke that I was active in 2 church wards, since I had a job in the one I lived in plus I still drew Program covers, posters, and took nursery turns in the ward I'd moved out of for 5 more years. I made stuffed animals and doll clothes and all kinds of things for my kids and even for neighbor kids sometimes. We always had a house full of kids. So now I wonder how I did it, and wish I still had that kind of energy. :0)

NOT SO INTERESTING....

2011-10-20T13:48:00.000-07:00

We made a trip to the bank this afternoon. Dee Ice was thinking about investing in some cds and I was worried about a savings account we have. We actually have 3 savings accounts - one through the credit union connected to Dee Ice's former work, and 2 here. One is just for the annual insurance and property taxes, the other is a savings account we have had here for some time. When my first 4 kids were little, we decided to open them savings accounts. That turned out to be a fiasco and I wish in retrospect that we hadn't done it. What I didn't know then is that if your savings account doesn't have activity in it after a certain length of time, the bank just takes it and you lose it all. So later on we found that a couple of the kids drained their savings for spending money, and one lost hers because the bank took it. After talking to the banker today we found out we won't have to worry about losing our savings as it is getting interest payments into it, and it isn't worth taking money from savings and putting it into cds, because a savings account is paying about the same as a cd right now. How sad is that? And neither one is paying hardly any interest at all. Dee Ice was a little disenchanted as we left, but now I have one less thing to worry about, so that turned out to be a good thing.

IN THE WATER, OUT OF THE WATER, IN THE WATER...

2011-10-19T15:50:00.000-07:00

I went to the copy center to make some handouts for my Primary class. I like to stay about a month ahead on them in case life gets crazy. The kids we teach love them. When I went to pay, the clerk said, "And you don't want a bag for these, right?" I said, "Right. I'm still throwing my starfish back into the ocean. The trouble is, I think it's the same starfish." She laughed. As we were leaving I said to Dee Ice, "People probably think I'm crazy, huh?" He answered, "No, they know you're crazy."

CATTING AROUND

2011-10-18T12:33:00.000-07:00

Our cat does not love going outside. We started taking her out to the garden with us once in awhile, but she'd run back to the door even before we did. Then she began staying out a little....until it rained on her one day. No more going out for quite awhile! However, since a neighborhood cat has begun sitting in our window once in awhile, she sometimes wants to go out. Last night she was meowing out the door, so Dee Ice put her out.I went back to read for awhile, and after a bit, Dee Ice came back to go to bed. This morning when we got up, I thought it was weird that the cat wasn't meowing at the door to get in, like she usually does. I thought she hadn't heard us yet, but when I opened the door, there was no sign of her, not even when I got the newspaper off the porch. So I asked Dee Ice if he'd let her back in last night....nope. Oops! I checked out the front and back doors, but no sign of her anywhere. Dee Ice went to the back door to call her. He didn't think she was responding, but I could hear her meowing outside the bedroom window, so he opened the door again, and there she was. We don't know where she was, but she spent a cold night somewhere, and evidently didn't get much sleep, because this is how she has looked most of the day. :0)

MURDERING THE GARDEN

2011-10-17T14:30:00.000-07:00

We covered the tomatoes the first few times it froze here. Now we are having Indian Summer and the gardens don't have to be covered, but we decided to kill it anyway. The tomatoes weren't getting any bigger and didn't have as good a flavor as they've had. The cucumber vines were withering and the cucumbers tasted faintly of dirt. So we began pulling everything up and filling the trash cans. All that is left now are 2 cherry tomato plants, and I can't guarantee their lives for long.We pulled the onions and set them out in the garage to dry. We didn't eat as many green onions as we usually do, so we ended up with many more big onions. We were trying to decide how to store them and made a trip to the dollar store for ideas. I had heard you can put them in panty hose and tie off each onion, and they keep well that way, but there was no panty hose there. Then I saw these laundry bags - 3 for a dollar in one package, and I think they will work just fine. As I bagged them, the scene from HOLES came into mind, where they have nothing to eat except onions. :0) And of course, in Harry Potter where he is enjoying a bowl of French onion soup.

MARKETING

2011-10-15T13:51:00.001-07:00

UNLUCKY THIRTEEN?

2011-10-14T15:19:00.000-07:00

I'm really not superstitious, but yesterday was the 13th, and three of my children called to tell me about unfortunate experiences they had that day.We didn't really have anything bad happen to us here, yesterday, except for what happened to our kids. But like Dee Ice's grandmother used to say, "A mother is only as happy as her unhappiest child"' Dee Ice's grandmother hit the nail right on the head.But maybe some of that 13th bad luck spilled over into today, because when we went to the store, a young woman had locked herself out of her car and needed some help. She couldn't call the police to help her, as many stopped and suggested, because they don't do that anymore because of liability issues. She didn't have money to call a locksmith. When Dee Ice was on a fire with a prison work crew, he locked his keys in the truck one day. He went over to the prison guard and asked him if he had anyone on the crew who could break into a truck. The guard grinned and said oh yeah, he had quite a few who could do that. Then one of the inmates came over and told him every car comes with a built in tool to break in with - the antenna. So Dee Ice took off the antenna of this girl's car, and used his leatherman to pry open the door frame enough to stick it down the window. If her car had been set up likes ours is, it would have been a piece of cake, but hers is backwards. The button has to pull up instead of be pushed down. Pretty soon 2 more men came over to help us. One had a wire close hanger. They tried quite awhile and could not get it to work. The girl finally decided she would have to drive up on the mountain, where her family is without cell phone service, and get their keys and then drive back. They have one of her spares. In case you are wondering how she was going to get up on the mountain, her relative was there in a different car, and they were all going to camp out on the mountain together.I thought it was interesting that no one questioned that we were doing anything but helping someone get their car unlocked. We could have been robbing them blind, and had help doing it. I also told Dee Ice it is a good thing we never have wanted to live a life of crime, because obviously we would have been lousy at it, but at least we tried.

WAIT UNTIL DARK?

2011-10-12T17:50:00.000-07:00

We have had an old sofa and love seat downstairs in the family room. The sofa is actually a hide-a-bed that is older than Lightning Strikes. A few weeks ago our daughter gave us a sofa, 2 love seats and 2 chairs from one of their businesses. (We have a large family room.) They opened a new one in one location and closed another one in a different location.Dee Ice wanted to know if I wanted to donate the old furniture or set it out for the trash company to pick up. I didn't think the thrift store would want it, butlast year I put out an old full size bed we'd bought 2nd hand right after we were married, and an old chair someone had given us 2nd hand years ago. Within 2 hours both were gone. I was very surprised. So then I decided to try donating an old high chair I had. It came to us third hand. Seven boys had used it before my seven kids did, and a friend of Dee Ice's borrowed it for awhile after our first three boys had it, hoping it would make his next baby a boy. It didn't work, and after that we had 4 girls. :0) I donated the high chair to the thrift store, and happened to be there when they set it out. A woman ran to it, grabbed it up, and was so thrilled to have a "vintage high chair". Really???? It was metal and had red vinyl (or something like it) seats, and after all the babies it had sat for, it was pretty beat up.We set the hide-a-bed and love seat out last night after dark, and this morning....alas...they were both still there. I kept joking with Dee Ice that we just had to wait until dark. We decided to go to dinner for Dee Ice's birthday tonight, and as we went to get into the car we noticed the love seat was gone! Woo hoo! We were hoping they would come back and get the hide-a-bed while we were at dinner, but it's still there. :0( Of course, I won't give up hope yet - it isn't dark yet,

STICKY DOUGH ROLLS

2011-10-11T15:49:00.000-07:00

Let 18 frozen rolls rise in lightly greased pan. Cut into thirds. Arrange half of them in a bundt pan. Mix together: 1 pkg (cook kind) butterscotch pudding mix 1 c chopped nuts 2 tsp cinnamon Sprinkle half on rolls. Place rest of rolls in bundt pan, then rest of the mixture. Melt: 1 c margarine 1 c packed brown sugar. Drizzle over rolls and let rise to the top of the pan. Bake at 350 for 25-30 minutes. Turn pan out upside down onto a large plate to serve.

I BELIEVE

2011-10-09T16:03:00.000-07:00

Guess what? I do not belong to a cult. I belong to The Church of JESUS CHRIST of Latter Day Saints. That makes me a Christian who believes in Jesus Christ, who is grateful to Jesus Christ, who testifies of Jesus Christ, who teaches of Jesus Christ, who loves Jesus Christ, and who is tolerant of (and sorry for) bigots who make false claims, as is Jesus Christ. If you want to know more, go to mormon.org and read for yourself what "Mormons" believe in.

UP AND BACK

2011-10-08T19:33:00.000-07:00

We made a quick trip to my daughter's house today, because we had a love seat and chair stored in her garage. While the weather was warm she didn't care much that it was in there, but with the cold weather coming on, we knew we had to get it out of there. We decided we had better go today. However, when we got up this morning the sky was overcast and rainy. We thought the trip was cancelled, but Dee Ice did a little internet sleuthing and found it was supposed to clear up about mid-morning, so we decided to go after all. This was basically just a trip up and back, with a small amount of visiting with a couple of our kids on the side. I did insist on a few stops at stores, since the businesses in our town have stopped carrying some things I use on a regular basis, plus I wanted to look at a couple of craft stores for some things I want for the dolls I am making. Ever since I took my mother for out-patient surgery - but packed myself a bag "just in case" - I have packed bags every time I leave town. Just in case. Because the time I took my mother for her surgery I ended up staying at the hospital for several days, and with my parents for about a month. My dad wouldn't take my advice, and ended up with only the clothes he was wearing and the toothbrush and deodorant we bought a the store across from the hospital.We didn't need our bags today. All went well, and we made it back home about 7:00 p.m., but I would rather pack and unpack bags a hundred times - or more- than go once and need them and not have them. We only got to see my daughter and her husband, and my son and his 2 youngest kids today, and were only at each house a short time. Our timing for getting the furniture home, however, couldn't have been better. We missed all the rain and soon it had turned into a very beautiful day. Still keeping the tomatoes, covered, though.

THE CAT IN THE WINDOW

2011-10-07T16:07:00.000-07:00

We have a couple of bird feeders out back, and the cat loves to sit in the window to watch the birds, either my bedroom window or the kitchen window. She gets excited sometimes and makes murderous sounds in her throat, or hits her tail back and forth against the window. Today I was in the kitchen and she was in the window, and her tail thumped so hard I wondered if she was going to crack the glass. Okay, not really, but she was thumping it pretty hard. I looked up, and realized another cat was sitting on the window ledge outside. He hangs around our yard a lot, and I think he is the grandbaby of Lightning Strikes' cat who used to live here. We gave one of her kittens to a guy across the street, and he had a certain kind of marking on his legs. This cat is kind of Siamese looking like LS's cat, but it has the markings on his legs like her kitten, Nike. I wish I could have gotten their faces, but when I went for the camera he got nervous and jumped down off the ledge. Also, this cat who hates to go outside has meowed so loudly at the door at night, running back and forth from the kitchen window to the living room window and back again, that we have let her out a couple of times. We suspected she was seeing this cat outside. (Don't worry, she's spayed. :0) )

DES - A SPOOKY STORY FOR OCTOBER

2011-10-07T11:24:00.000-07:00

I used to wonder why I had 3 miscarriages, 7 high-risk pregnancies with complications, and 4 of them preemies, but my sisters didn't have problems in their pregnancies like that. I spent a lot of months in bed with my 7 kids, trying to prevent premature birth. That's an "interesting" experience, let me tell you...as in the Chinese curse, "May you live in interesting times." :0)Then I read about DES and asked my mother if she was given it. My parents got married when Dad was 17 and Mom was 18, so they decided to wait 2 years before starting a family, since they were so young. Then they tried for 4 years before my mother got pregnant with me. She had problems with bleeding early in the pregnancy, so the doctor began giving her a drug to prevent miscarriage and premature birth. My mother never knew the name of it, and the doctor's office was in the hospital, which later burned to the ground, so there is no way to find out now. There were no online records then.My mother lived near my aunt at the time, and my aunt recommended this doctor to her. She was also my aunt's doctor.The reason I think my mom was given DES is because neither of my sisters had the problems I have had, but 3 cousins did. One cousin was on my mother's side, and she lost 11 babies and had 2 preemies, but her problem was a misshapen uterus, the same problem her paternal grandmother had, so I think she got it from her dad's side. She is related to me through her mother. The 2 cousins of my aunt who shared a doctor with my mother, however, had the same problems I had having their children. One was only able to have one child and some miscarriages, the other had miscarriages and preemies. I think my aunt was also given DES.So yesterday I was interested to come across an article about DES. DES was used in the 1940s through the 1960s. They have done a study on some of the estimated 4 million children whose mothers used DES in pregnancy, and the findings are a little scary - infertility is twice as great, breast cancer is almost double. A rare form of cervical cancer and vaginal cancer is not so rare in DES daughters. Pre-term delivery is three times as likely, tubal pregnancy is more likely, still born births three times the normal rate, and high blood pressure during pregnancy is twice the rate. Menopause can come 3 times earlier in DES women.I don't know for sure that I am a DES victim, but I am pretty sure I am, since I had so many of the problems associated with it. Since I had a hysterectomy 12 years ago, most of the resulting problems don't apply to me any more, except for that one about breast cancer. The study also showed that women who took DES are twice as likely to have breast cancer. My mother had a mastectomy a couple of years ago because of breast cancer.Men whose mothers took DES while they were pregnant are more at risk for testicular cancer and cysts.I don't worry about myself any more, but what the study does not include is the next generation. I have four daughters and 10 granddaughters (although 4 of those girls are adopted, so do not share my genes). My oldest daughter has 3 children, and did not have the problems I have had, but my girls need to be aware so they can watch for signs and catch things early. I don't know if DES taken by a mother in pregnancy can filter down through other pregnancies where she didn't take the drug, but my siblings seem to have escaped any of the side effects.I don't know about you, but sometimes when I read the side effects on the warning labels of over the counter medicines and prescriptions, it makes me not want to take anything at all. Funny how one little act can have such a long-lasting impact on your life, isn't it? I always say that life can change in an instant.

ZUCCHINI BREAD

2011-10-06T15:15:00.000-07:00

3 eggs 2 c sugar 1 c vegetable oil 3 tsp vanilla 2 c raw, unpeeled, packed grated zucchini 3 c flour 1/4 tsp baking powder 2 tsp baking soda 1 tsp salt 3 tsp cinnamon 1 c chopped nuts Beat eggs until light and fluffy. Add sugar, oil and vanilla. Blend well. Stir in zucchini. Add dry ingredients. Pour into two 9 x 5" well-greased pans. Bake at 350 for one hour.Wrap in aluminum foil and let sit over night. It is a very moist bread the next day.

THE GOOD, THE BAD, AND THE UGLY

2011-10-05T15:12:00.000-07:00

The Good: Dee Ice brought in the mail and told me he thought I had a thank you card in it. Sure enough, there was a small envelope, but I couldn't imagine why anyone was thanking me. I thought maybe it was the girl I'd taken dinner to after she had her baby. Instead it was from a woman I have been taking vegetables from our garden to. I was so surprised to get that. We have shared from our garden for years and years, and have taken vegetables to over 30 families just this year alone, and that is the first time I have ever had a thank you note. I didn't expect one for sure, but it was a nice gesture on her part.The Bad: Dee Ice was assigned to go to a senior apartment building to ask for donations for Friends of Scouting. He was so not thrilled to do it, but I went with him so he didn't have to go alone. He came to the apartment of a man he used to work with, and one of the first things this man and his wife did was to tell Dee Ice how fat he'd gotten since they had seen him last! Really? You go around telling people they are fat??? I don't get it. I would never say that to anyone. Not only that, but a man who GROWS INTO A SIZE MEDIUM is not fat! Seriously!The Ugly: Okay, that last one was both bad and ugly, but what might get really ugly is the storm that seems to be blowing in today. That wind has a bite to it and the temperature is dropping as the day goes on. We may get that snow the newspaper has warned us about yet. The question is, will the garden survive?Then again, it's October, and gardens have to die sometime.