An Oldie

Today I've been looking for pictures to put together a presentation for my son McKay's Eagle Ceremony.  I ran across this video (I've gotten side-tracked a bit) and thought it defined our family in so many ways.

If you ARE my family . . . . you'll enjoy . . . . if you are not, and hate watching old home videos of other people's families . . . . you probably ought to skip it!!!

This one had me reminiscing and laughing!

Then and Now (or proud mama time)

Here is McKay posing with his brother Chancy when they began swimming on a summer swim team.  McKay was quite a little tyke!

When we moved here to Maryland I and my kids spent A LOT of time at the swimming pool located just outside our back yard gate.  All the kids were FISH.  As a result, when McKay started swimming on the team he did REALLY well. He won quite a few races! 

In the older age brackets McKay didn't do so well . . . . he stayed small in stature for quite a few years and didn't do well AT ALL swimming against the other kids that had "gotten their growth."!!

This year, however, McKay has grown a bit and as a sophomore in High School has started doing rather well on his swim team. He was even a triple winner in one of his meets. He is a BIG FISH in a small pond!!!! :) 

He isn't as willing to pose for me anymore . . . . so I have to get whatever shot I can get of him . . . . thankfully I'm working the swim meets now and can get some good pictures when he can't hide from me. . . . .

Here he is doing "The Fly."  Even though I try to time my picture taking . . . most of the shots I try to get of him are of nothing, because he is under the water!!!

Swimming is quite a tough sport.  I'd say they probably swim 2 miles every practice.  I can hardly do 2 laps!!!  I can't wait to see what his Junior and Senior year bring him . . . .

Flashback Friday

Journal Jar question:  How did you like being the oldest, youngest, or middle child?  What were the advantages and disadvantages?

I am an oldest child of an oldest child.  My oldest child was also the oldest grandchild and oldest great grandchild on my mom's side of the family.  This brought me notoriety.

On the other hand, I was somewhat chagrined to find out I fell in the middle of the grandchild equation on the other side of the family . . . . . . . what a downgrade!

Advantages?  I knew ALL of my grandparents and so did most of my children.  I only met one of my great grandparents and she scared me . . . . she was in a nursing home.  Nursing homes still scare me.

Another perk?  I was the child with the most pictures and moving pictures taken of them.  I never had hand-me-downs.  The only hand-me-down I got was the family car when I turned 16.  A newly painted (I got to pick the color), newly converted (into a BaJa), newly souped up 1966 VW bug.  YAY, for me! 

This has to be in the 70's . . . . . here we are in our polka-dotted
plaid glory . . . . . I'm pretty sure my mom made all our outfits.
She was pretty amazing with a sewing machine. 

I also had the benefit of my parents fortitude . . . . they kept me in piano lessons long term.  A HUGE blessing to me now.  They put me in numerous 4H classes.  I had baton twirling lessons (bet you didn't know that about me!!!), clarinet lessons (with a new instrument!), swim lessons, and whatever else a small town has to offer . . . . which is very meager, believe me.

It is easier to remember the non-perks though.  I had responsibilities.  Whatever my siblings did, somehow could be blamed on me . . . . "how could you let so and so, do such and such?"  I was the babysitter by default.  Wow, I'm drawing a blank.  Maybe the perks were better!

The hardest thing was having to leave home and leave my younger siblings home and miss their growing up years.  Having your parents sell their house, and give you a courtesy call to let you know they'd moved out (hey! I needed to say goodbye to that house!!!)  Having your family go on vacation and you not finding out until after they were back . . . . and other stuff like that.

Such is life.  I don't know if it'd be any better being the baby.  I've watched McKay say goodbye to his older siblings, and the same is happening to him . . . . their lives are marching on and they've left him behind.  Yep, such is life on either end of the spectrum. 

It's funny what pops up in your brain sometimes, I had to memorize this in college:

The Moving Finger writes,

and having writ, Moves on;

nor all thy Piety nor Wit

Shall lure it back to cancel half a Line.

Omar Khayyam

How did I get there?  Such is a blog . . . . random thoughts thrown up on a page. . . . . hmmmmm, that could have a double meaning . . . . . I like it!

Flashback Friday

My mom has a very distinctive laugh.

and she laughs a lot!

As a kid, if I ever got lost,

I knew I could find my mom by stopping and

listening.

Before long . . . . . without fail, she would laugh

and like a homing beacon, she would unintentionally lead me to her,

and I was found.

On our recent trip to Myrtle Beach,

my husband needed to go use the facilities . . . . if you know what I mean.

We were at Brookgreen gardens,

which is a maze . . . . and is full of little "secret gardens."

He told us to move on along and he would find us.

after a little while,

I began to get worried,

thinking he would not possibly be able to locate us.



McKay in one of the "secret gardens" the children's garden

Amazingly enough

he was able to find us.

I asked him how he was able to do it,

as I thought we had wandered to far for him to make it possible.

His reply:

I followed your mom's laugh!

I completely understood . . . . . .

but it felt odd that my husband used the same tactic

I had used as a kid!

Some things never change!

Now I'm wondering why (at the garden) we didn't just use our cell phones . . .

OH WELL . . . it makes a good story.

Can you hear me now??? :)

Flashback Friday

Journal Jar question:  "What was your favorite place to go with your family when you were young?"

This may seem kinda silly to some of you "girly girls" out there but I was not a girly girl!  One of my favorite things to do with our family was rock hounding. 

The county I'm from in Utah has a wealth of fossils and minerals . . . . . . . .  from the Millard County web page:  "The rugged desert mountains in Millard County Utah attract rockhounds from around the world. The Antelope Springs area is one of the best places in the world to find trilobites. Gem-quality topaz comes from Topaz Mountain. Sunstone Knoll is the place to find interesting sunstone. Countless other sites yield rare and interesting rocks, fossils and minerals."

This was my favorite fossil
to find by far!

I don't think I ever found a topaz,
but spent hours looking!

I have a box of fossils that we move from house to house.  When my husband hefts it he always asks, "are you ready to get rid of this yet?"  NOPE!  I'll get rid of most of my books before I'll part with that box of fossils and trilobites!  and that's saying something!

There's nothing quite like chipping away at a piece of shale and finding the treasure within . . . . .  opening an ugly rock and finding crystals inside . . . . . finding a piece of obsidian or snowflake obsidian . . . . . . finding an Indian arrowhead (which I guess is illegal now, really! would you just set it down again?!) . . . . . or finding a piece of topaz.  We've even been known to pan for gold.  My brothers have gotten more into the gold part, it doesn't hold much allure for me for some reason! 

It was always exciting to look
down and find one of these!

I guess I'm easy to please!  Just give me a pick and a pile of rocks and you'll keep me busy for hours! 

Flashback Friday

Journal Jar question:  "Did you have a bicycle?  What was it like?"

Ahhhhh. . . . . bikes . . . . . .

I remember way back when I didn't even own a bike, before I could even ride a bike.  I dreamed about owning a bike.  It just looked like such a wonderful way to get around, peddling with wind blowing through your hair and magically staying upright on those two wheels.

I remember there was an older kid in our little neighborhood that would ride his bike in front of our house.  He seemed to have such freedom!  The bike I dreamed of was this one below . . . . . I wanted streamers though . . . . pink and white streamers that would flow from the ends of the handlebars . . . . .

A beloved "banana bike"!!!!

One Christmas morning I awoke to something like this . . . . .  . .


I don't remember mine ever having training wheels . . . . . . . just
learned "cold turkey" to ride the bike. . . . . . . . I could be wrong
though!  My memory isn't that great!

 I am ashamed of myself when I think back . . . . though I was pretty young.  I'm sure I didn't hide my disappointment at the ugly bike staring me in the face.  I don't remember much about it, or how long I finally took to swallow my pride and ride it. 

I remember my dad and mom running behind me trying to hold me up while I got my balance.  I remember not liking the feeling of not knowing when or if they would take their hands off the back of the seat and let me go . . . . . . .

One afternoon after begging my parents to help me ride and not getting any results I took off on my own to ride the bike.  I remember falling several times (we had gravel roads) and skinning up my knees, but my determination paid off and the freedom of bike riding was mine!  It was true! There was magic in being able to ride on two wheels!  What a rush.

Later in life a similar "bike" experience happened to me.  It was time for a new bike and this bike below is what I had in mind . . . . . . A beautiful ten speed with those awesome looking handle bars!  (now they make my back hurt just looking at them!)

One bright morning on my birthday I received something that looked kinda like this one below . . . . . . again I don't think I hid my disappointment well.

Oh let me count the ways!!!

I wanted a ten speed . . . . . . I got a three speed.

I wanted blue, maybe pink, maybe red . . . . . . . . I got a root beer brown.

I wanted those sleek looking handle bars . . . . . I got embarrassing looking ones.

I wanted to ride and pedal backwards to that lovely gear sound . . . . . pedaling backwards gave me my brake.

I wanted hand brakes . . . . . . . refer to above . . . . . . .

I wanted fenderless wheels . . . . . . . . I got fenders.

I took a screwdriver and took those fenders off . . . . I soon learned what they were for after getting flipped with water and mud up my backside while riding!

If I remember right I took that ugly chainguard off also, learning the hard way about the well-thought-out design of this bike. It sure looked nicer though!

I am somewhat ashamed of my nonacceptance of my parents efforts to make me happy (although I think they knew I wouldn't be :)  They did what they could afford, and what they thought was best for me.  I agree with them now. 
 
I think I learned a lot about swallowing my pride, and accepting with graciousness those gifts given to me.  I didn't learn these things right away, however!  If the truth be known, I'm stilling trying to learn those things.

I love to ride a bike.  It is really the only physical sport I like.  I don't own my own bike, however.  Lincoln rides Justin's bike and I ride Lincoln's bike . . . . . I really have no  complaints. .  . . . .it's red . . . . . has many speeds . . . . . . cool handlebars . . . . no fenders . . . . :)  it's a nice "bike store" bike . . . . . .  it is the best bike I've ever ridden. 

Maybe someday I'll get to pick out my own bike.

I'm not holding my breath!

Flashback Friday

Journal Jar question:  "Tell about some of your first jobs."

I'm going to tell about some of my childhood jobs, since they might be more interesting!  My dad was the master of making up jobs for us to do which he would pay us for. 

~One of the first I can remember (and now I'm questioning myself, was this my dad or was this Lincoln . . . . hummm) was to pop off the heads of the dandelions in our yard . . . . one head one penny.

~Dad would often pay us a penny a root to weed.  The weeds HAD to have a root on them or they wouldn't count!  My brothers knew how to capitalize on this one.  They would go find a patch of thickly growing weeds that had a very small root.  In one shovel or hoe swoop they could get hundreds of weeds.  I remember counting weeds, and dad making good on the pay.

~I took care of our chickens and sold the eggs from them.  I kept my car in gas this way.  My siblings milked our cow and shared the profit.  I got 50 cents of the profit per gallon because I delivered the milk.

~Dad owned a machine shop.  We could earn money by sweeping the shop.

~Dad owned an injection molding machine in his machine shop.  There were times when he got big orders and would need someone to sit mindlessly making sure the machine continued to work properly and pull the plastic pieces out of it.  We got a dollar an hour for this.  We sat there for hours and made some pretty good money.  I remember listening to music while doing this and becoming very tired of the limited supply of cassette tapes we owned.  One of the songs I remember was . . . . Monday, Monday . . . . so good to me.  (singing)

~Dad was Justice of the Peace in our community for 8 years.  He paid me to sit at the front desk and greet the people who came in to pay their fines or talk about their crimes!!  I would greet the police officers and highway patrol officers and take the tickets that they had written for the month.  I would transfer them in to the court docket to await payment.  When the payments of fines came in the mail, I would record them in the docket.  I would keep track of those who hadn't paid their fines on time, and send them letters with notice of late fines.  I remember that their was some question of whether or not I could do this in my early teens by the officers and the county treasurer.  They took a look at my work and I stayed!  I probably earned a dollar an hour to do this one too.  I remember really liking this job.  When I was a senior in high school the county officer's gave me a small scholarship to go to college. 

~My dad wouldn't let us work at the normal places teenagers worked at and so when they forced me to get my first "real" job (I didn't want to work for anyone!) I went to Zion's Bank in our town to apply, and they gave me a job right away.  I earned $4.85 an hour, which was a lot more than my friends made at their jobs.  I checked signatures on processed checks to make sure they matched the signature cards and then I sent out the statements at the end of the month.  I made sure the check and deposit counts were the same as the statement.  This job made me feel important . . . . . as did being the court clerk! 

Pretty interesting . . . . . at least to me!  Sorry, I'm rushing today, but wanted to get my flashback done!

Have a great day!

Flashback Friday

Journal Jar question:  "Tell about a camping or fishing experience." 

We had a lot of camping AND fishing experiences!!!   My family would either borrow my grandparents trailer (pictured) or we would "tent" it in our rather nice Springbar 3 room/leisure port tent.  We would go to Minersville Lake, or Fishlake National Forest, or sometimes Utah Lake to fish and camp.  We went other places too for family reunions and camped.  We would camp in Leamington, or the mountain by Lehman caves, or wherever the family was having a reunion. 

Sid Jr., Dad and Myself, holding up our catch.  I don't remember where
we were in this picture.  (Our whole family had those indoor/outdoor glasses,
you know, the ones that change from light to dark . . . . the way they advertise
them today you'd think it was new technology!)

Some of my memories of camping are:

~having races putting up our section of the tent.  The girls on one team, the boys on another and my parents on another.

~freezing our patootees off at night.  Those were the longest nights ever.  I didn't learn until I met my husband that there were sleeping bags actually designed to keep a person warm.

~Trudy being warned not to eat a whole bag of dried apples.  She ate them anyway, and threw up a couple bushels of apples.  GREAT MEMORY!

~Calling to the fish . . . . heeeeerreeee fish, fish, fish . . . . . . .

This is me, holding, if my memory is correct a Walleye caught at Utah Lake.
I think it was the biggest fish caught that day.  I remember a big fish jumping
up close to us and everyone brought in their lines and started casting nearer
to shore.  I cast my line as far out as I could cast and pulled in this baby. 
I was sad that it didn't put up much of a fight!  It just swam right in to me!

~having to bait our own hook

~spitting on the bait

~bringing a friend along that drove my mom nuts. 

~the friend casting out her line while my mom was standing behind her and catching mom in the nose with the hook.

~dad getting out the hook.  YIKES!

~oh boy, was my mom mad!

~the fire--marshmallows, wieners, burning sticks and writing with the smoke, melting bottoms of shoes.

~my dad whittling utensils for my mom that she forgot to bring.

~the games

~at family reunions, Uncle Joe leading us on snipe hunts.  I'd always fall for this hook, line and sinker!  (no pun intended!)

~outdoor latrines.  For some reason dad hated for us to use the trailer's restroom.  Could it be he hated cleaning it out???  ;)

This is one thing we've missed moving out east.  Camping didn't take any planning at all in the west.  You didn't need to make reservations, you could just pack up and go anytime you liked to.  Maybe Lincoln and I will have to take it up again when we have grandkids . . . . .  a person can dream!

Flashback Friday

Journal Jar question:  "List a few of the simple things in life that make you smile and tell why."

~holding hands with my sweetheart
~homemade freezer jam
~the first flowers of spring
~a visit with my parents
~driving down a road canopied in tree blossoms
~one of my children's names showing up on caller id
~a waffle loaded with butter and maple syrup
~my husband's smile
~a hug
~a compliment, either given or taken
~someone else's smile
~playing the piano
~tears of joy
~time with Trudy
~a job well done
~anticipation
~a clean house
~friends
~McKay coming home from school
~going to church
~a good book
~family
~red/maroon
~seeing my piano students succeed

There are soooooo many things!  The "whys" are self explanatory I'm thinking.  What are your simple joys?

Flashback Friday

Since I've been flashing back all week . . . and since I've been avoiding journal jar questions like this one, I decided to go with the first one I picked out of the jar:  "Tell about a time that you felt God was there to help you in your struggles."

This week in seminary we have been "in the Liberty Jail."  One of my students suggested that while we were studying the sections that were written while Joseph Smith and the 5 other gentlemen were in the Liberty Jail that we put away the tables and the chairs and sit on the floor for our lessons.  We've been on the floor for four days.  The process of discussing the trials that the early members of our church and the sufferings that the Savior went through during his ministry has brought me a new understanding of my trials and how small they are in comparison.

My trials are real, but they are nowhere what they could be.

A quote from the lesson:  "The wounds in the Lord's hands, feet, and side are signs that in mortality painful things happen even to the pure and the perfect, signs that tribulation is not evidence that God does not love us.  It is a significant and hopeful fact that it is the wounded Christ who comes to our rescue. . . . That evidence of pain in mortality is undoubtedly intended to give courage to others who are also hurt and wounded by life, perhaps even in the house of their friends."

Another quote:  "There is always a blessing in sorrow and humiliation.  They who escape these things are not the fortunate ones.  'Whom God loveth he chasteneth' . . . . . flowers shed most of their perfume when they are crushed.  Men and women have to suffer just so much in order to bring out the best that is in them."

Maybe substituting in seminary this week was a way for God to help me to, can I say it?  be thankful for my trials? . . . . . . . I'm thinking about that one!  I'd just choose different ones for myself!  ha!  wouldn't we all!

Ode to my Dad

Yesterday while I was writing my post about mom, I couldn't help but think of how my dad has influenced my music also.

Every morning my dad would wake us kids up with a trumpet-like chorus of "GET UP, GET UP, GET UUuuuuuUUUP, GET UP, GET UP, GETuuuUUuuuuuUUP, it was VeRy annoying (which I think it was meant to be)!  When he had awoken us thoroughly he would go upstairs and tinker on the piano.  In fact, just about any time he had time to kill he would tinker on the piano.  I don't think he ever has had lessons, but he had a few tunes that he played that I wanted to emulate.  He didn't use sheet music and so I would watch his fingers and try to copy him while he wasn't around.  He played "Elmer's Tune," "The Entertainer," "In The Mood", and others.  He used the "hunt and peck method!" 

I don't know quite how this came about, but in my teens my dad formed a band.  (He was in a band when he was in his teens too).  I was on the electric piano, Dad was on the guitar, our neighbor Scott played stringed bass, his wife Barbara played the piano and a guy named Deiter played a mean drum set.  Our drummer was German, had a thick accent, didn't believe in soap, and loved polkas!!!   I remember there was some discussion of whether or not we even needed me, because the electric piano could do the bass, it could do the piano, and it could do the rhythms.  I think they kept me because it would hurt my feelings to drop me.  I could have been a one woman band (humility, isn't it great??? rofl). 

We played "oldies"  really old oldies, and went around playing for senior citizen's dances and wedding receptions.  I know we got paid, but I can't remember getting any of the profits :)  It was a lot of fun to see people enjoying the music and dancing and having a good time.

Dad and I used to "jam" a lot.  He and his guitar, and me on the piano.  We could really rock the house, and I'm sure the neighborhood was rockin' also.  We'd play until our fingers almost dropped off!  While "jamming" I never really followed the music exactly, just used it as a guide.  This skill has served me well through the years.  Some music is meant to be felt and not exactly adhered to.  It is a wonderful combination when you find someone who feels it like you do.  I have my dad to thank for that!

THANKS for the memories!  (It seems like everyday is becoming flashback Friday . . . . I must be getting old :)

A Version of Elmer's Tune . . . . . . Love the Andrew's Sisters!!!

Goofus . . . I found earlier recording's from the 1930's, BUT they don't have the words just the music, so here it is from the 70's.

Flashback Friday

Journal Jar question:  "Tell about changes you have seen in technology in your lifetime."

There have really been some huge changes in technology in my memory.  The world has definitely changed the way it communicates and does it's business.  The ones I can think of are:

~ typewriters to word processing and printers.  There are very few things you'd need a typewriter for these days, and even that would be stretching it.  Filling out an already printed form is the only application I can think of.  

~records to cassettes to 8 track to CD to MP3.  It's hard to believe how we've gone from a large plastic record to microscopic digital bits of information that we download to a tiny device to listen to our music! (with much better quality, I might add)

~DOS to Windows.  I remember when I first started working full-time as a word processing secretary.  A guy came in (in 1985) to try to sell us on this new "Windows" system that had just come out.  Thinking back, he explained it well, I just couldn't get the concept . . . . . you could have different windows open at the same time?  I couldn't even imagine what a "window" might look like.  Inconceivable!  We decided not to go with it . . . . we felt another system would be more likely to catch on NOT!  How wrong we were!

~snail mail to faxing to e-mail.  I took me forever to get my first e-mail account.  The rest is history!

~library/books/encyclopedias to the world wide web.  Google makes knowledge and information available at our fingertips . . . . literally.

~beta max to VHS to Laser Disks to DVDs to Blu Ray.  Remember Laser Disks?  They were essentially a huge CD or DVD that was the size of the old plastic records.  Those of us who had beta max thought it was "the thing" and I still haven't switched to Blu Ray!

~Home phones/pay phones to cell phones to smart phones.  I roll my eyes when people try to explain why their kids have to have cell phones.  I remember when we got a cord long enough for our phone that we could go outside and talk if we needed privacy.  We could stretch that cord to its maximum length, I tell you what!

~Books to ebooks.  LOVE IT!

~Analog TV to digital TV.  Expensive!

~Analog photography to digital photography.  Everyone is a photographer now.  There is some amazing digital photography out there.  AMAZING!

~Going outside to play/having friends over to video games.  Our first video game was nothing more than two beater bars and a ball bouncing between them.  We couldn't even have dreamt that you'd be able to actually play and talk in person with someone across the nation or even the world . . . . say in Japan (McKay's old Sunday school teacher lives there, they survived the quake by the way). 

Heaven forbid a satellite go down.  The world would come to a screeching halt and then we'd learn how to do it the old fashioned way again, with a little human touch.  It really is quite amazing how fast a rumor could spread even before all this technology . . . . . . .

Flashback Friday

Journal jar question:  Did you ever break a bone or have stitches?  Tell about the experience."

As you can tell, I didn't learn from the experience.  Here I am a MUCH
younger me with my hubby and oldest son Justin.  (back in Abraham,
where there are fewer trees!!!)

The only stitches I've had were a result of planned medical procedures, thank goodness!  But I have had one broken bone.  It was only a mere fracture but it hurt like the dickens!

Our family had a Honda 3 wheeled motorcycle.  We had such fun with the "3 wheeler"!  We ripped up and down the neighborhood we lived in and made our neighbors mad with all the dust we would kick up.  We had it for years, and it hardly ever sat idle.  I think my dad bought it to run around and do his chores on the farm but we (the kids) thought it was for our recreation.  We were pretty young when we started riding.  I'm trying to remember how old we would have been . . . . 5, 6 ?  It's one of the few things I can actually remember doing when we still lived in Abraham. 

I digress (as usual!).  We were living in Sutherland and one of our favorite things to do was hook up a sled to the back of the 3 wheeler and speed and spin around just as fast as we could go.  This one particular time I was sitting in the front of the sled and my brother, I think it was George, took an extra sharp turn around a tree.  The sled and my foot collided with the tree.

Justin and Sid.  Sid kept us safe and sound, this time behind a four wheeler. 
Mary Jo and Becky . . . . . . I'm pretty sure you were  sledding with us that day!
 Trish and Justin became best buds while we were in Abraham. 

I can tell you that in a battle between a sled, a foot and a tree, the tree will always win!!!  I started rolling around on the snow in total agony, while my brother's and sister sat and tried to talk me into faking that nothing ever happened when we got home.  Yeah, right . . . . . . I found out later that a neighbor lady had seen the episode and thought that I was rolling around laughing and having a good time.

You can guess the rest of the story . . . . . I fractured my foot.  The pain was sooooo intense.  Everything I've gone through in life (including natural childbirth) I've compared with that pain. I think it is the worst pain I've ever lived through.  It was constant and lasted many weeks.  It even hurt after I got my cast off, and hurt for years when a storm was due to come in (I guess the barometric pressure?).  On the flip side. . . . . . I grew to love crutches.  Once you learn to use them you can really book it.  I felt handicapped when I stopped using them! 

I enjoyed the perks of having a broken bone.  People are so extra nice to someone in need.  Doors got opened for me . . . . . . I got to drive my dad's nice big "automatic" truck and he and mom drove my little VW baja bug.  In school back in those days we didn't carry backbacks to school.  I don't know why, but we carried our books.  I never had trouble getting my books from class to class, someone was always there to help.  I even got excused from being tardy to class while learning to use my crutches.  Fun times!

P.S.  Anyone who tells you you can't get cut while they are cutting off your cast is LYING!  true story

Here's the model we had . . . Honda ATC 90, introduced into the United States
in 1971.  I'm sure ours was close to that year . . . . . and ours was yellow, not
as orange as the one shown. 

Flashback Friday

At first glance at this journal jar question "Were you ever in a drama class, speech, on a sports team , in a club?  Tell about it and possibly why you joined."  I thought, nope . . . . haven't done these things, but it jarred my memory!

The 4 "H's" stand for Head, Heart, Hands
and Health.  I spent a lot of time in my youth
actually looking for a real 4-leaf clover and
could never find one.  Out here in MD, they
are easy to find!  Go figure!!!



As a youth I participated in 4-H.  As I remember, my mother was a big part of this.  As I remember, mom can correct me if I'm wrong, but she was a big part of the success of 4-H in our little community.  She went around to the other mothers of kids my age and said, "If I teach cooking, will you teach sewing?" and on and on and on.  My mom had us kids scheduled for 4-H clubs for most of the summer.  I remember her teaching cooking and teaching us how to measure correctly, the differences between chopping, cubing, slicing, dicing and what the difference between mixing, beating and folding were.   I remember going to my friend's mother's house and her teaching us how to sew, first on paper and then on material.  I sewed my first outfit at age 12!  I remember so many of the activities we did and the love and care all the mothers gave to us.

 

The 4-H clubs I attended were (multiple years of each):

~cooking
~sewing
~crocheting
~ceramics
~childcare
~poultry
~gardening

I placed several things in the County Fair and received several Blue (1st place) and Red (2nd place) ribbons.  At the State Fair in 1976 I won a Blue ribbon on my blueberry muffins and in 1977 a Red ribbon on my cheese-roll-up biscuits!  How do I remember?  I have the ribbons sitting right next to me!  I have pictures of some of the things I sewed for 4-H, but they are so deeply buried in our crawl space it'd take me a while to find them.

Thanks Mom, for making these good memories for us kids and for being willing to teach us these skills!

Flashback Friday

I started this flashback last week but ran out of time.  I spent last Friday at the temple with 3 other women from my ward.  A trip to the DC temple is almost a whole-day affair.  It was a great day!

I had to laugh at this journal jar question:  "Describe a trip downtown as a youngster."

This could rightly say . . . . "a trip to town."  Delta is a typical Mormon town, that is divided into square blocks and numbered in a grid system.  The main street is very wide and is appropriately called "Main Street."   It is 1 mile long and if you blink your eyes you might miss it!  It is very lonely, brown, country.  I didn't realize how brown it was until I lived here a few years and then returned to it.

Most of my life the entire town didn't even have a stop light.  In fact my first stoplight I ever drove through was in a town called Nephi, which was 60 miles away from our town.  I stopped at the red light, looked for a clear spot and went through it!  My friends about had a cow!  When I moved to Salt Lake City to go to college, my biggest concern was how to navigate the stop lights.  It wasn't leaving home, it wasn't being on my own for the first time . . . . . it was the stop lights!

Here are Delta's highlights (what I remember and how I remember as a kid, there have been some changes)

~an indoor movie theatre which upgraded to a twin theatre in my teen years
~a drive-in movie theatre (at times it was the only theatre in town)
~a very small grocery store that through the years became two adequate medium size stores (one with a bakery!)
~2 drug stores (gotta have those drugs, prescription of course!)
~1 hospital which was also upgraded to a modern hospital (very small, but thank heavens for it)
~2 doctors (there were years where there was no ob/gyn care)
~a handful of diners, cafes, drive-ins and wannabe fine dining places
~a Taco Time
~1 high school (8th through 12th grade)
~1 middle school (5th through 7th grade.  It was new to me, I only went to the 7th grade there)
~1 elementary school (K through 6th when I attended)
~2 or three all-purpose stores that carried about everything
~farm supply stores
~and of course, one stop light

There were various and sundry other places, but if you really needed to shop, say school shopping, you needed to take a trip to Provo, which was 1 1/2 hours away.   In those days the drive seemed endless.  To my poor husband today, it is just a regular commute!!!

See the wide streets?  Officially this is US HWY 50 & 6.  In the middle left of this picture is the infamous overpass that leads to our house, which I believe was about 12 miles away (the road to our house was marked by a sign that said "This is not US HWY 50 & 6")  Someday I want to travel HWY 50 all the way across the country, beginning in Ocean City, Maryland and ending in Sacramento, CA. 

This is going the other direction.  You can see the stop light in this picture!!!

After all this, I realize I haven't even answered the journal jar question.  I've described the town, not a trip to town.  I guess this is what I get from following politics too much.  I've perfected the fine art of NOT directly answering a question :)

Flashback Friday

Warning:  There are two posts today, so keep scrolling after this one.  You get double duty today, because two people (yes two) told me they checked my blog several times for a "flashback" last week and they were disappointed!  COOL!  (not the disappointed part, but the being missed part :)

Journal jar question:  "What was one of your favorite treats as a child?"

I can't let this one go by with just one answer.  One of my favorite treats as a child was peanut butter and honey sandwiches.  Usually with just one slice of bread, folded over so your first bite could be right in the middle of fold.  Oooooooey-Goooooey-Dribblely goodness!!! I don't know why I don't eat more of them. 

Another of my favorite treats was my mother's homemade eggnog.  When I think back on them I wonder what I liked because they had chunks of snotty-raw-egglike-substances throughout them but love them I did.  She made them for us kids when were sick.  Sickness = homemade eggnog!

Another treat was my grandmother's cookie jar.  It was always, a.l.w.a.y.s. filled with cookies.  We'd all try to snatch a cookie lifting the lid oh, so, carefully and then we'd try to replace the lid without making a chinking noise.  We were seldom successful in our covert actions.  I don't know why we tried to hide the fact we were getting cookies.  I'm sure the cookie jar was filled with just us in mind ;)

What were your favorite treats as a child?

In Memorian

My mom just called me and told me that after I posted my blog on Friday, my brother George Googled "find a grave" and found our foster sister had passed away.  I'd tried finding her on Facebook, Blogs and Myspace but had never thought of finding her in a grave.   Though this makes me sad, I'm not surprised.  Alberta suffered from Alcoholism and was told by her doctor that she needed to quit, or die.  Both her parents died of the same, and although I don't know for sure, this was probably her demise also.  I believe she left two daughters behind. 

Alberta . . . . . .until we meet again.

Birth: Aug. 6, 1967

Chinle

Apache County

Arizona, USA

Death: Oct. 16, 1999

The Coyote Pass People Clan for the Red House People Clan

Husband - Marvin Yazzie

Parents - Paschal Roy Kinsel Sr and Sarah Ayze Kinsel

Burial:

Fort Defiance Cemetery

Fort Defiance

Apache County

Arizona, USA

You will live on in our memories.

Flashback Friday

Before I get to my "flashback" I wanted to add a claim-to-fame statement!  McKay and I both have been a little under the weather the last couple of days.  I took McKay in to the doctor for a strep test.  Our doctor is on Andrews Air Force Base.  One of the places we like to take visitors to see is the hanger where Airforce 1 resides.   Most of the time we can get a glimpse of it, which is always a treat.  Yesterday, I glimpsed another airplane, and said "what the heck?"  After a moment I realized it was the Chinese President's, Hu Jintao's plane).  I thought it was pretty COOL to see and I think, so did McKay! 

ONWARD:

A fellow blogger's post jogged my memory for this post.

This week, I've thought about my foster sister twice.  Once while pulling out a piano book for one of my students, because Alberta's name was written on it, and once when I read the blog post of Lollie Joy's Joyful noise. 



Seeing this picture again reminds me of
Alberta's contagious laugh.



Back in the 70's our family participated in a church program called the Indian Placement program.  It was a program designed to help members of our church who lived on a reservation and didn't have access to good schools gain a good education.  The students simply were placed in member's homes (off the reservation) for the school year and then they returned home for the summer.  We had a "placement" student, Alberta, for 3 years.  I loved having her in our home.  I always thought as an adult I'd have a placement student in our home, but thankfully, the schools on the reservations have become better and the children stay home with their families and are educated well.

Alberta and the other students had to go through a "delousing" every year when they came back for the school year.  My mother had always been adamant (even before this) that we never borrow or lend out combs or brushes to anyone!  This was reinforced many times as outbreaks of lice would occur in the schools!

Several years after she stayed with our family, Alberta came back for a visit.  She came via Greyhound Bus.  After this visit, I and my husband, drove Alberta back to Salt Lake City to the bus station.  As we were sitting with her waiting for her bus, she did something that I will never forget.  An act of true charity, true human kindness and it really made me think about the kind of a person that I am and was. 

She had noticed that there was a rather ratty looking man of her nationality sitting waiting for the bus also.  Without saying anything she took out her comb and went over to him and began the long process of combing out his long matted hair.  I don't believe she knew him, but she did recognize that he needed help and she helped him in a way that only she could.  I know that she had gotten "the comb and brush" lectures right along with the rest of us but it didn't stop her.  I would have never thought of serving someone in this manner.  It impressed me deeply.  To my surprise, the man accepted the combing of his hair, as they chatted softly in their native language. 

I was taught that day.

I haven't heard from or about Alberta in years . . . . . . I often wonder how she is doing.

Flashback Friday

Journal Jar question:  "Do you remember your favorite childhood fantasy?  Tell about it."

I remember I loved the show I Dream of Jeannie.  I would ask my mother to call me in from playing when the show came on, and invariably she would "forget."  I would be so mad and disappointed when I realized that I'd missed the show.  Now, having watched the show as an adult, I realize why she wasn't very anxious for me to be in love with the show.  It had a lot of "stuff!"  I was blissfully unaware of all that "stuff" though and loved everything about the show, especially Barbara Eden (though I hated her as Jeannie's evil sister).  I thought she was so beautiful!  I loved her bottle, and couldn't figure out why she hated to be locked up in it.  I could imagine lounging around on all those pillows through all eons of time.  I could imagine having magical powers and being able to control the world around me with a arm-fold and nod of the head (and a audible doink)!

A couple of years ago, when Lincoln got home from Afghanistan, we took a long vacation.  One of the things we did was stay at a resort in Cocoa Beach for a week.  I had the theme song of I Dream of Jeannie running through my head a good portion of the time.  The resort we stayed at even had displays of "The Jeannie bottle".  I was so excited to see the street name:

I made Lincoln stop and with cars honking, made him take a picture of me next to the sign.  WOW, I had no idea those signs were so huge!  They look so small when you are looking for or at them! 



Now my life can be complete!  LOL!

Flashback Friday

This post was inspired by my new addiction . . . the show Hoarders.  I'll explain!

Back when Lincoln and I were first married, and our oldest child was a baby my hubby decided that he wanted to try his hand at farming with my dad.  We packed up all of our stuff and unlike the Beverly Hill Billies, we left the big bad city, and moved to the country.

I'm thinking Justin and I BOTH look like babies!  Ahhhh! Justin looks so sweet!

Here is my rugged hunk of a man, with my brother George.  I can't believe how
young they both look!

Those were the days!  Okay, back to Hoarding. . . . . the last show I saw was totally gross (which I love!)  Anyhow, as they were cleaning up the house, all of the sudden a bunch of mice all-of-a-sudden appeared and were jumping around like ballerinas . . . . landing on people, landing everywhere, trying to find a place to hide . . . . . it reminded me of . . . .

Doing chores with Lincoln on the farm.  Justin and I and Smoky, my parents dog, would load up in the pick-up truck and go to feed the cows.  Smoky loved feeding the cows.  I stayed in the truck with Justin.  WHY?  Because every time Lincoln would pick up a bale of hay to load it on to the truck, a zillion and a half mice would emerge and run everywhere!  Smoky loved pouncing on them and trying to bite them. 

WELL, one particular morning, while watching this happen, my husband got a look of terror on his face!  One of the mice had run up his leg, inside of his Levis.   Lincoln made a grab for the mouse and caught him high on his inner thigh.  What would you do in this situation???  LOL!  There was only one choice.  Lincoln squeezed, and hard!  I can imagine those little bones crunching . . . ooooooo yuck!  Anyhow, Lincoln never lifted a bale of hay off the ground without tucking his pants into his boots from then on!  What fun!  NOT!

Farming was never boring!!!  Lincoln kept us all hopping with his exploits!  I believe it cured him for good on wanting to be a farmer.