this much is true

recently i discovered or rediscovered that:

Y gram knows all the words to "la cucaracha".
Y the smell of squash baking on a cool autumn day is divine.
Y even though my lauffice (that's laundry room - office combined) is a mess most of the time, i do prefer it to be clean and free of debris.
Y parker and gram speak the same language. they say "uh-huh" and "yup" and "i doe no" exactly the same. berry propel is also their current drink of choice.
Y my sister can make more peach pies than i can eat. (hard to imagine)
Y i like to work ...
Y i also like to laz around - and am quite good at it.
Y i have inherited a bit of the family obsessive-compulsive trait. (thus my collection of backpacks, shoes, pillows, air mattresses, i don't even camp anymore, and, most recently chairs!)
Y history is still my favorite subject.
Y mia maids rock.
Y we use a lot of salt and pepper.
Y i have the best family in the world.
Y cori's music brings me pure joy.
Y my favorite tv reality show is "the amazing race" can't wait for it to start again.
Y and i can spend hours blog stalking!

castles, unicorns and princesses

it was the blue unicorns vs the purple princesses. the turrets of "castle park" stood as the backdrop. players were armed with hair ribbons, cartwheels, skips and leaps and plenty of smiles. a thumbs up was given to us spectators each time her royal highness sophie passed as she ran up and down the playing field. she was in her game and all of our eyes were on her. by the end of the match it didn't much matter which side of the field the soccer ball was on. the little legs wrapped in shin guards and knee socks were tired and their bodies were hungry. they had played a noble and honorable game. each team cheered the other with grand enthusiasm. high fives were given and little voices saying "good game" could be heard. the proud coaches encouraged their players and thanked them for the doing a great job while handing out boxed juices and teddy grahams. i can hardly wait until next weeks game.

dating decisions?

i find it a bit ironic that i am giving a yw's lesson on dating decisions. mmmm...i didn't do very well in that department. not that i was a dating fiend, meaning a person who is extremely addicted to some pernicious habit, but much to some people's surprise i'm sure, i did date...or at least made the decision to date. what i was never too good about was making the decision to marry. so in the long run perhaps it is not so ironic, me teaching about dating. at least i've done that. looking on the positive side i am grateful i'm not teaching on marriage, finding your soul mate and twooo love!

- - -

Epilogue: (reposted at 8:43 am) after posting this blog and then staying up about another 1 1/2 hours to do my lesson, i finally went to bed. during my short sleep, since i awoke at 6:15 am, i had a dream that i was a bear! or at least that i was in a bear's den watching and participating with all the other bears. the massive, but kind mother bear patted my head with her large paw, then patted the heads of the twin cubs, which i estimated to be about 2 year old cubs and then cuddled down next to a very small and cute cub. i felt myself smiling and feeling somewhat comforted and snuggling down myself. hmm, i wonder if the interpretation of this dream means that i need to take a very long winter's nap!

to infinity and beyond

yesterday i learned of a man and his 12 yr old autistic son who were swept out to sea while swimming off the coast of florida. the boy is pretty much a non verbal autistic, except for his love of disney movie phrases. when the father realized they were in trouble and unable to make it back to shore, he kept in touch with and encouraged his son by shouting out phrases from favorite movies. most often used - "to infinity and beyond". darkness set in. they could no longer see each other. i can almost hear the father calling "to infinity..." and the enthusiastic reply of the son "... and beyond". fourteen hours passed as the two drifted further apart. the water was dark and treacherous. by early morning light the young boy would no longer respond. a rescue helicopter spotted the man and hoisted him to the safety of a nearby coast guard ship. there was no sightings of the 12 year old. despondent the man retreated below deck to gather courage and morn his loss. after sometime the rescuers bid the man to come up on deck. they pointed to a helicopter and said that his son was on board and he was ok. rejoicing the father kissed every guardsmen on board ship. the boy survived because he knew his father was near. in his innocence he simply believed he was on an adventure and did not allow fear to set in.

i think that our Father is calling out to us..."to eternity and beyond". He is on our side, cheering us on, knowing we can make it through dark nights and treacherous waters. we need to be brave like the 12 year old who believed and had no fear. if we are prepared, by knowing that the love of our Father in Heaven is constant, we have nothing to fear. so here's to "infinity...ie eternity....and beyond."

Christopher Marino was rescued after nearly 14 hours in the sea.
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/26639098/

it was a grand night

"our state fair is a great state fair,

don't miss it, don't even be late.

it's dollars to donuts

that our state fair

is the best state fair in our state."

i like the state fair. night time is best with lights and music and game barkers galore. where else can you gaze at blue ribbon onions, see the world's largest alligator, eat doughy corn dogs smothered in mustard, gobble mountains of curly fries, slurp down giant cokes, and stuff yourself with large handfuls of kettle corn, topped with the best candied apples in the state. all while walking through the livestock barns and seeing the prettiest cows and sheep and polka dot pigs ever.

i must admit i did get a little nauseated after a very long merry-go-round ride, standing next to parker. sophie and gummy were on the horse chasing us but thanks to excellent riding skills on parker's part they never caught up. the blurry picture is the best i could do having eaten all of the above before going, round and round and round.

i am sad we missed the "odor-eaters rotten sneaker contest - i think, as well as the "senior's wii bowling tornament" but we did get to see the "tigers of inda" show and watched a bit of the square dancing contest (gotta love those dresses with petticoats). we went with the bradburys, evans, gardners and connors clan. a good time was had by all. more pictures to come, once i get them from cinny's and cori's camera's.

i knew there was a logical reason

adults who struggle with a sweet tooth or battle a lifelong craving for bacon may have something more than weak willpower to blame — at least those with a history of chronic childhood ear infections.

a series of new studies presented this month by taste and hearing experts suggests that repeated infections may damage a vital taste-sensing nerve in kids, perking a preference for rich foods and making them prone to weight gain later.

worse, those who suffer harm to the crucial chorda tympani nerve — which runs through the tongue, along the side of the face and behind the eardrum on its way to the brain — may not realize why they can’t stay away from the small indulgences that pack on pounds.

“they simply like high-fat and high-sweet foods better,” said a scientist with the mcKnight brain institute's center for taste and smell. “the more you like food, the more you weigh.” --- duh. no kidding. ya think! wow. imagine that.

oh yeah - i remember now i always had an ear infection when i was little. right mom! and i'm sure i had chorda tympani nerve damage! (wink, wink)

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/26391940/ full validating article for those who need proof!

today i am grateful for....

1. that incredibly helpful agent at the konica minolta tech support center, who at first didn't want to help me, but perhaps heard the cry of desperation in my voice and took pity on me. after not having a working printer for over two weeks and not having been able to use wireless printing since windows vista, he had me printing....and printing wireless in less than 1 1/2 hours. there's more to the long saga of this story but bottom line...as geeky as it may seem...a big shout out to damian in alabama! you rock!

2. cool nights. i love sleeping with the doors and windows opened. i love to cuddle under a soft blanket. i just sleep better. fall is swiftly approaching. yippee. we can go to the state fair and look at the quilts and giant pumpkins and pigs and chickens and the world's largest cow and the world's smallest horse and eat delicious candy apples. i can hardly wait.

3. good movies watched under the stars with good friends. last night gram, cinny, reed and i watched a movie on the big screen in their backyard. we ate carmel corn and buttered popcorn and drank ice coke and laughed and cried together. i want a repeat tonight!

4. blogs. these wonderful links allow me to keep in touch with people i love but don't see all the time. i admit i'm a blog stalker. i read people's blogs and they don't even know it. (i'm not sure that's a good thing, but nonetheless i do it.) Other's posts make me happy.

5. good family. good friends.

was that suppose to be a compliment?

tonight we took our first excursion on frontrunner. boarding in farmington we headed to slc, final destination, trolley square, for ali's bday celebration. already on the train sitting near us was a very social, talkative woman. she told us all where she and her family had been and asked where we were going. i politely and in a very friendly manner answered, "dinner in slc to celebrate a 17 year old's birthday". a few precious moments passed in silence. reed and cindy were sitting a few rows away from me and i was facing mom where we sat across the aisle from the talkative women. this creature says "let me guess" and points first to cindy saying "mother" then she turns to me and with a very proud and pleased look says "grandmother" and then points to mom with a nod of her head and says "great grandmother"! i believe my jaw dropped and with a deflated demeanor and ego told her politely, "no, i'm a sister" as i point to cinny! what i really wanted to do was smack her upside the back of the head and say "get your eyes checked, you old bat!" to add insult to injury, when the story was repeated to John Michael his immediate response was not to console his dear auntie and reassure her self image but rather..."way to go cindy!"

i dunno, maybe the women was right, later this night while watching the olympics and the men's gymnastic quest for a medal, the announcer commented on how the latest program was the perhaps the best program of a young man's life....my brother john and I missed it ... we were talking about gout!

it's 3 am, who would you call?

sooooo...it's 3 am and my phone apparently chooses to call the connors and the hones and david's work and my message center and just about everyone else . . . but hillary.
let me back up about 15 hours: have you ever rushed into the bathroom, (at the 5 hour store no less) dancing and desperate because you waited just a little too long and just as you are about to, well you know, your phone drops out of your pocket and into the bowl, ie toilet bowl! you hurry and grab the phone, without thinking and rapidly pull the battery out. then you can think no further beyond that until you finish what you first went to the bathroom to do. then after using all the paper you can get off the stingy commercial toilet paper holder you wrap your device and rush to the sink and yet again immerse the dang thing in water to wash it off! alas - the phone appears dead, but having been experienced with dropping electronic items into water - such as walkie talkies into the lake, while trying to keep the fish on the line - you believe that your lifeline can yet be saved.
you leave the battery out and dry the phone off and wave the phone in the air and blow hot air into every crevise you can find. when you get home you use the hair dryer for more forceful hot air. at 2:45 am you finally decide to go to bed. you look at the phone and attempt to turn it on. it works, sort of, at least the lights are bright but it says the battery needs charging. so very sleepily you plug the phone into the charger and leave it on the couch while you climb the steep stairs and fall into the first available unmade bed in the extra room, because you are too tired to take the decorative pillows and covers off your own bed. now the spare bedroom has no phone in it so as not to disturb any potential guests. and then a very deep, deep sleep sets in. a sleep like you have not had in say months.
then . . . the cell phone demons do their thing. the phone starts dialing random numbers in your phone directory. your neighbor is called at 3 am, your brother in laws work is called minutes later, with fortunately no lasting issues because, well he is not at work, and then it grabs your sisters number and dials her home every other minute for say....15 or 20 minutes. when your sister tries calling the phone back, there is no answer, and when she tries to call your home phone, 3 times, you don't hear that either because you are fast asleep in a room with no phone. your brother in law then gets dressed and your sister is panicked because she thinks something has happened to you and her mother, and they come up and enter a very dark and quiet house, except for an eerie glow coming from the couch where your possessed cell phone is continually dialing "connors home"! your sister first checks on mom to make sure all is ok, then rips the battery out of the phone, leaves you a note to find in the morning and returns home, unable now to sleep herself until well after 5 am. (sorry cori!!!!)
well if this happens to you - do not plug the device in or attach the battery until you are sure it will function properly or it is during a decent hour of the day! after googling i now know i should have immersed the phone in to 90% alcohol - (does bourbon count!). oh well, live and learn.

thoughts

life is like an onion: you peel it off one layer at a time, and sometimes you weep. -- carl sandburg

in regards to our struggling with challenges of life, think of how delicious the soup will be in the end because the onion was added. for as king david wrote "weeping may endure for a night, but joy cometh in the morning" (Psalms 30:5)

a psalm of life

Tell me not, in mournful numbers,

Life is but an empty dream!

For the soul is dead that slumbers,

and things are not what they seem.

Life is real! Life is earnest!

And the grave is not its goal;

Dust thou art; to dust returnest,

Was not spoken of the soul.

...

Let us, then, be up and doing,

With a heart for any fate;

Still achieving, still pursuing,

Learn to labour and to wait,

Henry Wadsworth Longfellow

my friend marsha is a good soul. on july 8, 2008 we celebrated with her. she had a birthday. with joy and gratitude she embraced her years. it was a birth and a rebirth party. for on this day the doctor's gave her the "all clear" notice. she is a survivor of pancreatic cancer! note: less than 5% of patients diagnosed with this disease are still alive five years after diagnosis, but for some reason the Lord does not need her yet and has allowed her to linger longer with us. how lucky we are and how grateful we are. marsha lives life fully. she serves, she works, she plays, she honors the Lord. here's to marsha - and to numerous more decades!

the dreaded yellow tray - take 2

have i mentioned how much i hate going to the dentist? oh yeah, i have - re: june 13, 2008 post! well yesterday was take two of my trip to hell. (one more to go) steve's (of morgan family dentistry) staff were bubbly and cute when i arrived and welcomed me with warm friendly conversation and smiles. i wanted to smack them. i will spare the reader the disgusting, gory details of the procedure and just say that after digging and drilling from my mouth clear to my eye socket the decay and bad root are now gone. why don't i feel better?

in honor of peninah

peninah was my great, great grandmother. she was 3/4 cherokee. her blood runs through our veins. when the beat of the drum and the high pitched chanting song of the indian is played my family cannot help but feel the rhythm and soon find ourselves joining in dance and song. my aunties and my mother are particularly moved by this sound. they remember trips to the reservation in the mid 1920's with their father to watch and honor the heritage of these people. through the years we have been privileged to attend pow wow's and even a sacred sundance. this past saturday, george called to let us know a pow wow was taking place at soldier hollow in midway. he knew our mom would want to attend. we made our way up to the canyon and with george, who knows everyone and is loved by most (not unlike his grandfather george, i'm sure), we were waived through all toll gates and booths, received a parking spot at the front entry and guided to a shaded canopy with front row seating. at 6pm the circle was cleared and young men dancers performed a cleansing dance to clear the area of evil or bad events and bless it for good. a prayer was said, honoring the people and their traditions as well as our united nation and those among the tribes that were serving us. then the parade of nations took place. it was an inter tribal event, there were ute and crow, bannock shoshone, navajo, arapaho, paiute, cree, lakota, nez peirce, siox and many other tribes. the granddaughter's spun around in their fancy shawls and jigglebell dresses, and the grandson's bent low and reached high as they danced to the beating drum, dressed in fine feathers, beads and quills with painted faces. the littlest ones were called the ladybugs and they followed the lead of their elders and gently moved their feet around in circles. but my favorite dance was the grandfathers. they were noble. they were proud. they were magnificent.

i'm way too hot! (meaning sweating...not good looking!)

the human body is fascinating, marvelous and well, sometimes downright frustrating. take my own for example. why am i comfortable, yea, even a little cold with the air set at 72F at 9 in the morning but i practically "die" from heat with the same temperature settings at between 3 and 5 in the morning?! and how can one person be freezing while i am way, way, way too hot?! and why can my knee be really cold needing to be wrapped in blankets and pillows while the rest of my large self wants to rip every piece of clothing off?
perhaps it is because i just had a birthday! 49 and holding. holding onto what i'm not sure. but i'm holding! guess i better get me some of those hormones!!!!!


ps. since it was my birthday and i am in the mood i am....i shall eat delicious german chocolate cake (thanks to cori), raspberry mango tarts (thanks to connie) and chocolate english toffee (thanks to lisa) for breakfast and lunch!
... and what does it mean when my favorite birthday presents were food storage items? thanks fam! u r the best!

it doesn't get much better than this

spontaneous party - that's what happened saturday! dave, timo and annabella surprised us with a few days visit from kansas city. gram was mighty surprised to see her boy as he walked up to her car door. she didn't skip a beat, just said - "oh my golly, who is that! well get in, let's go" to which timo promptly opened the back door to the car, crawled in, buckled up and acted as though not a day had gone by since last seeing gram. katie and elliott came up for "saints on the seas" rehearsal where katie is one of the narrators. we managed to talk them into staying for the day. since it was so hot, i sent them to smith's to buy a pool. if you google earthed the neighborhood you would see that the three homes surrounding our abode all have built in pools. not to be out done - elliott and katie succeeded in bringing home an awesome inflatable, just right for our little ones. (i believe my neighbors are actually a little jealous.) sophie and parker came over. as the grown up sat under the shade trees, drinking propel, diet coke and licking banana & root beer popsicles, the kids had a heyday in the sun and the pool. anna was a babe and parker was the studman. sophie and timo stayed busy trying to empty the water out of the pool with water guns and buckets. once again we were surprised when emily, aaron, brooklyn, ian and lucas showed up later that evening on their way to lake powell. we cooked ribs, ate coleslaw and had sherbet for dessert. the only great grand kid we were missing was little libby lu! it doesn't get much better than this!