RECENT EVENTS

It is a little scary to me how fast time goes.  I can't remember the last

time I sat and waited for something and thought it was taking a long time.

I try and fill my days with good things.  Sometimes good things just

happen without my help.  So here are a few events that have had meaning

to me recently.

Lee's Lee's SprinkleSprinkle

All of my daughters thought we needed to have a shower for Lee

in Pinetop.  She hasn't lived at home for 2.5 years and was a bit

hesitant to have a baby shower here.  She is silly.  We called it a

"sprinkle" because it was smaller than a "shower".  It was

a perfect event.  We love everyone who came.

The icing on the cake was family coming to town.  I am a typical

grandma....love to see them come and love to see them go.  But this

time was different.  They just warmed my house.  I don't know how

to say it better than that.  Maybe it is because it is fall.  Our family

loves the fall time.

Heidi and Jeremiah and their babies, Bode and Laine.

This is such a typical picture of those two children.  Bode

trying to do the right thing and Laine forced to sit still for a bit.

Love them all.

I loved this scene.  When ever Megan and Melanie come to

Grandma's they want to do crafts.  Mostly it is Megan and she

is into sewing.  She made little pillows this trip.  Melanie

and Bode watched with great interest.

This is Jett.  He is Pete's youngest.  I have said this before...he

is a tank.  He is only 18 months old so when I hear him

cry I have to remember that he is just a baby.  You have

to watch him every minute.  He is a fast moving tank.  He

doesn't have much time for me.  He already knows life

moves fast and you have to keep up with it.

The last of the pumpkins.  Good thing Bode is

easy to please.  It is a good pumpkin but a bit

flat on one side. 

You don't know when your children are little that they and

their spouses will be your best friends someday.  It is

a wondeful gift.  Heidi, Lee, me, Brittany. 

See, don't they just make you feel warm?

Pete, Brittany and family.  Megan and Melanie are getting

so long and tall.  Happy people.  When they drove up from

Tucson they pulled in the driveway, threw Brittany and

Jett out the door just in time for the "sprinkle" and flew up to Sunrise just in time to ride

the lift and get free passes for the season for their girls.

These are two scarecrows that I have in my front room.

Laine thought they needed a rest and put them to bed.

What an improvement on the old stock.

 Visit to Arkansas

Since Jill and family moved to Arkansas I have tried to invision

her home and town, Conway, Arkansas.  Now I know.  I have to say

I never got my bearings.  The streets are not on a grid like

most places in the west.  (they never sent me to the store for

milk....they knew I would never come home)

But I know her house faces north and the lay out of her

home and the places where they do stuff.  Here are some

of those places.

OK, this is a one time place:  the pumpkin patch.  This

is Parker and Paisley listening to a lady talk about an

old fashion kitchen.

One generation of pumpkins and three generations
of girls.

Look close.....someone ended up in a bale of rolled hay.

They couldn't help themselves.  These pumpkins just
screamed climb on us.

 Parker's pumpkin.

Cute.

 This is Paisley's therapy.  She just lets go of her mom's hand
and takes (either) Mary or Hannah's hand and never looks back.

And then she comes back 1.5 hours later.  Happy as a lark. 

 This is Parker's gym.  She is in the center with
her back to us in a white shirt.  I made a fatal error the
day before by putting that white top on Paisley.  Parker
said to take it off because that was her gymnastics shirt.

Parker and coach. 

 Quinn  at school.  He was sweet to smile and wave
at me.  When Jill drops him off there is a teacher or
aid there to take him to the front door.  They do that
for all the children.  But it moves in a rhythm....except
when Grandmas come to town.

Quinn's school.

Now these pictures are for David.  He has a favorite BBQ place
in Durango, Colo.  It is called Serious Texas BBQ.  John took
us to a BBQ restaurant in Conway called The Whole Hog.  You
can't tell by pictures but I think this is a place David would like.
It might even be a favorite.

My plate.  They put the cold slaw on your
sandwich if you like.   Jill likes it and so I
tried it.  I liked it too.

 Fun restaurant.

The Arkansas River.
Not the Mississippi but still scary.
I just want to get across it ASAP.

The pulp mill where John's project is located.  He said
it is about a 1/3 the size of the mill in Snowflake, AZ.

 John coming out to talk to us.  He looks tired.
He looked tired the whole week. 

 This is Quinn's.  I have a soft spot for favorite stuffed animals.
This little guy's stuffing is flattening out.  He feels like
he is all air inside.  But he can still sit up and he can
still be Quinn's little sleeping buddy.

Nothing better than being a mother.

The Papa house faces north.  The infamous poison ivy is
on a tree just past the window on the right.  See the
leaves on the ground?  Some of them are that ivy.  The
rule is no one goes outside without their shoes on.

Jill raked up leaves every day.  And she sprayed the vine
with a special Roundup that is supposed to kill poison ivy.
Hope it works.


Southern Living

I live a sheltered life.  I have never been to the

South before.  It was eye opening.  Firstly, the people are

very friendly.  VERY friendly.   And it is beautiful in

Arkansas.  Conway is in the forest.  It is the middle

of autumn there but the trees are, for the most part,

just turning brown.  They did not get the rain needed to

make the trees turn the beautiful fall colors.   A couple

of trees here and there that rival our Aspens.

Then there were the homes.  Jill drove me into several

subdivisions and I was amazed!  These homes are

all custom built and are on big lots in small subdivisions.

Corrections and Clarifications

So, yesterday I decided to use my carpet cleaner and clean my

front porch.  I probably will only do that once.  The cleaner

was a trooper but it shouldn't have to tackle a front porch.

One thing leads to another and I wanted to make the front

porch more fall..ish.  So David drove me over to his cousin

Jean's to check out her corn stocks.  They were pretty bad.

  We had seen a

 corn patch on the corner coming in and liked it.  I liked it anyway,

David was just being a good sport.  Jean said to stop in and ask for some

of their's.  As it turns out, they

were very  happy to share some corn stocks.  And as it

turns out the owner, Mr. Beach, is a brother to one of David's

Aunts.  Her name was Velma and she was married to Rusty.

They were two of our favorite family members.  They have

been gone for  a long time but I have good memories of them.

And his wife is an aunt to a friend of mine, Brenda Colvin.

They are both elderly but sweet and we really enjoyed visiting

with them.  And are grateful to them for letting us have

all the corn stalks we wanted.

                                               So this is my new and improved fall porch.
                       Happy fall to all,

  And to all a good fright.

General Conference Sunday

We talked about staying home and listening to the LDS General Conference

on TV.  That was Saturday.  We woke up this morning and got dressed

and drove up to Green's Peak for the morning session.  It was a beautiful

morning.  And a beautiful conference.

We are so blessed to have a living prophet on the earth today. 

Pres. Monson's message today made me stop and think.  I

know where my blessings come from and I express my

gratitude to my Heavenly Father in prayer.  But I need to

live a grateful filled life....make that an active part of my

thinking and my actions. 

By the way, I loved all the talks.  I am always a bit sad

when conference ends on Sunday afternoon.

                                                   Happy Conference!  Happy Fall!

Hello from Boo. 

Green's Peak. We started coming up into the mountains about

25 years ago.  This is our favorite spot.  It isn't always available

and I get ticked when it isn't.  But I get over it because

Conference is always great and so is the company.

Some years on this weekend these leaves are yellow.  There were several patches

                                             of color but nothing too spectacular yet. 

        Oh, yes, today is my daughter Lee's TWENTY FIRST birthday.  Happy birthday, Lee!!

We were in this very spot 21 years ago listening to conference and I started labor with her. 

Seems like yesterday.

Yard Sale find

These early fall yard sales have been good.  We have

been going every Friday morning...7:30, anyone?

I found this chest at our last outing.  I got it for $6!!

It is quite fragile but sooo cute.  It is wooden and

all metal parts are nailed.  I rubbed oil on the wood

and gave it a nice look.  

Gar-bauge

Every week my garbage can looks like this.  If you can see

down the road there is a second can, which belongs to my

neighbor, Deedo, it looks like mine.....I topped it off.

I am to thankful for the garbage man!  Tuesday

morning is a morning filled with anxiety though.  I don't

know why but I listen all morning for that truck.  I

don't feel clean until he picks up my garbage and

I can get on with my life. 

Then there is the trailer garbage....not to be confused with

trailer trash.  A number of years ago we took a load

to the dump and I remember telling David that this would

probably be the last load we would ever have to take.

I think that was 100 loads ago.  You can only

organize or straighten up garbage so many times

before you realize that that is what it is GARBAGE!

I did want to mention the yellow ladder.  I used that in

my storage room to help me up into the crawl space of

an afore mentioned post.  Don't need it anymore.

Pete made it when he was in high school.  He took a

woodshop class and after that he made several handy

things for me.  This ladder actually lived its first life

as Tim's bunk ladder.  When he moved into a different

bedroom it got its new life in the storage room.

Bye, bye, ladder.

OK, here's the dump.  No, they don't know us by first name but we

certainly know the routine.  This is another place that, once our load is dumped, I feel clean again....sorta.  You really don't feel clean at the dump...coming or going.

Law of the Harvest

Did you know there is not a scripture that actually says

"law of the harvest"?  I started looking for one a while back.

I read Fanny's Dream  to my granddaughter's, Megan and Melanie,

when we were camping.  The book was dedicated to the

author's aunt and uncle who "lived the law of the harvest".

I wanted to find a print of a harvest scene and

use vinyl with that phrase in it.  I finally realized that

law of the harvest is "reap what you sow".  Dah

When I looked on line for the picture, I found several

but they were all around $50.  So, I found this one

at a yard sale for $10 with a frame. 

(Look closely ~ that is a harvested field.) 

I like it.

Last Rights

For a good week now my neighbor, Dylan (left), has been telling

me that he was going to have a funeral for his brother's bug. 

He mentioned every day.  He told me he was making a coffin

and that Cyrus (his brother) was making a tie to put on the bug.

I don't know why this bug meant so much.  But I have

respect for the dead, right?  (If that bug had

decided to live at my house...it would be dead

and there would be no funeral...but I didn't tell Dylan that.)

The funeral was Friday at 1:30 in their back  yard.  The

boy with Dylan is another neighborhood boy named Bobby.

Cyrus didn't even come.  He got invited over to a friend's.

Dylan said there will be an "optional" funeral on Sunday

when Cyrus would be home.

Dylan made the coffin.  It was about the size of a shoe box

only taller.  The bug was on a bed of cotton balls and

one white rose.

Making sure it is level.

Everybody has a turn with the shovel. 

A couple of buckets of dirt.

                                                            May he rest in peace.