End of the Year Report

Today is Wednesday, December 30, 2009. It is dreary and cold outside and I am going to write my end of the year report. It will be very long but hopefully somewhat interesting. I plan to use it as my "late Christmas letter."
I will tell a little about each of our children and a bit about Glen and me. (Oh, shoot! I just remembered that some of our children do not want me to use their names in my blog. I will try to honor that.) I will tell about them in order of their age. (They love that, too, but it is good for keeping track of everyone. Like our roll call used to be when we got into the car.)
Our oldest son still lives in Escondido with his family. He was up here last week for some special training held in Old Sacramento. We were delighted to have him here for awhile. Wish it could have been the whole family - his wife, three sons and daughter - but we enjoyed the time we spent when he was not at his training. He is the Ward Mission Leader and everyone else has a calling, too. I can't remember them all. His wife is an aide at an elementary school and taking classes to be medical assistant. The twins are home from their missions, attending college. Next son is a football star and their daughter is an excellent artist. A talented family.
Next - Our daughter lives here in Sacto and has a job at a pre-school she loves. Her apartment is about 15 minutes away from us. She's having some health problems right now. She's hoping to have that corrected soon. Her Ward calling is Single Adult Rep. She keeps very busy with her work and her Kinder Musik classes. Plus all the other stuff she does.
Our third child lives in Paradise, California with her hubby, a little boy who is 8 and a girl who is 5. Both children love school. They have moved into their new house which was built lovingly by her hubby. When it is completely finished, it will be quite a show place. I wish I had all the space she has. She just got called as the Primary President and he is the Sunday School Supt. Both of the children love school.
Next daughter lives about 10 minutes away. She and another of our daughters are living in the home of our former Stake President. He is the Mission President in Slovenia. He and his wife asked them to rent their house while they were gone the three years. It is a beautiful place. The yard requires a lot of work for the two gals but they are working very hard to keep it up. And they do have to pay rent and utilities. It is a labor of love on their part. Number four child works for a Correctional Peace Officers foundation as their bookkeeper and travel specialist. Her Ward calling is Primary accompanist. And she also is on the Activities Committee.
Our second son lives in Arkansas with his family. He is the Branch President and his wife and 5 children keep very busy. He's teaching German in High School and they all help take care of the chicken farm (4 chicken sheds with 20,000 chickens each about every 10-12 weeks). Their oldest son just left for a mission to Guadalajara Mexico. Each of the other children keep very busy with school, sports, and Church. There are two girls at home (the oldest and the youngest) and two boys.
Next child is the one helping at the Stake President's house. She works at CPOF, also. She's our most fun entertainer at home. She's very clever and makes life fun for us all. Her Church calling is in Relief Society and she plays the piano for the Ward Choir. (Plus some other jobs.) She keeps very busy.
Our youngest son and his family live about 20 minutes away from us. He and his wife have four little children - 2 boys and 2 girls. Three are in school this year. His wife volunteers as an art docent at the schools. They are always on the go. He works as an adjustor for a car insurance company. His calling is a counselor Ward Bishopric. We like having them close enough to visit. Their children keep us young.
There are two girls left to tell about. One lives in Salem, Utah with her hubby and 4 children. She's busy in Church and with their Soccer Club. They all play soccer, coach soccer, ref, plus a bunch of other things. Her calling right now is Primary chorister. Her hubby is a school teacher. Their oldest boy is now going to seminary. Their daughter is raising a pig again this year with 4-H. She's done it before and likes it. Their "baby boy" is now 4.
For the youngest - She just got called as Primary President up in Lake Forest, Washington. They have two little boys - full of energy and mischief. But cute as they can be. They have been up in Washington about two years now. Moved from Burbank, California. Her husband works for Amazon.
As you can tell the family is scattered about. We are always glad to see them. As for Glen and me - we keep busy with Church work and home. Both of us serve in the Sacramento Temple - usually two days a week (about 5 to 6 hours each time). Glen is the Ward Newsletter Editor and teaches a Priesthood class once a month. I am the Ward Organist and Choir Director. We also volunteer down at the Old Sacramento Schoolhouse twice a month and at the Regional Family History Center. We are in charge of cataloging books, fiche, and film and keeping it all up to date on the computer.
We are getting older and slower but mostly in pretty good health. I've had both my knees replaced - should be good as new but not really, just don't have the awful pain, only stiffness - even though I try to keep up on my exercise. Glen takes good care of me. We don't go out much at night anymore. We do attend all the Church parties, though. You know! We are part of the team.
Last year we celebrated our 50th wedding anniversary and had most of the family here at that time. It was great! We've had 50 wonderful years together. And look forward to some more.
Well, I think that is all for today.

It's Nearly Christmas

Today is Saturday, December 12, 2009. It rained last night and it is cloudy this morning. Not as cold as the last two mornings but still feels pretty chilly to me.
I just read some blogs this morning ( I know I am very late reading, but ---) from family members talking about gratitude and Thanksgiving memories. I have to say thank you for the kind remarks about your "Mom." However, I can't take all the credit. Most things that happen around our place could not happen without the wonderful help and willingness of my wonderful husband, Glen. And all those things that used to go on when all of the nine children were young was due to their willingness to help with whatever project I got them involved in - like 5000 (that's right, 5000 !) Sierra Junior High Cookbooks and numerous Ward and Stake activities, PTA carnivals, and yes, feeding 30 to 40 people on Thankgiving. Add to that visiting and singing at rest homes, and a dozen other things. So, MY thanks to all of you. You are a wonderful part of my life. (There might be a tear drop or two on this page.)
I could write pages and pages about Thanksgiving and Christmas. I wonder where I will begin and where I will stop for this post. OK - the tree is up and looks beautiful. I love to have the lights turned on and just savor its beauty. No theme tree for me. I love touching each ornament and remembering where it came from and the flood of memories some bring to mind - the olive wood carvings we got when we were in Bethlehem and Jerusalem, the decorations hand made by children and freinds and even me, Mother's yarn dolls, the ornaments I bought on sale for a quarter, and the colored foil balls that came 10 for a dollar. Just to mention a few. Oh, I almost forgot - my grand piano. I don't remember for sure who gave that one to me. And the bead bells. That year we made hundreds of them - gave most of them away as gifts. Mostly to the Music Belles. Anyway, I don't intend to have a theme tree.
The mantle looks lovely with lighted decoration I bought a couple of years ago - pine boughs, gold pine cones, and lights. The piano has the large nativity set carved from olive wood. I've put out most of the other nativity sets which I am collecting now. One of my favorites is the one we bought in Athens when we were there on our mission.
I haven't gone into the "construction business" yet. The Christmas village is still upstairs in boxes. I need to get to it soon.
I am so grateful for the season which reminds us all of the birth of the Savior so long ago in Bethlehem. I love all the songs about it. Once again this year we have invited all our friends to come for Family Home Evening on December 21 for Christmas caroling. A wonderful gal made us new copies of the carols, all neat and clean and with nice pictures. (I will put the old, battered, well used ones in recycling.) We love that time with friends and it certainly is easier than getting in and out of the car. Besides, this way we get to sing for more people. The family keeps a few special songs that we perform for our guests. And we also get to use the resonator bells that Glen made for me so many years ago. It's a wonderful evening for me. I hope others enjoy it. We wish you all could come to be with us that night.
Just in case I don't post again before Christmas - Have a Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year!!
That's all for today.

Just a'ramblin'

Today is Monday, November 2, 2009. The sun is shining brightly and the sky is blue as blue.
I can hardly believe it is November already. On Saturday night we turned the clocks back. It was so dark last night by 7 PM we all felt like going to bed. By all, I mean our daughters who were here visiting us and Glen and I. But we didn't. We stayed up awhile longer, reading and doing stuff on our computers.
Changing the clocks always reminds me of what Dad Wahlquist said about it. "It is like the old Indian who cut off one end of his blanket and sewed it on the other end to make it longer." Oh, well! We seem to be stuck with it. Wish I lived in Hawaii - for more reasons than the one that they don't change their clocks twice a year.
Friday night was the Ward Halloween Party. Everyone seemed to have a good time. There are always ingeneous costumes. One of our clever young mothers made herself a beautiful ball gown from trash bags. It really was "beautiful." With lots of lacy looking ruffles. Her husband was all decked out in a nice tuxedo made from trash bags, too. She is such a clever gal. And it was wonderful to see that she felt like making it. She has been very sick for several months.
There were not very many princesses this year. Lots of variety of costumes. Glen wore a sandwich board and went as the Northridge Neighbor. He topped it off with his Greek seaman's cap. I wore a black wig - hardly anyone recognizes me with that black wig - and my sequined shalwar kamez (can't remember how to spell the word). It's very fancy and sparkly. I got it when we were in Pakistan. I love wearing it. One daughter wore a flapper outfit with a black wig. Nobody recognizes her either with a black wig. One daughter was Cruella DeVil and the other daughter stayed home - sick in bed.
I'm not a great fan of Halloween but we go to the party to be supportive of those who plan the activity. And it is fun. In my opinion some things go to the extreme. But that is my opinion.
I like Thanksgiving and Christmas way better than Halloween. And both of those holidays will be on us before we know it. Thanksgiving - I love the smells coming from the kitchen. I love making the dressing - saute celery and onions in butter to add to the broken dry bread along with the sage and other spices. I love mincemeat pie. Pumpkin is okay. I always want at least one piece with "real" whipped cream. But mincemeat is my favorite. Anymore it is hard to find commercial mincemeat without brandy in it. Last year I went to Raleys. Yes they had Borden's without the brandy, they said. But guess what, the shelf was empty. They still had plenty of the brandied kind. Then the clerk showed me another display of a different brand of mincemeat. It looked okay in the bottles and I bought it. Oh, my gosh! It was the worst tasting stuff I have ever had! Fortunately, I had a few green tomatoes still on our vines and could make my own mock mincemeat from Mother Wahlquist's recipe. I had enough to make just one pie. That saved the day for the three of us who like mincemeat pie.
Speaking of not being able to find the foods you want in the grocery store - Does anyone know what is happening with Kraft's Miracle Whip? We seldom find it anymore in the quart or larger size bottle. It is always in that crazy little spreadable bottle that you squeeze. Good grief! Am I the only person who uses Miracle Whip for almost everything? Cole slaw, Waldorf salad, slathered thick on a sandwich, or on a lettuce wedge. Kraft people, if you are listening, tell the stores that we want them to stock it. I tell them, but they don't pay much attention to me. They tell me they don't stock it because nobody buys it.
I think I've rambled about enough. We are off the to Family History Center to catalog books. That's all for today.

Old Birthday News

Today is Tuesday, October 20, 2009. It has been cloudy all day but no rain.
It has been a long time since my birthday but I got two unique birthday presents that I want to tell you about. They were from two of our daughters. The first one was a little notepad all trimmed in green. On the first page was this note:
I know I look like a
regular notebook,
but I am SPECIAL !!

I am a SUDOKU book
-- in disguise,
A sorceress put a spell on me
when she got frustrated
and couldn't solve me.

To return me to my
regular book self,
just set me on the mantel
of your house for 3 days.
At the end of the third day,
look at me again,
and I will be my true SUDOKU self.

Many happy "solvings"!

It made me laugh then and it makes me laugh now. Such a clever way to cover up the fact that she hadn't been able to find me a Sudoku book yet!
Then the next gift that I opened was a cute little notebook trimmed in blue. This one also had a message to me on the front page.
I also look like a regular notebook,
But like my SUDOKU friend,
I AM ALSO SPECIAL!

I am a Crossword puzzle book in disguise.
The same sorceress should obviously stick
To other activities, because she could
Not solve me either.

Set me on the mantel next to my SUDOKU friend
And at the end of three days
I will also be returned to
My true book self.

It takes smart people to solve Me,
so you must be above
average intelligence for a human.

Good luck and have fun!!

I followed the instructions and placed both of them on the mantel in the front room. Sure enough, after the three days they disappeared and there was a Sudoku book and a Crossword Puzzle book where they had been. I DO love my sudoku-ing and my crossword puzzle-ing.
However, I went to our daughters and begged to keep the little notebooks, too. I thought it was so clever.
That might give you an idea of what to do if you are late getting a gift or can't find the exact thing that you want at the time. Create a clever diversion to make someone smile.
I think our children are all smart and clever. I might be prejudiced about that but I don't think so.
That is what I wanted to share for today.

New Picture

It is still Friday, September 18, 2009, and I just want to make a comment about the picture I posted today on my profile. I like this picture of Glen and me. Since we do almost everything together nowadays, I decided I'd use it as my identifier. We are a good team. Most people recognize me better when I am with him. Maybe someday I will find a more current picture of me that I like and replace it. But for the time being there I am with him, my eternal companion. That's the comment I wanted to make. Bye.

What I Like For Breakfast

Today is Friday, September 18, 2009. The sun is shining and it is pleasantly warm.
I had a wonderful breakfast this morning - apple crisp and ice cream. Sounds a little crazy, I know. But then I like crazy things. Let's see, if I had cereal with milk and fruit, wouldn't it have about the same content as apple crisp and ice cream? I've got the fruit, plus the bread/cereal group, plus the milk product. Sounds okay to me.
Growing up, my breakfast was most always a piece of toast, a glass of milk and a glass of orange juice. Then when I was diagnosed with diabetes, the nutrition counselor said I should cut out the glass of orange juice - eat a whole orange instead - and add something like peanut butter or a piece of cheese. That makes an okay breakfast.
I never much cared for oatmeal even though some mornings my mother would fix it and insist that I eat some. Cream of wheat, I liked better than oatmeal. Glen, of course, always had a good breakfast. He lived on a farm and Mother would start the "mush" before they went out to do the morning chores. (I'd never really heard the word "mush" until I married him.) Their mush was cracked whole wheat, cooked long and low, with sugar and real cream. Oh, my! Did I ever like that breakfast! Of course, nobody could cook the mush like my wonderful mother-in-law. We do a fair job now but it's not quite perfect. (I think the long time it cooked while they went out to milk the cows and feed the chickens was the key. And we miss the wonderful fresh cream.
Here are some other things I like for breakfast - pizza left over from the night before. Before microwaves I would eat it cold. And some of our children liked it for breakfast, too. Cherry pie and ice cream taste pretty good. (Same food groups as cereal and fruit.) Another breakfast favorite of mine is chili. But then I could eat chili three meals a day for several days in a row and be perfectly happy. Of course, I usually accompany that with a bowl of applesauce.
Usual breakfast foods like scrambled eggs, omelets, pancakes and waffles I like at suppertime. Then I have time to savor the flavors and really enjoy their taste.
Call me crazy if you want. I am a little crazy, true. But that's okay. It takes all kinds to make a world. Maybe you like different foods for breakfast, too. It all fits into the food pyramid.
That's all for today. Hope the coming days are pleasant for all of us.

It's my birthday and I'll cry if I want to!

Today is Tuesday, September 1, 2009. It is too early to know if the sun will shine. It probably will. And I know the song title is really It's My Party And I'll Cry If I Want To.
I don't want to cry, except for happiness. Today I am 72 years old. My mother was just that age when we moved to California. She moved with us from Magna, Utah, to Bakersfield, California in 1970. Oh, my! So many wonderful events in the years since we moved. And so many wonderful events in the 72 years I have lived on earth.
Many changes in the world as well as changes in my own life. My growing up years were great. I loved going to school. I loved going to Church. I loved all my friends. I loved the big two story house we lived in- Independence, Missouri. It wasn't a fancy two story house. We didn't have fancy furniture - nothing really matched - but I loved it all the same.
My mother was a wonderful lady and shared her wonderful heart with me. It was a great sadness for her that my dad divorced her when I was 6 years old and my two older sisters went with him (their choice). I know she cried when she was alone but she held fast to the Gospel of Jesus Christ and that carried her through.
She got a good job as proofreader at Zion's Printing and Publishing Company and everyone there treated both of us very well. I went there after school every day to wait for mother to take me home. They put me to work. I learned to alphabetize and file. I learned how to run the address-o-graph machine. I learned how to prepare The Liahona magazine for mailing. I learned how to run the jogger and the stitcher. I loved the smell of printer's ink. It was fun for me to be there.
We didn't have a car. We walked to the grocery store and carried our groceries home in big brown paper bags in our arms. When Grandma came to visit (and to take care of me in the summer) she had a little wheeled cart that she took to the grocery store to pull her groceries home but Mother and I just carried them. The check-out clerk would adjust the weight in each bag, one bag for each arm. Mine were a little lighter than Mother's at first. As I got to be a teenager, my load could be as heavy as Mom's.
The big mirror with the gold frame which hangs over our fireplace, Mother paid $10 for at Goodwill and she carried it home in her arms. Our Oriental rug (which now cushions one of our daughters rooms in her new uncarpeted house) also cost $10 from Goodwill and Mother carried that home on her shoulder. She was a spunky woman.
I loved growing up in Independence. I was fascinated by Church History and also by American History that took place in that special place. I was excited to see President Truman walk by our high school. He wasn't always President Truman. He was just Harry S. Truman.
When I was 21 years old I married a wonderful man from Idaho Falls, Idaho. He was in the Army, stationed at Ft. Riley, Kansas. He was interested in Church History. That is why he and his friend came to Independence. They came to Church and we invited them home to dinner as we did many visitors who came to Independence. This one created a lasting friendship, an eternal one.
We moved around some after we were married and have many friends in all the places we have lived. We lived 22 years in Bakersfield, California. And now we have been in Citrus Heights (near Sacramento) for 17 years. Our nine children have been a great joy to us. Six were born in Utah. Three were born in California. Now we have a bunch of grandchildren who are a great joy to us. We count 23.
We like our house and our small yard. We like living near the Temple. We are happy to serve in the Sacramento Temple and at the Family History Center. Twice a month we are docents at the Old Sacramento Schoolhouse and that gives both of us much pleasure.
Life is good and I can't believe I am 72 years old. But I am. Maybe today I will list 72 things about my life in my journal. Not necessarily one for each year - just 72 things to think about.
This whole week will be a celebration. Yesterday we went to the State Fair. Glen is taking me to lunch today and tomorrow we will go with several of our daughters for dinner at Wonderful Chinese. Thursday is the third anniversary of the opening of the Temple. I'm sure we will do something special on Friday and Saturday. And somewhere during this week we will need to can our pears. Oh, my! As my boss used to say, "No rest for the wicked and the righteous don't need it." Hmm!
That's all for today.

Friendly People

Today is Monday, August 17,2009. The sun is shining but it is quite cool outside and inside. Glen has even closed the windows already.
Last Friday we spent the afternoon at the Old Sacramento Schoolhouse. We are docents there and usually go on the second and fourth Tuesday afternoons. However during the month of August, we did not go on our regular days. The second Tuesday we had family here and the fourth Tuesday we had gone to visit our daughter's family in Paradise, California. How could I say no to Suzanne when she needed our help AND we had the day free?
We both enjoy being there and visiting with the people who come to visit the Schoolhouse Museum. There are travelers from all over the world. We both enjoying talking with them. Glen usually stays toward the back of the classroom (by the door and the bell rope) and I stay up in front, either at the desk or on the recitation bench.
Two young boys came in with their parents and sat at the desks, all four of them. After a few minutes the boys came up to ask me if they could have their pictures taken while writing on the board. Of course, why not? I suggested they write their names. One was Ofir and the other was Nir.
As I asked them about their names, they told me they were born in Israel. By that time the parents had come to talk to me also. People love to tell their stories and I love to hear them.
This young couple were both born in Russia, went to Israel with their families and met there. They married, had twin sons, and now live in California. Such a beautiful family, ready smiles and having a good time together in Old Sacramento.
Another family was from Mexico. Three sisters with their families had brought their mother and father to Sacramento on a sight seeing trip. One of the sisters lives in southern California, the rest live in Mexico. The cousins were having a great time together, just like our grandchildren do when they are together. I usually ask who is the best at speaking English. In this case they all pointed to two of the children. However, most of them had very good English and we had a very nice visit.
We had many visitors throughout the afternoon. Most of the time there were 20 to 30 people milling around looking at the various displays and talking with us. Glen invites the older boys to ring the bell. They like that. Once someone starts, he has a line up. We have to ring the bell properly so as not to pull the rope loose. He is very good about giving the instructions and standing by to watch.
Near the end of the day our visitors had dwindled in number and there was just one lady looking carefully at everything in the room. I engaged her in conversation and she had a most interesting story to tell.
She is from England and is on a world tour. She travels mostly by herself, sometimes joins a travel group. She loves to climb mountains, has climbed Kilamanjaro and Mt. Everest. And this week she climbed Half Dome in Yosemite. She has been traveling since March and will return home in March. This is her second trip. She visited 27 countries in 18 months on her first trip. It was very interesting to hear her stories.
Of course, I asked her if she had a web site. I discovered that she records her adventures on a site called "yourtraveljournal." I logged on to it, checked it out, and will go back to it to read more carefully. It was fascinating to hear her stories.
Every time we are at the Schoolhouse it is just that way. So many wonderful people in the world. So many interesting stories. So many beautiful children. So many fine experiences. I do love people. I once said that I collect people rather than things. And I enjoy my collection.
That's all for today. Glen has apples cooking on the stove - homemade apples. They smell so good and they will taste just right for breakfast.

Comments

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Water Glasses

Today is Monday, July 27, 2009. The sky is blue and the sun is shining.
We have family here from out of town. They will be here for a couple of weeks. Whenever we have family from out of town, the "in town" group always want to be here, too. And that is fine with Glen and me. We love to have the family together. We enjoy watching our grandchildren play together and like to listen in on the conversations of the adult group as they share memories and new discoveries.
A big challenge is the question of water glasses. At meal time we usually use paper cups and for drinks inbetween meals, too. However, the cups multiply and there are always paper cups sitting around on the table and the counter. We have a system of writing names with a sharpie to conserve on the cup usuage. It sort of works. Children leave water or ice in a cup and you know how paper cups get soggy after awhile. Each morning I empty cups and line them up on the counter. I throw away the soggy ones.
This system works pretty well. However, we do have some drinkers who cannot take the time to search out their own cup. (I guess the penalties are not stiff enough.)
Last Friday one of our daughters bought some plastic glasses and some colored sharpies. We had an art project to decorate the glasses and include our name. "This is your glass. You are responsible for rinsing it out and having it ready to use. If you have milk in it and don't rinse it, your next drink of water may be milky. Or if you have juice, the water might be juicy."
Each one enjoyed doing the art work on his or her glass. It sort of works. This morning I emptied water and melted ice from several glasses and lined them up on the counter. Yesterday all the family did pretty well at rinsing and taking care of their own glass.
We panicked when one fell on the floor. "That's it! I bet it broke." It didn't, Yeah! I think it will not cut down on the glasses I empty each morning but it will save on paper cups. I will line them up each morning on the counter. We will make it work as best we can. I feel certain there are families who manage such things better then we do. But, oh well, we have a great time together. That makes most any problem bearable.
That's all for today. (I am not going to reread and correct this blog. Last time I did it I lost the whole thing. Bear with any mistakes I made.)

Possessions

Today is Tuesday, July 21, 2009. It is sunny and warm. The sky is a beautiful blue.
As I have been straightening up the house yesterday and today, I've spent a lot of time putting away "stuff." You know, books, magazines, pencils, pens, dishes, clothes, tote bags, pillows and the like. I have tried over the years to get better at "a place for everything and everything in its place." Some days I think I have made progress. Other days I'm not so sure.
If you have ever been in our house you know we have many, many books. Not only do we have the books we bought, but we have books from Glen's parents' collection and books from my mother's collection. Add to that books that belong to some of our children. We love books, what can I say? Most of them have been read more than once.
When Glen retired from teaching he brought home his office. He had wall to wall, floor to ceiling bookcases filled with more books. We do have lots of book shelves and they are all filled and spilling over. My oldest sister once said that if she left 2 glasses out on the counter top overnight they multiplied by morning. I think that is true of books, too.
We have dozens of cookbooks. And several sets of encylcopedias. And we all love the old Reader's Digest Condensed Books. (We don't like the new Select Editions. They have too much graphic sex and bad language left in them. I feel perfectly okay if one of my grandchildren selects an old Condensed Book to read. I have expressed my dislike to every Reader's Digest person who has called. "NO, I do not want your Selection Editions because ....")
Not so long ago I decided I would like to collect all the Caldacott Award and the Newberry Award winners. Sure, we need more books. It is a fun project. I just wish I could find a copy of Wanda Gag's Millions and Millions of Cats.
And everytime a book ad comes in the mail - five books for $1 - I pore over that ad, select 5 books I'd really, really like. I am doing better at not making the order. I know that I can cancel at any time or return any book I don't want BUT too often in the past I have just kept buying book after book.
Photographs are another possession that we have boxes and boxes full - and albums, too. I am trying to be more discerning with the photos I keep. I ask myself "Is anyone really interested in this photo of me 15 years ago with some of my PTA friends at Disneyland?" Or what about my PTA friends without me? And where on earth was this picture of the highway taken. Oh, yes, once I said I wanted a picture book of trees and clouds so that when I am too old to do much else I can look at the pictures. Wait, I think I said that same thing in my last blog. Am I overly concerned with getting too old to do much else? Maybe.
Dishes - I love dishes. Whenever there is an offer to get dishes in the grocery store, I always fall prey to that come on. Over the years I have parted with some of the pieces but not many. I treasure those dishes. Sure, they are kind of cheap but I like them nevertheless.
Last week I went through my clothes closet. I have plenty of clothes but I usually wear the same old favorites. One of our granddaughters asked her mother "How come Grandma always wears the same dress?" I love it, that's why. Can I clean out my closet a little and give some of those things away? Nope, I might need it one day.
Some of you will understand about me and my possessions. Others of you will shake your heads. A friend told me her mother's motto was "Every day throw something away." I'm trying but somehow I hear my mother's voice, "As sure as you throw that away you will need it." There's got to be a happy medium.
That's all for today. I'm going to tackle a drawer in my filing cabinet. I am doing well at throwing away papers. Wish me luck!

Family History

Today is Sunday, July 12, 2009. It is too early to know if the sun is going to shine or it is going to rain. My guess is the sun will shine.
I have spent the last couple of weeks organizing "stuff" that I have kept over the years. You know, school programs, newspaper articles, family letters, piano recital programs, wedding announcements, family letters, etc. I am enjoying the journey. And I feel a great sense of accomplishment. Once all this stuff was just in a big box. Several years ago I began to sort it out and put it in big manila envelopes, two or three years at a time. Now I am putting it into notebooks, in plastic sleeves by date. I am using regular size paper to mount the smaller things on and writing a bit about each piece of memrobilia. Since I have jillions of stickers from my Creative Memory collection, I am also adding embellishments to make it more interesting. As I said before I am enjoying the journey.
One thing that hovers in my mind each day is I wonder what will happen to the notebooks when I die. I treasure a few things of my Grandma McGuire and a few more of my mother's collection. But I have kept so-o-o-o-o much "stuff." I probably should just throw most of it away. But I can't find it in my heart to do that. I told Glen the other day, "If I have 18 notebooks full of memories, each child can take 2 and then they can pass them around." Two notebooks wouldn't take up very much space in each house.
I guess I got to thinking about this because a friend told me she was trying to "organize" her papers and she wondered what would happen to them when she was gone. Do we all wonder about that when we get old? I decided I didn't really care about what happens to them after me. I can spend a lot of days just looking at the things I've kept and turning the pages. Okay, kids, remember that! When I get too old to do much else, just hand me my notebooks and tell me to turn the pages.
I have had lots and lots of wonderful experiences and adventures in my 70 plus years. It has been an Incredible Adventure so far and I look to many more great experiences in the years to come. There probably won't be as much "stuff" to keep. Our names don't appear on many school programs any more, or in piano recitals like when the children were all at home. But we do have a good life and we do keep pretty busy. Life is good.
That's all for today.

Family Get-Togethers

Today is Wednesday, July 8, 2009. The sun is still shining brightly and it is 7:32 PM.
We just got back yesterday from a BIG family reunion in Ogden, Utah, on the Fourth of July. Being the patriotic family that we are we had a posting of the flag by three of the Scouts in our group. We said the Pledge of Allegiance and sang the National Anthem. I am so glad to have been born in America. This reunion was for the descendants of Glen's grandfather who came to America when he was 11 years old. He came with his mother and an older sister from Sweden.
He and his wife had 4 boys and 2 girls. One of the girls died shortly after her birth. The other sister never married. The four sons now have quite a posterity. People came from all over the US who were related. It was fun to rub shoulders with them, to meet some new people, and renew acquaintances. We never seem to have enough time to get all the visiting done we want to.
At these reunions there is always plenty of food, fun games for the little children and visiting for everyone else. I love to visit with people. I love to make new friends. I love to figure out just where they fit in the family tree. As you've already heard, we have 9 wonderful children. These 9 are a part of 41 grandchildren. At this family reunion there were 12 - only 4 of our children were there. Those 12 had a great time getting reacquainted. They used to sleep out on Grandpa and Grandma's lawn in Touqerville. Even the parents slept outside on the lawn many times. It was so beautiful to look up at the stars and feel the wonderful breezes. There wasn't room for all of us in the house. Only a few times were we all there at the same time. But we all have wonderful memories of those days.
Mother and Dad had lots of apricot trees and canning and drying apricots was a part of the family get togethers. We had a great assembly line and could bottle hundreds of quarts in an afternoon. With so many cousins and aunts and uncles it was almost like play. Of course, you could get pretty sticky if the juice ran down your arms.
After work was done, we could walk down into the canyon and if there was water running it made a great swimming hole. Catching lizards was a favorite pass time. Grandma would pay you 5c for every lizard you put into her garden.
And grandpa made the best rubber band guns to sting those lizards with. You weren't supposed to shoot anyone with the rubber bands (but sometimes the boys forgot - never the girls, surely).
Summer time visiting was always special.
Now in our family most of our get togethers have been at Christmas time. And that's wonderful. One of the things we all like to do is to make "gingerbread" houses (we use graham crackers) covered with candy. It is quite a production - to cut the gables - gently, gently. And to cut doors or windows. Most of us build a simple little house but one year one of our boys created quite a castle.
Another favorite thing is Christmas Eve. We have a special dinner. Then Glen reads the story of Jesus' birth and the younger grandchildren - all dressed in costume - reenact the scenes. All of us sing Christmas carols in the right places. We have great pictures of years past.
Family get togethers are wonderful. I wish there could be more. I wish we didn't live so far apart.
Speaking of get togethers, two of our daughters just stopped in. I will go and visit with them. That's all for now.

Not Appropriate

Today is Wednesday, June 17,2009. It is sunny and beautiful.
"Not appropriate"- I used to tease my mother about using those two words. And now I am saying them more and more often and thinking them more than I am saying them out loud. I just heard of a new trend in wedding receptions. Couples are having a reception the night before they get married. That makes their wedding day less hectic, trying to fit in pictures and all the other stuff connected with a wedding. Well, I think it's "not appropriate."
Now our youngest daughter and her soon-to-be husband had a party the night before their wedding - BUT- they did not wear their wedding clothes and it was not billed as a reception. And they held it in our back yard.
The first pre-reception I attended was the daughter of a friend. The cultural hall at the Church was decorated very elaborately and the soon-to-be bride wore her wedding dress, the groom his tuxedo, and there was the reception line and everything. I felt just a little uncomfortable. I guess I still have some of that old tradition of the bride wearing her dress for the first time at her wedding. (Oh, I know, sometimes they wear it to have pictures before the wedding, etc. ) And now just this week the father of a new groom told me that is becoming quite common to hold the reception - wedding dress and all the trimmings - the night before the wedding. Well, I'm telling you, I think it is not appropriate.
And while we are at it. I think it is not appropriate for women and girls to come to Church with thigh high dresses and tights to their ankles. "Not appropriate."
I saw one yesterday in the eye doctor's office. He has two office girls who looked like they should have been bar maids. Their blouses were cut low in the first place and then every stitch of clothes they had on was so tight and clingy you could see nearly every part of their body move as they walked. I nearly had to cover my eyes. I did look away after the first glance screamed out "not appropriate."
I had an imaginary conversation with a mother of a young girl who attended a wedding open house in short shorts. (The mother was with her by the way.) In the imaginery conversation she said, "I can't control everything she wears out of the house." And in my mind, I replied, "I can tell you that more than once I said to one of my children, You are not leaving the house dressed like that." And more then once they gave me a dirty look, went and changed their clothes before they left. Thank goodness, I didn't have to do it often but I certainly would have done it any time I felt it was necessary.
There is a lot of talking nowadays that I think is "not appropriate, " too. Many people just use such uncouth language. Where has finesse and mannerly speech gone? I fear much of refinement has gone out the window. And I regret that. Manners, are they still in vogue? Sometimes, I wonder.
Well, Mother, you were right. There are many things that are just not appropriate. I certainly agree with you. I sure hope my own children and grandchildren never do anything that would cause anyone to classify their actions or dress as "not appropriate."
That's all for today.

Old Sacramento Schoolhouse

Today is Thursday, June 11, 2009. I don't know if it will be sunny today or not. It is so-o-o early - 5:15 AM - and I am up. Glen left a few minutes ago for his regular Thursday assignment at the Temple. Usually I stay asleep but today I am wide awake and decided to just get out of the recliner and get busy doing something. So here I am. I've opened the blinds in the family room and it is still dark outside. Oh, my!
This week, on Tuesday, I went back to the Old Sacramento Schoolhouse docent-ing. Since we came home from Greece in 2003, Glen has gone with me. He talks to as many people as I do. And I am glad to have his company and help.
We haven't been since December because of my painful knees till March and then after the knee surgery. Physically, I managed pretty well. Emotionally, I managed just great. I love being at the schoolhouse, visiting with people who come in to look around, and teaching the classes of students. There were three classes Tuesday - 1 o'clock, 2 o'clock, and 3 o'clock. All three were from the same school in Modesto. Most classes are fourth graders. That is when they study California history and make their field trips to the capitol.
Those eager students are so fun. I love their cute faces and I like watching how they behave as we go through the routine. One little gal today was so cute. The first thing I do, once they get into the room, is to teach them how to "make their manners." This little gal wanted to do it so bad. She raised her hand to tell us something that was different about this schoolroom than her room now. I called on her, she stood up, curtsied, then looked around and said, "I guess I forgot." Oh, it made me laugh.
School children come in all shapes and sizes and with their own personalities. At this age they are so teachable and usually pretty much on the right track for life. The next ten years exposing them to so many avenues of life. I always pray every night after being at the schoolhouse that they will find their way, that they will grow up to be good people, that they will not get involved in drugs or other bad things. There is much good in the world. And many good people. I see good in these young students who come to the schoolhouse - and in their teachers and chaperones who come with them. One group was with "my cousin." I asked one gentleman how many students were with each chaperone. "Most of us have two, some have three." That meant they had a lot of adults along on the trip. They came up to Sacramento on the train. All the adults stayed in the classroom. Often they enjoy the school experience as much as the children. I do love to teach the classes.
I like to teach them about elocution and ciphering and the nine's trick that I use. And I love it that they like to "make their manners." It just makes me smile.
My next assignment is the 4th Tuesday afternoon. I guess I am back in the routine. I'm glad.
That's all for today.

The Magic Kingdom

Today is Saturday, June 6, 2009. It is pretty cloudy this morning. Rain is predicted. We had an unusual thunderstorm Wednesday evening. The thunder just roared and roard constantly. At first, we thought it was a plane going over but it never passed by. Then the lightning started. Some "fireworks" display it was. And the rain poured down for about 15 minutes and then a few minutes of soft rain. Then a dead stop. Very different.
We had a wonderful trip to Disneyland. We left here on Tuesday, after Decoration Day (Memorial Day). My mother always called it Decoration Day. The young people from her church would gather on that day, ride on a hay wagon to the cemetery, and decorate all the graves, especially those who had served in the military.
Our drive to Anaheim was very pleasant. Not much traffic. We pulled out of our driveway about 6:15 AM. The day was sunny. We listened to the radio sometimes and just talked most of the time. I tried to read outloud but it made me a little woozy. I wonder, will I ever be able to read again? That sure makes the hours go by quickly.
We got to our motel about 1:30 and were fortunate enough to be able to check into a room. This time we stayed at the Fairfield Inn which is north of the park, right behind McDonalds, Mimi's and Millie's eating places. It sits back off the road. I think it is where the Grand Hotel used to be. We were on the fifth floor. Our son and his family and their friends had rooms on the 8th floor. We had a nice king size bed and a little fridge, also a couch and a desk table and chair. Of course, there was a TV with a remote. Motel (hotel) stays are quite nice nowadays.
Cell phones are sure convenient. We had already communicated with the group over at Disneyland. They had gone to the park on Monday and were eager for us to join them. Bless their hearts!!
We had a quick lunch at McDonalds and headed over to Disneyland. I walked most of the way with the wheelchair as my walker. I did quite well. At the street crossing into Disneyland, Glen told me to get in the chair. I was obedient. I knew he wanted to "push me around."
That was the beginning of fun times. We were there Tuesday afternoon, Wednesday, and Thursday. It is great fun being there with family (or by ourselves). More fun with family. We like our children's friends, too, and they seem to accept us. There were seven children of varying ages. The oldest was 11 and the youngest just over a year old, 3 little girls and 4 little boys.
Myfavorite rides anymore are AstroBlasters, Toy Story, and Soarin' Over California. I like the Story Book Canal and the Disney Railroad, too. Oh, and I musn't forget It's A Small World. That has been refurbished since we were last there. Lots of new lighting and a few new dolls representing movies that Disney has made. It seemed like most of the dolls had new sparkly costumes. The song, of course, is very special to me. We used it with our students in India and Pakistan. They loved it, especially the part "There's so much that we share, that it's time we're aware, It's a small world after all." We all cried the last time we sang it, as we headed back to our home in the United States.
I like the Toy Story ride. I stayed in the wheelchair once. They had a special contraption to strap you in. We got an offer to go the second time and we did. It used to be that wheel chair people (plus their party) got very special treatment. They've sort of altered that some. Now you can take 6 people with you and in some lines you just have to wait in line. Once you get to the front, there is a special line for you. That's okay with me. Most of the time there is so much to look at - Everything is so detailed. And they are so clever about weaving the lines back and forth. That always amazed me.
A favorite part of my trip to Disneyland is always the Animation Studio. A cartoonist takes you step by step through a drawing of a Disney character. I introduced it to our granddaughter and she was delighted. After the first one she wanted to go again. I could spend my whole day in there drawing. She wanted to go back the next day, too.
The Jedi training is a fun part of the day. Our grandson got to do that on Wednesday morning just before lunch. I'm not sure if he was as excited as his parents about it but it was fun to watch.
This time we had a new experience. Face painting. Wow! They do elaborate face paintings. So colorful. Too bad it doesn't last longer. By the end of the day, the paintings were almost gone. Of course, what could you expect after they all played in the water over at Bug's Land.
The San Andraes Milk Shake stand was closed again. Only twice in all the times we have been there has that thing been opened. I often wonder why. They make the best milkshakes ever.
A visit to the Tortilla Factory and the San Francisco Bread Store is always a highlight for me. Fascinating to see how they are made.
Each evening we went out of the park to eat. And this time we tried Captain Kidd's Buffet. It is the most economical place in town and everyone pretty much liked it. The watchful parents would not let the children eat all the desserts they wanted. "Poor little children." I loved the ribs. I could eat way too many of those.
Fireworks we watched from our windows at the hotel. Couldn't see them all clearly but Glen and I have seen them several times from the park. They are spectacular. Even from the hotel they are pretty classy.
It was hard for me to leave on Friday morning. The rest of the group decided to stay an extra day. But we headed for home about 7:30 AM. Bad traffic through LA but we made good time anyway. Got home about 4:30. We had guests coming - more family - from Escondido. They arrived about 7:30 in the evening. Here for a cousin's wedding.
The weekend was great, too. Let's see? When will we go to Disneyland again. With season's passes we can make lots of choices. It truly is The Magic Kingdom.
That's all for today.

Tingling Feet

Today is Monday, April 27, 2009. The sun is shining brightly and I hope it will be nice and warm.
Yesterday in Sunday School class we talked about the gifts of the Spirit as outlined in Corinthians and detailed in the Doctrine and Covenants. Right now the gift I seek is the gift of being healed. I've asked for a blessing and I want that person to have the gift of healing.
As you know I had knee surgery about two months ago. I think that is doing very well. But now my feet have started tingling, tingling, tingling. Not just one, but both. You know, when your foot has been asleep and then the circulation starts again, well, that is just how it feels, only worse.
I can ease the pain some by rubbing my feet on the carpet or over a little pill bottle but it never completely goes away. I wiggle my toes and rub my feet. It feels good while it is in motion but the tingling doesn't go away.
A friend brought me a little foot massager which feels good while I am doing it. But oh, boy! I just want the tingling to stop. Another friend who has fibromiaglia (it's spelled something like that) says that her feet get to tingling sometimes too. And sometimes it feels like that all over her body.
"What do you do about it?" I asked.
"My Dr. said to double up on my pain medication."
Oh, boy! I still have pain medication, which I have nearly stopped taking because my knee doesn't hurt. I guess the double dose might help for a while. But I want it to go away permanently.
Then I think of people much worse off than me and try to accept my problems better. I've had good health most of my life and very little aches and pains. I just wanted it to be that way forever but maybe the Lord has other plans for me. I need the faith to withstand whatever comes my way. Oh, and I've always felt like I have a lot of faith, too. This will be a test for me, I guess.
I am filled with gratitude for all the wonderful blessings I've had in my life - My Incredible Adventure. Will this be a new and different part of that adventure? I guess I will find out as the days go by.
That's all for today.

My Sampler Quilt

Today is Friday, April 3, 2009. The sun is shining and it is nice and warm.
Well, here is a picture of that infamous quilt. I am so happy to have it finished - after all these years. I started it a long time ago in Bakersfield. I took a quilting class at Bakersfield College. I've always been fascinated with quilts. My grandma loved to make quilts and I loved to watch her sew the pieces together and then set up the quilt on a frame and do the quilting. Of course, her neighbors would come in, sit down, take up a needle and sew while they visited. I liked to listen to their stories.
This quilting class was very interesting. Each square was a technique of a different sort or a different design. I created three quilting notebooks along with the squares we made. Our final grade was to have 4 squares sewed together with their sashing and all the quilting done. It was common in the Victorian Era to work just a small piece of the quilt at a time. Many people lived in small living quarters and had no place to set up a frame to quilt it all at one time.
Step one was to make a plan on graph paper - planning the square and how to apply the sashing.
Step two was to cut the pieces for the 1st square. I don't remember which one we did first. There's a folded star, a cracker keeper, a bisquit square, Grandmother's flower garden, cathedral windows, several different types of applique, Grandmother's fan, Dresden plate, string quilt, and the log cabin design. Those I did during the class.
After the design square was complete, it was necessary to add the sashing. Then I cut a square of batting to fit and a piece of the backing to fit. Then the quilting started. My grandma could get seven stitches on her quilting needle but she told me the important thing was to make your stitches even. They were supposed to look the same on the front and on the back. As I quilted I got so I could five on the needle but never seven. I did work hard at making them even. The teacher was pleased that I could get 5 at a time.
When the class ended, I had several squares over and above the four that we had to have sewn together. The teacher said we could finish off the edges and make a wall hanging. I, however, intended to some day finish that quilt. I carefully folded it all up and put it neatly into a box to be finished someday.
Each time Glen found the box he would say, "You know, you ought to finish this quilt." I would get out all the pieces, look at them, savor the memories, look at my plan, and never decide to work on it. Back it would go into the box.
Well, when my left knee gave out and I could hardly walk, be brought it in to me. I decided this was the time to finish that old quilt. I changed the plan. With the new plan I had to create two more squares and plan wide sashings to make it big enough to fit our queen size bed. I love graph paper. It's fun to design stuff with graph paper.
Anyway, I went to work to cut, sew, strip and quilt. And I did that for many, many hours. I had to buy new brown fabric to go around the edges and to make the prairie points for the edging.
And here it is for you to look at. The QUILT is finished and we put it on our bed today. And I feel almost lost after all these days of stitching, stitching, stitching. Never again will Glen find that box full of squares and say "You know, you really ought to finish up that quilt."
That's all for today.

Post Surgery

Today is Friday, March 27, 2009. The sun is shining brightly and it makes me feel so-o-o good.
Seventeen days since my surgery. I debated writing about my stay in the hospital. It certainly was different than my hospital stay with the right knee. Oh, my, the stories I have to tell! Then I had to laugh at myself. Me, the one who always chuckles about how much people like to talk about their surgeries and their hospital experiences! Well, now I have some of my own to tell. Curiously enough, if anyone seemed interested I would regale them with the stories. But as yet, I haven't decided to blog about it. Not just now.
I finished THE QUILT yesterday. It is with joy - and sadness, too. Now I have no purpose for struggling to get out of the recliner to sew more stitches in. It's done. Of course, I think it looks beautiful. Our children say I need to take pictures and post them on the blog. I will soon. Well, Glen will take the pictures and I will post them. He is so proud of me, after all these years of taking it out of the box, savoring each sampler square, folding it all neatly and putting it back in the box. I'm pleased myself.
I got to thinking about other quilts I have made in the meantime. I made a big quilt for Betty Lindsay, who was the State PTA President. It had become sort of a tradition to give the outgoing President a memory quilt. No one in the District President's group seemed ready to tackle it. Even though I was one of the least experienced at quilt making, I took on the job. It was really fun. Each of the District Presidents made a square. We found out that Betty's favorite color was yellow and I started the work of putting it together.
I remember I filled 4 or 5 bobbins at a time so that I could just keep sewing when the bobbin ran out. Wonder if I can find a picture of it? I know I have one somewhere. I wonder if she enjoys the quilt as much as I enjoyed making it for her.
I have several quilt tops pieced together. I suppose I should get the backing and get them finished, too. None is as special as this sampler quilt, though. Each square brings back the memory of that class I took at college. The teacher knew our children who worked in the fabric store where she purchased all her supplies. She thought I was a great mother because she loved my children so much. And I loved the techniques she taught me.
The girls keep teasing me about the next one I am going to start. Who knows? Maybe I will surprise them - and myself - and start another one while I am recuperating from this knee surgery. It gives me some purpose.
The knee is doing well. The therapist is pleased with my range of motion and I am pleased that I have reduced the pain pills I take each day. I am a little concerned about how I will manage the organ this week. Marilyn, my sub, leaves town on Saturday to stay with her mother in Salt Lake. I could get one of the girls to play the piano. We'll see.
I went to a farewell luncheon on Tuesday. Tonight we are going to an anniversary celebration at the American River Institute and tomorrow we are going to Ray and Mary Higgenbotham's 50th wedding anniversary party. We will see how I manage those affairs. Then I will make a definite decision about Sunday. I told the group on Tuesday, "Well, now that I have been to a party, I guess I'd better go to Church."
That's all for today.

Yeah for California!

Today is Saturday, March 7, 2009. The sun is shining and I am hoping it will get warm today. There are supposed to be light showers today and tomorrow but at least the sun is shining this morning.
One of Glen's brothers sent us an article about California. It's a great article. Yes, California does have it's problems. And we get a lot of publicity. Everyone talks about and writes about California, some good things and some bad. We have lived in California since 1970. We never planned to come to California. In fact, we told Glen's boss that we never especially wanted to go to California. But we were assigned to the Bakersfield Institute in 1970 and we have grown to love this state.
When I was in college I thought the students from California were a little crazy. At the first snow, they acted like little kids, running around and jumping and laughing. Of course, I had lived where it snowed all my life so it was nothing new to me. Since several of our children were born in California, they act just like those college girls I knew. The first snow is like wonderland. I've come to appreciate that feeling. Life always seemed like such a lark to them. In fact, I have decided I want to get a government grant to make a study on how the "forever sunshine" state influences personalities as compared to places where it is mostly cold and wintery.
I have come to love the wonderful weather. Granted there are places in California where winter is winter and there is snow, but not where I've lived. I am excited that we can go to the beach one day and the mountains the next. I like the hills and desert areas. It is all so diverse. Of course, it is also one of the bigger states.
I cherish the cultural diversity here. Where else can you go to a Chinese resturant and have the waiters and waitresses speaking Spanish or some other language? We went to a Greek resturant the other night with a cute Spanish waiter. I teased him about his Greek. He was interested to hear that we lived in Athens for a year and a half. This Greek resturant served no pork. How can it be a Greek resturant with no pork? They had chicken and beef. The food was good.
When you look in the pages of a phone book, there is every type of food imaginable. And we grow nearly every kind of food and other argicultural products in this great state. We have all kinds of animals too - llama farms and ostrich farms.
Walk down the street in any major city in California and you will pass people from nearly every part of the world. In Bakersfield if you went to Joe's Market, you could hear all those languages being spoken. I used to stand behind the shelves and try to guess which language it was.
I have grown to love this place. The article we got had a lot to say about our Governor. Well, everyone in the world knows who our governor is. You can't say that about too many of the United States. I don't always agree with him. In fact, lately, I agree with him less and less, but he sure is in the news a lot. Bet you can't say that about your governor unless you live in California.
I'm glad to have lived in other states so I can compare. Who knows, if you came to live in California, you might decide that it is a pretty wonderful place to live, too. Yeah, for California!

Love that clothes dryer!

Today is Friday, March 6, 2009. The sun is shining and it is beautiful outside. The sun always makes me feel happy.
When Bryan and Carolina came to visit us in our pink house in Provo, they discovered we had a lot of clothes to hang out on the lines to dry. There were four children by this time. Glen was working on his master's degree at BYU and we were having a wonderful time. In the summer weather I didn't mind hanging out the clothes. It gave me a reason to be outside. I'd put the baby in her stroller and the other children would play around the yard while I put those clothes on the line. It wasn't so great when the weather was cold and snowy. We had a drying rack or two and I could hang out the whole wash. It was an organizational challenge. Everyone we knew, nearly everyone, had clothes hanging around the house in the winter.
Well, Carolina said that she would rather do without her washer than her dryer and they proceeded to go downtown, buy a dryer for us, and Bryan and Glen got it all installed and ready for use.
There were several things I loved about that pink house in Provo. The first one - there was a bathroom right as you came in the back door - no traisping through the house when the children and their friends had to use the bathroom. The washer was right across from the bathroom. There was a large storage cabinet next to the washer as you continued down the hall into the main part of the house. Windows in the west wall let in plenty of light and there was space to put the dryer next to the washer.
It took me no time at all to see how much a dryer was worth. The towels felt so soft, and the sheets. And it was glorious to have diapers dry so quickly. If the children got wet playing out in the snow or in the rain, I could just pop those little clothes right into the dryer and have them all taken care of so easily. I soon realized why Carolina liked her dryer so much.
Sometimes I did miss the necessity of hanging out clothes when the weather was sunny. And sometimes I would hang out a few things just to get myself outside in the sunlight. Dad and Mother Wahlquist still didn't have a dryer and when Carolina and I were visiting them we would "meet out at the clothesline" and have some good ole talks.
Carolina and I don't see each other very often anymore but once in a while we still say, "Meet me at the clothesline" when we want to have a good long talk about life and all its perplexities.
Now there are dryers and there are dryers. I found that out when we went on a mission to Greece. Ever after Provo I have had one of those labor saving conviences - a dryer. And enjoyed every minute of being able to toss the clothes in and a short while later pulling them out dry and soft. And that was even something the children could do - take the clothes from the washer and start the dryer. Or take the clothes out of the dryer.
Well, the missionary couple before us in Greece had purchased a dryer for the apartment. The washer wasn't quite like my own washer. It took about 2 hours to wash just a small load of clothes - BUT it WAS better than washing clothes in the bathtub. Anyway, after the washing, then you could put them in this little dryer. It had a small compartment that collected the water as the thing spun. It was necessary to empty that little water compartment about three times during a drying. I felt it was quite a nuisance. (You can tell I was spoiled.) And so I took to hanging out clothes again. We had a nice porch on the northern side of our apartment with clotheslines stretched across. I found I didn't mind hanging out the clothes again. And most days they dried rather quickly. Of course, the two of us didn't have a lot of clothes to wash. We had only one bed so not too many sheets. The two of us didn't use tons of towels. I hardly ever used a tablecloth. Glen always took his suit to the cleaners. We had lots of white shirts and all my washable clothes but it was nothing like doing the washing and drying for a big family.
Anyway I knew that someday I would be back in the USA with a wonderful washer and dryer. Now I even appreciate that dryer more than I used to. Dryers are a wonderful convenience. Thanks to whoever thunk them up!!!! And thanks to Bryan and Carolina for getting us started with one.
That's all for today. Go give your dryer a friendly pat just for me.

Hangin' Out The Clothes

Today is Monday, March 2, 2009. February has already gone by. Wow! It is a little cloudy today. It rained most of the day yesterday. Maybe the sun will come out today.
I talked about washing clothes and dishes in my last blog. And I've been thinking about the next step, hanging clothes out to dry. Mother taught me all she knew about that big job. We carried the bushel basket heavy with the wet clothes out into the side yard where our clotheslines were. This was at our 403 South Pleasant house. When we lived in our apartments, I don't remember helping much. But by the time we moved to Pleasant Street I was about 8 years old and big enough to help with most everything.
Anyway, out we would go with the bag of clothespins and the basket of wet clothes. The clothsline was four wires strung from a section of 2 X 4 attached to the side of the house to another section of 2 X 4 attached to a big tree about 20 feet away. First of all you had to wipe the lines with a damp rag. During the week the dust and dirt would collect on the wires and if you didn't clean them off, dark spots would get on the clean clothes where you hung them up.
We had two kinds of clothes pins in a cute little bag. It looked like a little girl's dress sewed together at the bottom and hung on a coat hanger to go along the line as you needed the clothes pins. (After I married Glen, I found out his mother just left the clothes pins on the line so she never had to use a clothespin bag.) We had more of the clipping kind of pins than we had of the two little post kind. Over the years we kept adding to the clip kind and finally the little post kind pretty much disappeared.
Okay, wipe down the line and then start hanging. On the outside line closest to the street was where we hung the sheets and towels and tableclothes. Of course, Mother wanted them all neat and straight to look quite nice blowing in the wind. They were hung on the outside lines so that underwear could be on the inside lines not to be exposed to everyone.
The sheets were thrown over the line and straightened at the sides and bottom. Towels were hung by the corners long ways. And you used as few pins as possible so you wouldn't run out. Dresses and blouses - since we had only women in our househould we had no shirts - were hung by the shoulders and made as straight as possible. All the dresses together, all the blouses together. Skirts were hung by the waistband, slips thrown over the line to the waist. (We never had any half slips in those days.) Socks, hung by the toe. It was quite a system.
When I was about 13 I read in a woman's magazine how to hang your clothes to cut down on the necessary ironing. I thought it all sounded so good. Sheets you were to hang by the edges. Dresses, blouses, and skirts (and men's shirts, if you had those) were to be hung by the bottom to prevent those little crease marks at the shoulders which were so hard to get ironed out. I thought these ideas sounded great and I decided I wanted to try them.
The next time I hung out the clothes I tried it. Well, it did not make my mother happy at all. It was just too different than she had ever done. She insisted that I hang the clothes the way she had taught me. However, over a period of time I did convince her that the new way WAS much better than the old. She didn't really like to iron anyway and before long she was happy that I had read the article and changed our pattern.
Even though the newer washing machines made washing day easier, there were still lots of years of hangin' out the clothes left for me.
I'll tell you sometime about my first automatic dryer. What a luxury!
That's all for this morning because Glen has breakfast ready for me. Bless his heart!

Memories

Today is Friday, February 27, 2009. The sun is shining and the sky is blue as can be. I am so happy.
We have been reading Aunt Mabel's Memoirs. Glen reads out loud to me while I stitch on my quilt. Will I ever get it finished? YES !! I am determined to finish it. Right now I am quilting the side pieces. I still have to do the bottom edge and the top. Then add the Prairie Points all around and I am DONE.
Aunt Mabel, Dad Wahlquist's sister, spoke into a tape recorder for about 18 hours telling her story. Marcie, Glen's cousin Keith's wife, completed the transcribing and made it into a wonderful book. Thank you, Marcie!!
It is very interesting to hear all her stories. It has stirred a lot of memories of my own. Mabel was born in the early 1900's and lived until February of 1991. I was born in 1937 and am still alive. Well, somedays I think I am still alive.
As she described their living accommodations through the years, I couldn't help but be reminded of my own. And thinking about our grandchildren - they all have such wonderful living conditions. Each of them live in a nice home with hot running water and central heating. Most of them have never had to ride a train or a city bus. They go everywhere by car. What a plush life and they don't even realize it.
From the time my parents divorced when I was six years old, Mother and I had to walk everywhere we went or ride the city bus. We didn't have a car. Mother had never learned to drive. We couldn't have afforded one anyway. I didn't mind walking or riding the city bus. When we went to the grocery store we bought only as much as we could carry. Mother would carry a grocery bag in each arm. (Bags were the same size as now - all brown paper - no plastic.) And the clerk would fix two smaller bags for me - one for each arm- and we would head off home, about 5 blocks.
I liked to ride the city bus from Independence to Kansas City. We had to walk about 5 blocks to catch the bus and it took about an hour to get to KC. We went over there about once a month - to window shop or go to a movie. Once in awhile Mother had some business Downtown. KC was always referred to as Downtown. If we shopped or went to the movies in Independence it was Uptown.
If we took a longer trip we had to go by train or by the Greyhound bus. I rode the train with my grandmother each summer. She stayed with us during the school year and then went home to Sheldon for the summer. I would go with her - about three hours on the train. That was a great experience in my memory.
And what a wonderful thing hot water is? Coming right out of every tap in the house- bathrooms and kitchen. That is sheer delight every time I think of it. In our house in Independence we had an old water heater in the kitchen. It never worked properly and took so long for the water to heat that most of the time we just acted like there was no hot water. Washing the dishes meant heating a tea kettle full of water on the stove till it was boiling. Fill the dishpan and then cool it down some with cold water from the tap. The dish water would get colder and colder as you went along. We would put the kettle back on the stove and add hot water until we finished. I am sure glad I don't have to do that anymore.
Aunt Mabel mentions counter tops, too. I had forgotten that the old board cabinet top, painted white, was not as wonderful as the formica countertop I have now or the newer types now used in homes. One area right next to the sink was not painted. It was sort of like a big bread board with grooves for the water to drain off into the sink. And of course the dish drainer was metal. Plastics were not invented yet.
Everytime I get into the shower I thank God for hot water coming from the tap. The bathroom at home was a long ways from that old hot water heater. We did run the water long enough to get a bit of warmth in the old tub. And the bathroom was cold, cold, cold in the winter. We could heat it with an electric space heater which we turned on while we bathed. We didn't have a shower, only a big old bathtub with iron legs. That was in our house at 403 South Pleasant.
At least we had an indoor bathroom. Glen didn't have that until he was a senior in high school.
Twice in my life I've had to share a bathroom with other people. When we first moved to Independence in 1943, we had an upstairs apartment - two rooms with a small porch where we hung the clothes out to dry. The bathroom we shared with two other upstairs apartments. Our apartment was closest to the bathroom so it was easy to open the door to check if the bathroom was unoccupied. You had to remember to leave the bathroom door open when you left.
Then, believe it or not, in 1958 when Glen and I got married, we had an apartment in Junction City, Kansas. It was at the front of the house. There was another apartment in the back of the house. And we shared the bathroom. There was an upstairs apartment in the house, too. They were lucky. They had their own bathroom.
I never mind washing dishes nowadays, with all the hot water I need or want coming out of that faucet. I'm glad I never had to carry water. I am so thankful for indoor plumbing. And, of course, if I want, I can just load the dishes in the dishwasher and be done with it. But I sometimes savor that hot soapy water on my hands and think about the "not so good old days.
Washing clothes, what a wonder! With our easy washing machines all fixed to add water, hot or cold. All we have to do is push the buttons. Growing up, the washing was not so easy. We were lucky. Mother had a nice washing machine. She had washed with a wash board in her young years but by 1943 automatic washers were pretty easy to come by. We used the bathtub for our rinse water since there was not room in the bathroom for the customary square rinse tubs.
Once the clothes had sloshed around in the soapy water, one of us would run them through the wringer into the rinse water. We'd slosh them around until most of the soap was out and then we would run them through the wringer again into the old wooden bushel basket to take them out to the line to hang (in the summer - in the winter we had hanging places all over the house) to dry. There was so much humidity in the air in Missouri that they never got really dry, even in the summer. And the house was so cold in the winter. We had heavy drapes hung over all the doors and kept only the kitchen and the dining room warm with the space heater. Oh my! How I love my washer and dryer! And think of all the young people that take all of this so for granted. I sometimes wonder what memories they will share with their grandchildren. Who would ever dream how things change over the years? I can hardly wait to see.
Just a closing note to say how glad I am for living in this day and age. Aunt Mabel said she was glad to live in such exciting times. Well, me too. Life is good. And that's all for today.

Movies, oh boy!

Today is Monday, February 23, 2009. It is cloudy and cool. Supposed to rain today. I thought the sun was going to shine but not so.
I wrote about movies and then when I went to preview it, it disappeared. Can I rewrite it? Well, I want to try.
We were talking with some friends the other night about movies. It all started when I asked them if they were still going to a movie every Monday afternoon like when they first moved here. Their life has changed and so they don't do it any more. And as we talked we determined that it is getting pretty hard to find a decent movie every Monday.
Quite different from the "old" days. When Glen and I were first married 50 years ago, we went to the movies nearly every week. For part of our lives we went twice in a week, every change of show. We lived in a small town with only one theatre. The theatre was closed on Wednesday. One show started on Thursday and showed Friday and Saturday. The next show started on Sunday and showed Monday and Tuesday. Of course, we didn't go to the movies on Sunday. We always went to Church.
It cost a whole 50c to go to the movie. We'd go on Tuesday night and then again on Friday or Saturday. And every movie was good, clean, and decent. Oh, there were mysteries and such, but not bad language and other objectionable features. We'd take our two little children and enjoy the night at the show.
While we lived there we had two more children and we still kept taking them to the show. All of us love movies. But nowadays it is hard to find decent movies to go see. They all seem to have so much swearing and taking the Lord's name in vain. Or else they are full of bathroom talk. That's offensive, too. I heard someone say once that you wouldn't hold that stuff in your hands, why would you let it come out of your mouth. True, true!
Gone With The Wind was the first movie that used a cuss word and people were so shocked. The trend didn't take over, thank goodness, for a long time. I remember the cuss word that was used in Hello, Dolly. That shocked most everyone, too. But, sad to say, I think that started a trend. DARN!
And nowadays it seems that every movie has bad words and bad scenes. You don't dare recommend any movie to friends because of those offensive parts. One of my all time favorite movies is "Dave." But I can't recommend it to anyone. It has that one scene, one scene, mind you, that adds nothing to the story. In the "old" days the camera would have spanned the clothes strewn on the floor and everyone knows what was going on. But "no," the camera couldn't stop there and leave the rest to the imagination. The story is so great and the most of it is fine. Why, oh, why! Well, another one is Kindergarten Cop. Such a great story. Just one or two things that are offensive.
We search carefully the newspapers and other reviews before we decide to spend our hard earned money on a movie nowadays. Thank goodness there are some good ones but they are few and far between. Some weeks there is nothing showing in town but R rated movies. I don't think we could ever go to the movie even once a week without being offended by the language and the unnessary scenes.
We also talked about being able to walk into a movie and sit through the second showing or whatever part of it you wanted to see. "The Sting" was the first movie you had to see from the very beginning. The theatre wouldn't let anyone in after that show began. And now, if you go in late they chase you out of the theatre at the end. Never again can anyone sit through more than one showing, so, of course, you don't want to be late to start the show.
When my mother took me to Kansas City to see Gone With The Wind, I talked her into sitting through it three times. Can't do anything like that anymore.
I miss the newsreel and the cartoons, too. Of course, with TV I guess people get all the newsreel they could ever want. I don't know too many adults that sit and watch cartoons on TV. It would be fun to see the Road Runner or some of those cute cartoons we used to see in the "old" days.
I'm glad TV broadcasts some of the great shows we watched in the theatres when we were younger. I love all the beautiful costumes and the clear photography - be it western, murder mysteries, musicals, comedies, or whatever. The only problem is I miss the big screen and the atmosphere of going to the movie theatre.
Thank goodness there are some good movies these days but they are too far and few between. I sometimes wonder why they can't make movies that are unoffensive . With all the fantastic equipment and "stuff" we have, good movies could be so plentiful. Don't the movie makers know they have lost a huge audience? I sure wish they'd make more decent shows for those of us who love movies.

We look more like this nowadays. (I look older than this photo - but not Glen.) Now I have one in on its side. How do I change it? Hmmm! Maybe you have to turn on your side to view it.

Another try

Ohmigosh! I think I did it. I was trying to find the photo of Glen that was taken at the same time as my photo. But I couldn't locate it. I decided to try this one in his Army uniform. I feel patriotic today.

I am learning how to put pictures on my blog - maybe!!! This is my favorite glamour shot taken when I was in a play in Idaho Falls the year after we were married.

Going Under The Knife Again

Today is Friday, February 6, 2009. The sun is trying to peek through the rain clouds. It rained some yesterday and in the night. We need more rain but I am always glad to have the sun.
It's been an interesting four weeks in 2009. Over the Christmas holidays my left knee became so painful that I have prayerfully made the decision to "go under the knife again" to have my left knee replaced. It's a bit scary but yet I am hopeful, too. Because I have made that decision I have been in several doctor's offices lately.
You know, first I needed to go visit the knee Dr. He is a very optomistic, pleasant Dr. I heard one lady telling a new patient in his waiting room that he is a very charismatic person. And I would have to agree with her.
He has you fill out a survey on a little palm pilot. I decided I didn't want to do that this time. I tend to be optomistic myself when I am answering surveys. I just wanted to talk to him.
Well, that wouldn't do for him. The receptionist wrote on my chart "Refused to take the survey." He said to me, "I am in control of this interview and if you don't fill it out I can't help you." I told him I just wanted to talk first. He let me talk for a very short while. I told him I would gladly fill out his survey. He left to see another patient while I took the little palm pilot. Glen helped me be more realistic than optomistic. It made my "numbers" look more accurate and indicated my level of pain.
I spent more time in his office than I have ever done before. Oh well! His waiting room and office that day about drove me insane. The television in the waiting room - by the way the waiting room was full; every ugly green chair but one was occupied - had a note on it - "Do not change this television."
Well, the show was some talk show where a man and his ex-wife were arguing about child custody. The host- I didn't get his name - was in the fray also. The whole episode was quite disgusting. And it got worse as the show went on. I tried to plug my ears because it was very upsetting to me. I tried to calm myself with cool pleasant thoughts. I tried to shut out the sound. I'm not much into these realistic shows that are on TV nowadays. Give me Bonanza or The Cosby Show or I Love Lucy!
By the time the nurse called me out of the waiting room I was so relieved to be away from that TV, I wanted to shout hurray! The waiting room is kind of a dreary place. The carpet is a dark old greyish thing and the walls are chocolate brown. The chairs are sort of dark green with a bit of a cushion on the seat and back. Thinking about it got me to thinking about the other Drs. offices.
My primary care physician's office is in the Med Clinic and the waiting room services several medical groups. That office is painted white and has big windows that let in lots of light. There is no TV - thank heavens. Not even piped in music - Yeah! And it does have a fairly good selection of magazines. There is a variety of chairs - some overstuffed (very little cushion compared to most overstuffed but overstuffed none the less). Some chairs are straight. The color of the chairs is mauve with some designs. But the chairs in that waiting room are coming apart. I think every seat has a split. I shake my head each time I go in.
I had to have an EKG in connection with my left knee surgery which is scheduled for March 10. That required a vist to another Drs. office. The cardioligist is on the 3rd floor of the Med Clinic building. That waiting room is almost exactly like the one on the 2nd floor. One difference is that the chairs have no splits in the seats. Yeah! And I was in and out of there in about 5 minutes - They are quick about their work.
Each office also has interesting personal dynamics. The receptionists and nurses sure make a difference in how I feel when I have to be in an office. Some are so sweet and friendly, some are all business and quite somber. In one office I have never seen a smile. All business and "get the job done."
I try to smile at them but now that I think about it I don't remember anyone smiling back at me. Hmm! I think I will make a study of that over these next few months when I will be in and out of Drs. offices.
Well, I am scared and hopeful that by the end of this year I will be able to run marathons. Wait! I've never run a marathon in my life. Am I really going to start now? Probably not but I am sure hoping I can get around better with less pain and can go back to all my volunteering activities - like the Temple and the Old Sacramento Schoolhouse.
In the meantime I have not minded being at home. It is sort of my "hermit phase" of life. I still go to Church every Sunday, to the Family History Center every Monday and to the store - to ride around on a cart - once a week. Life is good. And Glen takes good care of me.
That all for today.

A Day In Paradise

Today is Wednesday, January 21, 2009. It is Glen's birthday. Yeah! Birthdays are fun. The sun is not shining here in Paradise but he had a special birthday breakfast. We are here visiting our daughter and her family.
Glen is helping to move packed boxes down to their new house. Me, I am laid up with a bum knee. Plan A was that I was to babysit while the other two grown-ups moved boxes. But the "baby" didn't want to be "sat." I am left here all alone with this fancy computer. The keyboard is about half the size if the keyboard I am used to and so i have to be very careful.
First off, i read my latest blog and was so excited to have some comments. Wow! That was fun. Then I scanned one of our daughter's favorite blogs, Confessions of a Pioneer Woman. She has lots of comments - more than 100 Wow! Will I ever have that any readers? I wonder.
I have about decided that I need to call my blog "Just Ramblin'. Today that is what I am going to do, just ramble. Now adays I spend most of the night in our recliner. We decided we could come visit in Paradise because they have a lovely leather overstuffed chair with an ottoman. That was my recliner last night and I slept fine. I've tried getting in our bed at night. I can stay there about two hours before my knees get so uncomfortable I can't go to sleep. Then I get up and sleep in the recliner. I have a wonderful soft fleece blanket. I use my Disneyland jacket as the second cover over me feet and legs. I tuck the fleece blanket over my shoulders and just snuggle in. Fleece blankets are so soft and cuddly.
Our son-in-law came home from his job and we all had a wonderful breakfast - breakfast scramble, I guess you could call it. Sausage, potatoes, cheese, egg, and onion all cooked up together. It is a favorite breakfast treat for us, Glen and me. Our grandson had to go off to school and our son-in-law off to work again. That leaves four of us at home - three adults and one darling little granddaughter.
I played the piano awhile and have turned now to the internet. I've read a few blogs and decided to make a new posting on my own. Just Ramble awhile.
Yesterday was the inauguration of the 44th President of the United States, President Barack Obama. He's from the Democratic Party and the Congress is predominately Democrat. These next four years will be interesting to watch For the record, I am a staunch Republican and not in favor of government taking over any more aspects of my life. I am so grateful to be an American. I hope we will go down the road that is best for our country.
There were sure lots of festivities and events going on yesterday to the tune of millions and millions of dollars. Personally, I hope there will be a settling down soon and that all the new officers will get on with the work. I'd love to see a President like "Dave" in office. That has become one of my favorite movies.
Back to the day in Paradise - Glen plans to take at least one more load down to the new house. More boxes need to be packed before that can happen. They just finished the kitchen in this house and it is beautiful. There is a skylight - I've always wished I had a skylight. New lights have been added. The kitchen used to be very dark in the evenings after the sun ha gone down, but not anymore. There are new appliances - microwave, stove, a special oven - all in sleek black and burnished aluminum. And a dishwasher has been added! Ah, such bliss - the dishwasher. There is a nice work island in the center with two different levels. One side is an eating bar for tall stools. Countertops are granite and the back splash is a modern tiny brickwork design. I don't know the exact name but it looks fabulous. Whoever rents this house is going to have a nice place with a big back yard. I hope there are some children to enjoy the yard.
It seems like it will be a cloudy day. We will stay for lunch and the head back to Sacramento. The celebration for the birthday took place mostly on Monday night - Family Home Evening. Glen's birthday dinner was roast (cooked all day in the crockpot), veggies, a green salad, homemade bread (he made that). Dessert, of course, was cherry pie and ice cream. I also made a lemon jello cake to put his 74 candles in. For years I used to try something around the pie to hold the candles - bread, donuts, all kinds of stuff Then I finally got smart and just baked a cake in a 13 x 9 for the candles. What took me so long to get smart? The grandkids don't like cherry pie anyway. They are happy for the cake.
Plan A had been that tonight when we got home we would go to Applebee's for Dinner. We got a gift certificate for Christmas. Then we decided I might be too tired after the drive. And abandoned Plan A. We'll see what the last part of the day will be.
Well, enough rambling for this day. That is ALL for today.

How do you eat a Snickers candy bar?

Today is Tuesday, January 13, 2009. The sun is shining brightly and the sky is blue.
Last Sunday in Relief Society our lesson was about being happy. One of the things the teacher said was that you should laugh at least 15 times a day. I've read various articles over the years about the value of laughter and humor to your health and well being. Since last Sunday I have tried to laugh more each day. Sometimes I watch America's Funniest Home Videos (some make me want to cry not laugh) and reruns of I Love Lucy. Yesterday the laughter came about at Family Home Evening.
After we had finished with formalities (tonight it was playing It Came To Pass), Glen gave each of us a Snickers bar for our refreshment. While we were all nibbling one of the girls asked, "How do you eat a Snickers candy bar?" The answer to that question got us all laughing. We proceeded from Snickers to other candies.
I eat a Snicker bar by taking small bites from side to side, savoring the combined taste of all the ingredients.
Now I can't remember exactly who eats it what way but these were some of the descriptions.
I eat mine by licking off the chocolate on the bottom, just a little ways, then I eat the chocolate on the sides and off the top. Then I bite the mddle .
I eat off the top chocolate first. Then I do the sides and eat the center with the bottom chocolate.
I just eat it. I've never thought about the way I do it, but how do you eat M & M's?
If it is plain M & M's I just pop several in my mouth at a time and let them melt a little. Then I bite them. If they are peanut ones, I put one in my mouth at a time, let the coating melt a bit and then crunch right through to the peanut center.
Not me, I eat plain M & M's one at a time. And peanut ones I just bite right away.
There were more descriptions floating around and lots of laughter to think of what a crazy discussion it was to begin with.
From there we progressed to other forms of candy - like Reese's peanut butter cups, and Hershey's kisses, and Hershey's Nuggets. We each had to have a nugget to analyze just how we did it. If there had been Reese's Peanut Butter cups in the house, we would have tried them too.
Glen thought we should each have another Snickers bar so everyone could analyze how they eat it. He was only kidding, of course.
I think the whole conversation started because on Saturday night we had watched a TV show called Unwrapped and they were talking about nostalgic candy. It was fascinating how some of the candies are made and why they were popular. When that show was finished we talked about candy we remembered from our grade school days. Of course, the candy Glen remembered was his mother's wonderful homemade caramels and Boston creams. His school wasn't near a little candy store like mine was. He didn't have a little corner grocery store that sold penny candy like our children did. The nearest store of any kind for him was about 25 miles away from home and nowhere near the school.
There's sure a lot of candy consumed by everyone these days. What a sweet, sweet world we live in. And a lot of sweet memories floating around. Next time you have a Snickers bar get the answer to the question, "How do you eat a Sinckers candy bar/"
That's all for today.