~ a few posts in one ~

Wow!  Awesome couple of days I've had. 

My aunt Nel showed up at my house early afternoon on Monday.  I was so thrilled to see her.  What an angel to come all the way from Tucson to get me!  We never stopped talking while I cleaned, packed and fixed dinner.  Beth came for dinner and the conversation, laughter and good times kept on. 

Tuesday morning after giving my girls hugs and kisses, Nel and I got on our way fairly early. As we were were going to go a different way than she came, I drove.  There was some awesome fog in my little valley.  Because it's right by the river, I assumed that it would be gone when we hit the freeway.  Noooo, the fog stayed with us until we got to Fredonia.  Then we got to see snow from there to the other side of Kiabab forest!  The road was icy all that way, too!  Did we care?  Heck no ~ it was so BEAUTIFUL!  We just took a little longer.  Nel enjoyed being the passenger and seeing the scenery, and I just loved being with her!  We, again, never stopped talking ~ taking turns or just butting in.  It was a blast!  She dropped me off at Jim & Carol's then headed to Tucson.  I'll see her again in a couple of weeks!

Spending time with my brother and his family always makes me happy and inspires me.  We had a great dinner last night that was prepared by Justin, hung out and visited a while, then all went to bed.  I slept like a baby! 

It's Wednesday already.  This family rises EARLY an starts their busy day.  After doing errands, Jim took me to the old trailer park that Dad created and where we once lived (in a house that was moved from our old neighborhood - Mr. McCorkle's house) and it was fun to see it still in use.  Then he took me to see the house we lived in right after Mom and Dad married.  Of course we drive by Sunland Elementary where we went to school ~ it hasn't changed a bit,.  Then he took me to see the house that Wanda & Jordan lived in.  It's a beautiful home!  Such a joy to have memories wash over me and share them with my BIG brother.  Then we sat on his patio and watched Ike (their GIANT tortise) eat carrots while I enjoyed eating a lemon from Jim's tree!

MISS my girls, but talk to them morning & night - well maybe a little in-between, too.

We will all be up early tomorrow to lend our love, prayers, and support as Jim undergoes surgery - or as he put it "donating a kidney". 

I'm here to make sure he behaves himself when he comes home. 

I sure LOVE my brother JIM!

...and on the 7th day...

I LOVE Sunday!

Having gone to bed Saturday night after reading from the scriptures, re-reading my Primary lesson, and saying my prayers, I so can't wait for Sunday morning.

Renewing my covenants by taking the sacrament gives me such peace and refreshment.

I'm so imperfect, and therefore grateful for the Savior's atonement.  I can feel his LOVE.

Hearing the testimonies of the speakers, teaches and strengthens me.

Teaching those precious little ones in my primary class makes me humbly realize the beautiful gifts that we have been blessed with.  The sweet voices when they sing ~ the way they are eager to show their faith ~ their tender prayers ~ their reverence ~  they lift and inspire me.

And, after a peaceful afternoon with my girls,

Haylee and I went to a beautiful Baptism Preview at the church.

BEST  kind of day!

An Evening With Bug

Haylee Bug & Gramma spending the evening together.  Mommy is having a girls evening elsewhere.  We would normally get into some sort of mischief together, but The Bug has a bug head cold!

Did ya catch that wad of tissue in her nostril?!  She has tonsils bumping each other, too.  No redness or sore throat.  She just got over an ear ache.  What a little trooper.  Her only complaint has been the nose being tender from wiping.

Gramma decided chicken soup was in order for dinner.

It was a hit!

Then we made these~~~

Peanut butter filled Bugles dipped in chocolate!

Sweet & Salty little mouthfuls of JOY!

I saw them on Pinterest.  Quite proud of myself for actually making them.  Of course I couldn't have done it without the help of my Haylee Bug!

Love that kid to bits!

Heavenly Delicious or Downright Evil

Who doesn't love BROWNIES?

Wait --- I really don't want to know!

~ I made these last night ~

See that lighter color layer in the middle?

Well... that's where the decadence comes into these delightful morsels.

Make any brownie recipe - Your favorite kind in a box will do.

Pour 1/2 of the batter into a 9'X13" pan.

Are you ready?  Here comes the yummy part...

Place 3 - yep three large - Symphony bars (milk chocolate or toffee - whichever  suits your fancy) on top of that, and finish by topping with the rest of the batter.

Bake as instructed on the box, or your recipe!

Ta-da!

Makes your taste buds giddy!

I HEART EGGS & TOAST!

Nearly every morning I have a couple of eggs and a slice or two of toast on one of my previously mentioned precious childhood pink plates!

For the past few months my little (however very tall) brother has been bringing me eggs laid by his chickens.

~~ mmmmm ~~

THANKS, LYLE!

They have soooo much more flavor than store bought eggs.

We always had fresh eggs when I was growing up.

I remember my mom's chicken coop with a big wooden Mobile oil Pegasus  on one side of the chicken wire enclosure.

I don't know why.  I think my dad had worked at a gas station at one time.

Anyway, I remember that big red horse and loved it!

We had laying chickens at the farm, too.  I hated gathering eggs ~ had a big fear of them (the chickens - not the eggs) attacking me.

Mom & dad had chickens when they lived in Littlefield.  Once, they had given us some eggs as we were headed back to Meadow.  We put them in the back seat.  Well, I went to sleep at the wheel and rolled the car.  Jay had some cracked ribs, Todd had a couple of bruises, and I had a concussion, a bad cut above my eye, a forehead that looked like a neanderthal, some cracked ribs and some nasty gashes on my leg.  People actually stopped at the place where they took our car and thought we had all died.  All those smashed eggs along with all my blood really made for a gruesome scene!

When Jay & I lived in Meadow, we decided to raise chickens.  Well,  he didn't have a clue, so guess who ended up being the caretaker ~ duh.

I learned to love those chickens, and certainly enjoyed the fresh eggs every day!

Very Unusual Facial

You know the stuff.

We've all used it to calm our upset tummy.

My grandmother used to keep it in the door of her fridge.

When I was little, I used to sneak into her kitchen, open the fridge and take a swig!

 eeew!

I thought it was so yummy!

Not anymore!

However, I was told about a different use for this bright PINK concoction

~ a facial! ~

Last night I decided to see if it works.

Not a great picture (must be the camera!), but my face is slathered with pink goo!  It smelled fantastically minty and yummy.  It made my face tingle.  I let it dry and then washed it off with warm water followed with a splash of cold water.

My skin GLOWED!

And, it feels so SOFT!

(It did take a little work to get it out of my hair.  I had a pink fringe for a while!)

There you go ~ something new to try!

Thinking PINK!

~from Sassy thru Bev~

Way back in a 2009 post, I talked about these precious plates

from my childhood.

Gotta say that they have to top anything else pink that I have!

Use them all the time, and

LOVE them!

ALL'S WELL THAT ENDS WELL

This was the third time I've had this procedure, and it was the smoothest yet!

The Doctor was funny, and both of my nurses were so sweet.  And, by the way they were both handsome guys - a plus in such a vulnerable situation.

Glad it is over, though!

I'll just sit on it for another 5 years!



WIPED OUT!

Stayed home from church today.

Drank a gallon of COLYTE.

Busy day.

Colonoscopy in the morning.

'Nuff said?

CHORES

FINALLY!

  Vacuumed and wiped down the interior of my car!

I certainly don't mind washing the car, and I keep it wiped down, but vacuuming the interior is a CHORE!

(doesn't that word even sound like something you don't enjoy - CHORE?!)

I scrubbed some spots off the carpet.

another CHORE

I just finished up some laundry.  Love doing the washing,  drying & folding, just not too fond of hanging and putting the clean laundry away.

another CHORE

I think I'll go to bed and read.

Nightie Night!

THE SOUND OF SILENCE

My girls are gone for the weekend...

Peace

Tranquility

I can hear myself think

it's TOO quiet

Lonely

Can't wait 'til Sunday evening!

Cutest little man in front of me at the checkout in Wal-Mart was such a happy guy!  Indeed he was a gentleman, and I think he was flirting with me.

Sad, isn't it that I really wasn't sure!

Well, never fear,  'cause

 TOO!

If the cashier hadn't been so talkative and  S  L  O  W , I would have caught up with him in the parking lot.

But, alas, I couldn't find him. 

O, well.  He must not have been worth it, or he would have waited for me!



A long time friend had this pic on face book today - I love it - I stole it!

It conjures up so many memories ~ of youth and the knowledge that your freedom to play all day (without your mom really knowing exactly where you were), still came with the assurance that you were safe & secure and all was well with the world!

Why is it so hard to just let yourself run with that sweet abandon now?

Remember those warm wonderful feelings of childhood when you felt so free and filled with enough energy to power a nation - well, at least the neighborhood?!

So many trees to climb.

So many fields to run in.

So much sunshine to soak up.

So many clouds to watch while laying on your back in the cool grass.

So many night games to play;

hide & seek

red rover

ghost stories

star gazing.

Playing dolls, jacks, marbles.

Cops & robbers.

Cowboys & Indians.

Climbing haystacks.

Riding horses.

Eating citrus and dates and blackberries 'til you were sick.

Drinking from the hose so you didn't have to go inside when you got thirsty?

Mud pies.

Swimming.

Eating watermelon warm off the vine in the field.

aah---

Didn't that feel GREAT?!



The Pecan Tree

My next door neighbor has a pecan tree in their front yard.  It is beautiful, BIG, produces fabulous shade and plenty of nuts.  I've made pecan pies with those lovely morsels.

  It also produces sticky sap all over my drive way, or when that isn't happening it drops nuts all over my drive way that get run over and squished into messy wasteful splotches.  It provides a roost for the largest black birds I have ever seen that love to leave HUGE globs of waste on my drive way. My daughter used to park in the driveway, but after all the above mentioned pelted her car she no longer does.  In the fall most of the leaves drop on my drive way, roof, and blow with every breeze into my side and back patios!  A few weeks ago, I got on the ladder and got the leaves off my roof and out of the rain gutter.  The neighbors still had tons of them on their roof, however.  Well, we had a really big wind storm that transported all the leaves from their roof to - yep, you guessed it - the side and back patio of my house!  Well, thank goodness for the yard maintenance guys that show up every Tuesday with their handy-dandy leaf blowers in our little neighborhood!

 
My patios are leaf free! 

[And, today I also washed my daughter's car, and the windshield of mine and got the last of the bird stuff off!  So, we're now all sparkly! ]

 I'd say that is a pretty good Tuesday!

A GOOD PERSPECTIVE

...and that's the way I need to always see it!

~  (no matter how tough it may seem some days)  ~

It's been a MONDAY!

My Mom Said...

You know those things that you do automatically that make life a little sweeter ~

Those little things that set you apart from the rude and common ~

Those things your Mom's friends complimented you on when you were little ~

Those things that you taught your own children and hope that your grandchildren will also do and pass on ~

Those things that make us civilized ~

Things that you notice when others don't do them~

?

I think some of them are simply good manners and my mom said they were

RULES to live by.

Well, when I saw this  ~

I just had to share ~ 'cause my mom SAID!

MOVIE NIGHT

I haven't been out to a movie in -------------AGES!  Thanks to our sweet home teacher and his awesome wife (a gift of 3 movie tickets for Christmas), my girls and I went to

see this tonight ~ 

and LOVED it!

Man in the Moon

This is the image I saw last night.  Glowing ~ Beautiful ~ Peaceful ~
Shedding benevolent light on all.

But, I do believe at least one little girl and possibly two must have been influenced by

this guy!  What an afternoon!  Talk about moody!

I TOTALLY prefer the first one!

GRAMMA'S TAXI

This is my role on school days.  I make the rounds in our little area and pick up two little boys along with my Haylee and deliver them to the bus stop.

You see, they all used to walk to the bus stop.  Haylee was the only girl with 8 little boys!  So, I still accompanied her.  Then ~ lo and behold the district changed the bus routes to make them safer.  Two buses ~ one for either side of the busy thoroughfare.  Now there are only 3 boys and Haylee.  One little boy lives at the other end of the bus stop.  The new stop is quite a bit further away and doesn't seem to be so safe.  There were three cars trying to find places to park each morning and there was really only one place available.   It just seemed so silly to me, plus one little boy's mom had to drag out a baby and she usually was in her robe.  One day I just got out of my car and walked up to her and the dad  of the other little boy and asked if I could just pick them up each morning.  They were happy to let me do that, and it works for the most part.  We sometimes have to wait for one little boy what seems like forever.  We listen to music, keep warm in the car, talk about all sorts of fun things, sometimes have some minor disagreements or pouting, a few unexpected rude noises, but most generally a happy few minutes wait for the school bus.  I find it very rewarding to not only spend time each morning with Haylee, but to get to know the two little boys as well!

ANGELS

Oh, I believe in angels!

They are real.

They have faces.

They have names.

They call us on the phone.

They sometimes hold our hand.

They walk among us.

They know when we need comfort or help.

Some are HERE

and some are THERE

Angels, angels everywhere!

I LOVE ANGELS!

FAMILY = COMFORT & JOY

Each and every day it is my family that makes it all worth while!  I am so blessed to have been placed in this family.  I am so grateful for all those who came before me, and the choices and sacrifices they made, and their faith and testimonies and obedience, so that I could be born in the covenant and live in this promised land.  The influence of my grandparents, parents, and siblings ~ Not a day goes by that I don't think of them.  I am so thrilled to have so many aunts & uncles & cousins that have touched my heart and made my life so colorful and full.  A rich array of nieces and nephews that I adore...And my babies ~ Toni, Todd & Andi ~ my precious children, my treasures, my hope, my comfort,  how tender that they chose me! ... but the joy of having a grand daughter is to have a slice of heaven!  I love you so, Haylee!

the secret is ... she loves me, too!

BISCUITS & SAUSAGE GRAVY ~ YUM!

Yep!  It was a biscuit & sausage gravy kind of morning!  You know what I mean ~  everyone slept in ~ no hurry to get dressed ~ don't have to be anywhere but home!

So...  Sausage gravy & biscuits it is! 

Comfort food.  Memory jogger.  Mmmmmmmmmmm...

Wish you were here!



HERE'S TO YOU! A TOAST FROM ME!

OF COURSE THAT IS SPARKLING CIDER!

WHAT DID YOU THINK IT WAS?!

Here's to you, Bev!  I'm on top of that accepted challenge!

Here's to you, My Girls!  Having you near me warms my heart!

Here's to you, my family and friends!  You buoy me up!

Here's to you, 11 o'clock church!  I'm liking the extra time in the morning to review my lesson.

Here's to you, my Primary class!  I'm in love with you already!

Here's to you, 2012!  You have made a fabulous start!