~ R E D ~

Only one thing RED in my house

is in the kitchen and it is

THE

FOCAL

POINT!



My Window Today

Today my brother Jim and I (accompanied by our photographer - my darling daughter Andi) set off an adventure.

We wandered through some antique shops (WINDOW shopping, of course) and stopped at Judd's Store for refreshment.

This store sits across the street from Woodward School where I went to 10th grade, my son Todd went to 6th grade, and my daughter Andi went to 6th grade!

After sitting at the sidewalk table in front of the windows for a while we walked across the street, wandered around the town square, marveled at the carousel horses,

and walked by the Woodward school.

From one of those three upper right hand windows I stood in my 10th grade art class

 and looked out at the back of the St. George Tabernacle.

There is still a lot of the original glass (very wavy) in it's windows.

While in that art class I did a pastel drawing of that view of the tabernacle.

I was proud of that piece of work, but have no idea what happened to it!

Well, that's my window on the world today!

Thanks for peeking in!

I'll be closing the blinds, now...

SOMETHING I WORE

I was going to tell you about my rings that I wore -

this one my niece AMY gave me when she was here for the rodeo -

...and this one was given to me for my birthday by my FAVORITE SISTER BETH -

and on my index finger is my favorite ctr ring.

Here are the tons of other rings I wear -

But alas, that is what I was going to talk about. I have a guest contributor tonight, a.k.a. my big brother JIM, who said I should blog about the

T I R E S

I

W O R E

(out, that is)!

It seems that every time I go somewhere with my little brother Lyle we have a flat tire

 and he has to buy a new one or two

or F O U R.

On our way to the reunion last summer we had one flat on his truck, put on the spare and not much further the spare went flat!  We sat by the roadside waving to people and having a great time together while waiting for Beth & Tom to bring us another tire.

Lyle ended up buying a couple of tires when we got to the next town.

Wednesday on our way to Price we stopped in Beaver to have a burger, When we came out to the Hummer to continue on our journey a young man from the tire shop asked if Lyle knew he had some pretty bad wear on his tires.

Long story short - he bought 4 new tires.

That is just what happens when he is with me.

So the Hummer is re-tired, but Lyle still drives it.

Jim on the other hand is retired and he doesn't do much but drive us all to tears with his humor.
I am so thrilled to have JIM here with me for a couple of days!
I think all this blogging has just WORN me out!

5 PM

Today at 5 pm I was in Lyle's Hummer along with Jim.  We were coming home from our cousin Mark's funeral in Price.

I got  to visit with a lot of beloved family, and the service was beautiful.

It's hard to lose a family member - that is happening at an ever increasing rate as I age.

But, traveling with two of my brothers was such a JOY!

At 

5 pm

we were hoping that we could get to the cheese factory in Beaver before it closed.

We had been told that it closed at 5pm and we were feeling sad that we would

MISS it.

Just outside of Beaver, Jim saw a billboard that said

the hours were 8am - 6pm...

YAY!  WHOOPEE!

SCORE!

A SMILE

WeLL hErE it Is

THAT SELF PORTRAIT SMUG LITTLE SMILE THAT i HAVE HAD ALL my LIFE!

My mom used to tell me, "That cRoOked, smug little smile reminds me of your grandmother Cluff!"

The way she said it made it sound not too attractive --

...and then there is this full-blown-I'm-tickled-smile...

But,

My very FAVORITE SMILES are these

OOPS!

I really meant these...

!

BEDSIDE

Bedside you will find my trusty reading lamp, my dusty floral arrangement, a small framed picture of my son, the TV remote, nighttime lip balm, a clock and my scriptures!

And -

in the drawer there are tissues, and potions and lotions along with an assortment of stuff that I think I may require ere I tuck myself in for the night.

Lower level stashes the c-pap with a purple washcloth on top of it to keep the stinkin' little light from bugging the heck outta me.

Alongside that machine is a stack of books that I should be delving into.  I do read my scriptures regularly, though.

In a few short minutes there will by my cell phone recharging on the nightstand while I recharge on my comfy bed.

SWEET DREAMS

It's a beautiful day in the NEIGHBORHOOD!

Well, I made bread this morning!  (Wanted you all to know that right up front, since I said I was going to!)  It was wonderful, though not as smooooth-topped-pretty as my sister-in-law Carol makes hers.  I was so proud, and it tasted so yummy I decided to share it with a NEIGHBOR who lives across the street.  She wasn't home.  So I tried another neighbor.  Not home either.  Dang.

I went to the mail boxes to drop a letter to my brother for pick-up, and lo and behold there was the 2nd neighbor on her bike!  I asked her if I could drop off a loaf of fresh baked bread, and she got all happy!  Well, actually she is pretty much always happy.  She is a great NEIGHBOR.  I have a lot of great NEIGHBORS.

Here is a map of my neighborhood with the X on my house.

Here's my street ~

The next pic shows the little covered area in the back where our mailboxes are and the covered area in front where there are two benches to sit and read your mail,  or sort through the junk mail before you go home.

  At the right of these covered areas is an opening in the wall that goes out directly to our church parking lot.  That makes for a quick walk on Sundays!

Our pool is covered for the winter and doesn't lend itself well to photos right now.

You can see on the map where it is, as well as where the clubhouse & tennis courts are.  There are swings, slides, a sand area & a few picnic tables behind the tennis courts that are shady in the summertime - awesome for my grand daughter and her friends.

Around the corner ~

is this little mall - really just a little place with a market, a sandwich shop, a couple of Mexican restaurants, a hair salon, a driving school, a reception area and a Sinclair gas station.  Sounds BiGGeR than it really is!

Handy, huh?!

 Oh, and here is my humble abode!

I HEART my NEIGHBORHOOD!

! BONUS !

~OMYGOSH~

Would you just look at this-

Yes, that is a brand NEW mixer that was delivered on my doorstep today!

It is a "thank you" gift from my brother Jim and his awesome wife Carol!

I just spent a month in Phoenix helping their family while my brother is recuperating from a couple of surgeries.  I told them that my reward was just being with them - but they wouldn't listen!

Made me cry!

Carol taught my cousin Bev and me how to make bread (beginning to BAKED) in an HOUR!

Jim wanted me to be able to spread the love via warm baked bread with friends, neighbors, women I visit teach, etc.  How sweet is that!?

My old mixer gave up the ghost after 30+ years, and the new one my darling daughter gave me for Christmas just didn't have the strength to mix bread.

See that cute recipe book stand next to the mixer? -  that was a present from Bev!

I feel so totally LOVED!

Makin' bread in the morning!

! B-O-N-U-S !

F R U I T

This is a bowl of fruit we have on hand.

There would have been an apple in there, but I made Mountain Dew Apple Dumplings a couple of nights ago, and they are

g-o-n-e!

Learned how to make them from my sister-in-law who had them at Bev's house!

Boy are they yummy!

The lemons are from my brother Jim's backyard in Phoenix.  So much juicier than the ones in the stores here.

Had a banana this morning - one of my favorites!

Growing up in Mesa, AZ we had our pick (no pun intended, but appropriate) of juicy delights.  Oranges, lemons, grapefruit, tangerines, kumquats, dates, apricots, figs, blackberries, grapes, crab apples, pears and pomegranates (which I thought were too much trouble for what you got).  My favorites of them all was apricots & pears.

Life is just a bowl of CHERRIES!

---that is a fruit that grows here in St. G!  We also have great peaches!



March Daily Photo Challenge - UP

Am I UP for this?

Guess we'll find out!

What's up with the photo stuff?!  I can get into the blogging thing but I'm not too great at packing around my camera.  Um, let me re-phrase that.  I may be good at packing around a camera, but I'm really terribly awful at using it!

Ok, I must admit that UP can mean many things.  

Catch up = what I need to do on my blog for the whole month I was in Phoenix with my brother Jim and his family.

Here's what I look at when I wake up in the morning.

This is looking straight up the wall from my pillow - at the ceiling!

Yep, I took my camera to bed last night in anticipation of today's challenge!  Shot this first thing this morning!  Pretty fantastic, don't you think?!

Look at it upside down and that is what it looks like if you are standing at the foot of my bed (kinda').

Here is a sign that I need to wear to keep my spirits UP...

all of us need cheering up at some point!

I got myself all worked up over this post, but I suppose it really shows up some of my lame attempts in the past!  You be the judge - well, maybe not...

{My mom used to say, "I saw U P on a boxcar!" and we kids would catch our breath thinking she had said something really gross.  Well, if you aren't as old as dirt like me, you may not know that a boxcar was part of a train and the U P stood for Union Pacific!}

That was the first thing that came to mind when I saw the UP challenge...