Today is Monday, April 14, 2008. This sun is shining but it is windy.
One evening we were sitting around in the family room talking about school memories. Everyone in our family liked going to school. We never once heard any one of our children say they didn't like school. Memories were about all different kinds of experiences. Glen started out by telling us one of his. I will put quote marks around each story even though they are not the exact words.
"We were having a little store - using actual items and paying real money. It was a part of our arithmetic. Each day we had to tally up. And we were always just a little short. I was so disappointed when I finally figured out that one of my best friends was taking a little money each day."
"Our school had two rooms. My dad taught the 5th to 8th grades in one room and my best friend's mother taught 1st to 4th grades in the other room. Her son and I went half year to the 4th grade and half to the 5th and then on to the sixth the next year."
"One time there were some marks on the wall at the school. Some kids blamed it on me. Dad asked me straight out 'Did you do it?' I said No and he trusted me."
One of the girls remembered how much she liked the playground area which was mostly grass at the back of the school. She and her friends liked standing on the heads up against the back fence.
"I remember when I got to help in the cafeteria and getting an ice cream cone as pay. Then we would sit behind Mr. Andrews' room eating our treat. Another special thing was when the teachers read out loud to us after lunch."
"My second grade teacher, Miss Jeppson, got married and she invited our whole class to her weddding reception. Then we had to remember to call her Mrs. Gustafsson."
"One time I took a fancy metal heart to school and we had a bomb threat. All of us had to leave the school and I was so upset that they wouldn't let me get that heart. And in Magna the whole school got to walk down to the movie theatre at Christmas time to watch a special movie and they gave us each a bag of candy."
Another daughter remembered - "In our class we had a big jar of M & M's the teacher gave us as rewards. One night the school got broken into and so as a safety measure the teacher decided that the candy had to be dumped. I remember looking at that heap of wasted candy."
Several of our children helped in the cafeteria. The school had a great cafeteria with wonderful ladies as cooks. And the cooks were so good to the student helpers. "I had to get an okay from my parents to work in the cafeteria so I got permission to walk home at lunch time to get Mom's note. My friend Angela and I got to work. My favorite thing was to make pig-in-a-blanket. I also remember that lady who wouldn't let me go by her house the first day I tried to walk to school by myself."
"Remember that day when I picked my scab and got blood all over me. I had this cute little furry white coat. There was blood all over me and my white coat. They told me to go home. And when I got home I had blood all over me. Mom laughed when she finally got all the blood washed off and found this tiny little spot it was all coming from. Nowadays, they would have never let me walk home by myself."
I have a lot of school memories of my own. How many recesses did we play prisoner's base in the jungle gym? One recess it was boys chase girls and the next recess girls chase boys. When you were tagged you had to go to prison. I can still see the jungle gym with all those outstretched arms hoping to be tagged and freed from prison. We'd run and chase the whole length of the playground. It's fun to hear that my grandchildren still play that same game even today.
MY school memories are a great source of pleasure. I have many pleasant memories. Enough to fill a book. That's all for today.
Monday, April 14, 2008
Wednesday, April 9, 2008
New Dessert
Have you ever tried tres leches cake? Oh my, what a fun dessert! I am forever cutting recipes out of magazines and newspapers. And when the article is about one item with several variations I usually keep them all. Well, this week, I finally tried one from a newspaper article I've had about two years. Tres Leches Cake. There were three basic recipes. One called for 5 cups of heavy cream. I decided to use the variation that called for only 1 cup of heavy cream. The cake called for 4 eggs with the other usual cake ingredients. Most cakes I bake use just 2 eggs. After you bake the cake and let it cool for 10 minutes you poke holes about 1/2 inch apart and pour a milk mixture of heavy cream, evaporated milk, and sweetened condensed milk, and vanilla over the cake. (It's better if you do that in about two pourings.) That cake absorbs all that mixture. Put it in the fridge for a couple of hours. Just before serving frost with whipped cream. Talk about ambrosia! It was a great treat.
It is best when it is just newly made. Invite a few friends over to finish it off at the first setting. Yum! Yum! I will share the exact recipe if you are interested.
It is best when it is just newly made. Invite a few friends over to finish it off at the first setting. Yum! Yum! I will share the exact recipe if you are interested.
The Best Laid Plans of Mice and Men
Today is Wednesday, April 9, 2008. It is too early to know what the sun will do today. It is still dark outside.
When I first started this "project" I planned to write something every day. And that hasn't happened. Things get in the way. Over the last few weeks two things have been a distraction. Well, more than two, really, but two that stand out in my mind. Two that I want to write something about.
The first thing was a visit to my favorite doctor, my chiropractor. My knees were hurting so bad I finally decided to go for an adjustment. He's always been able to ease the pain. "Well," he said to me, "I hate to say this but I think if I were your orthopedic doctor I would say it is time for the knee replacement."
Boy, I did not want to hear that. On his advice I made an appointment with the orthopedic specialist. About three years ago when I last visited him, he said it would probably be about three years before we would talk about a knee replacement. He suggested I get an exercise bike. Which I did and have been using it until just a few days before I went to the chiropractor. That day it hurt too bad to bring my knee up. Oh dear! Right now all I want to do is complain and moan and seek sympathy.
I know life can't be like that. Basically, I think I am a very optomistic person. And I will take my knicks, pull myself up by my bootstraps and get on with life. There are many people way worse off than me.
Back to the appointment process. Naturally the Doctor didn't have any openings for awhile so now I am playing the waiting game on what his advice will be. In the meantime I try to keep going, doing what has to be done and not much else. That was distraction number one.
The second distraction was that our computer crashed. Oh my! Glen and I both found out how much time we spend on the computer. We've had a laptop since 1998 before we went to Pakistan. In computer age that is pretty old. He uses it to write his journal and for some other things. Our main computer is in the family room and we each spend a lot of time on it.
Glen manages our photos on it. He does the monthly newletter for Church on it plus financial records, plus, plus, plus. I mainly use the computer on-line - for many things. I used to use it a lot for writing letters but I don't do much of that anymore. My main time is doing volunteer work with a genealogy program called family indexing. It has become such a hobby of mine. I love to look at the handwriting of people taking census in 1850 and other years. And to read the Irish names on the Irish death indexes. Some of the handwriting is so beautiful and legible. Some of it is very hard to read but it is like being a detective. (Scan the page until I get a sense of how this person wrote and to see if I can recognize names.)
Anyway with the computer out of commission, our pattern of life was changed. And we turned to other activities to fill our time. Fortunately, we were able to a "drive-by" computer repair. The most fortunate thing was that they could come by the day we called. Yeah! That made it a shorter time to be without a computer!
Two techicans came. One took the side off the computer. "Oh, this is dirty," he said. I never thought about taking the side off and cleaning it. Did I miss something in the instructions? Now I know that I am supposed to go to Radio Shack and get some can of air or something and clean it out about every 5 to 7 months. Oh, shoot! I hate to dust. Oh, well! They told us it would be about two weeks. The mother board needed to be replaced.
I forgot to mention that we have been discussing getting a new laptop to replace our "ancient" one. We've looked several times and have been watching ads for months. Two days before our main computer crashed we made the big decision and bought a new laptop with a wireless connection to the internet.
When the main computer crashed, Glen got onto the new laptop to check out solutions and answers. He found out that one problem might be the mother board. And that was it. So, we would be sort of out of commission for two weeks.
We wandered around here with time on our hands with only one computer. We each read a few books, watched a little more TV, and did a little more housework and yardwork. And were so happy when after 5 days the computer repair guy called to say it was ready. Now we are back to our usual routine. Thank goodness! That's it for today.
When I first started this "project" I planned to write something every day. And that hasn't happened. Things get in the way. Over the last few weeks two things have been a distraction. Well, more than two, really, but two that stand out in my mind. Two that I want to write something about.
The first thing was a visit to my favorite doctor, my chiropractor. My knees were hurting so bad I finally decided to go for an adjustment. He's always been able to ease the pain. "Well," he said to me, "I hate to say this but I think if I were your orthopedic doctor I would say it is time for the knee replacement."
Boy, I did not want to hear that. On his advice I made an appointment with the orthopedic specialist. About three years ago when I last visited him, he said it would probably be about three years before we would talk about a knee replacement. He suggested I get an exercise bike. Which I did and have been using it until just a few days before I went to the chiropractor. That day it hurt too bad to bring my knee up. Oh dear! Right now all I want to do is complain and moan and seek sympathy.
I know life can't be like that. Basically, I think I am a very optomistic person. And I will take my knicks, pull myself up by my bootstraps and get on with life. There are many people way worse off than me.
Back to the appointment process. Naturally the Doctor didn't have any openings for awhile so now I am playing the waiting game on what his advice will be. In the meantime I try to keep going, doing what has to be done and not much else. That was distraction number one.
The second distraction was that our computer crashed. Oh my! Glen and I both found out how much time we spend on the computer. We've had a laptop since 1998 before we went to Pakistan. In computer age that is pretty old. He uses it to write his journal and for some other things. Our main computer is in the family room and we each spend a lot of time on it.
Glen manages our photos on it. He does the monthly newletter for Church on it plus financial records, plus, plus, plus. I mainly use the computer on-line - for many things. I used to use it a lot for writing letters but I don't do much of that anymore. My main time is doing volunteer work with a genealogy program called family indexing. It has become such a hobby of mine. I love to look at the handwriting of people taking census in 1850 and other years. And to read the Irish names on the Irish death indexes. Some of the handwriting is so beautiful and legible. Some of it is very hard to read but it is like being a detective. (Scan the page until I get a sense of how this person wrote and to see if I can recognize names.)
Anyway with the computer out of commission, our pattern of life was changed. And we turned to other activities to fill our time. Fortunately, we were able to a "drive-by" computer repair. The most fortunate thing was that they could come by the day we called. Yeah! That made it a shorter time to be without a computer!
Two techicans came. One took the side off the computer. "Oh, this is dirty," he said. I never thought about taking the side off and cleaning it. Did I miss something in the instructions? Now I know that I am supposed to go to Radio Shack and get some can of air or something and clean it out about every 5 to 7 months. Oh, shoot! I hate to dust. Oh, well! They told us it would be about two weeks. The mother board needed to be replaced.
I forgot to mention that we have been discussing getting a new laptop to replace our "ancient" one. We've looked several times and have been watching ads for months. Two days before our main computer crashed we made the big decision and bought a new laptop with a wireless connection to the internet.
When the main computer crashed, Glen got onto the new laptop to check out solutions and answers. He found out that one problem might be the mother board. And that was it. So, we would be sort of out of commission for two weeks.
We wandered around here with time on our hands with only one computer. We each read a few books, watched a little more TV, and did a little more housework and yardwork. And were so happy when after 5 days the computer repair guy called to say it was ready. Now we are back to our usual routine. Thank goodness! That's it for today.
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