Thanksgiving- Ashton's view

We had some of our family for the lovely Thanksgiving feast on Thursday. My previous post already lets you know how I feel about my favorite holiday. I went to get my camera to get some photos and my oldest local granddaughter, Ashton, asked if she could take some picture. I LOVE DIGITAL! She was a happy little photographer. The following is Thanksgiving at Grammie's house as seen through Ashton's lens.

Ashton's self portrait

(all of these are loaded at 300dpi - so right click and save if you want them!)

Thanksgiving Memories

I just love Thanksgiving. It is, without a doubt, my favorite holiday. And why not, all I have to do is have a yummy turkey dinner and enjoy my family!

At Grama Munce's house in 1960. My mom at far left by Gra'ma & Granddad Munce, little Joanie, front and center, (what else! ), Ann & Sue directly behind me. My uncles and their families. (this was probably Easter, not Thanksgiving, but you get the picture. LOL!)

I'm sure that this goes back to the-good-ol'-days when we used to go to Gra'ma Munce's for Thanksgiving and congregate with my 2 uncles and their children. Gra'ma used to lament, "You cook for 2 days, eat it in half an hour and clean up for 2 hours!" It was an all-out affair with the good dishes and linens and dressed up attendees. We stayed with my grandparents in Oakland. My uncles and their families lived in the Bay Area. What lovely memories.

Tiger- My First Big Orange Cat

Every since I was just a little girl I have loved cats. I had quite a parade of them: Blackie, Mama-Cat and others I don't remember... with none of them lasting very long. They would run away, get hit by a car, get into cat fights or some other thing would happen and they were just gone.

Mom knew how much I loved cats and being such a wonderful, indulgent, and loving mother accommodated my cat fetish.




Joanie and Tiger Fall 1959
(OK, is it just me or does this look just like Stuart at 7 years old?)







I remember that one fall evening in 1959 Momma arrived home from work with this big box (seemed big to me). I always ran onto the back porch to welcome her home; when I looked in the box all I could see were cans of cat food. In my 7-year-old brain I thought, "Why did Mommy bring home cat food when I don't have a cat?" But when I looked closer there was a little orange ball of fluff! I was euphoric!

A slumber party in our tiny front room.

This funny little kitten came from one of Momma's coworkers at the US Forest Service in Quincy, CA. I gave him the very original name of Tiger. Tiger became my constant friend for the next 13 years! What made the difference? This was the first cat we had neutered. Now he wasn't a Tom-Cat wanting to prowl all night, he was happy to lie in bed with me and knead his paws and drool. We figured that he must have been weaned too early for him to carry this habit through out his long life.


Summer 1960- Sleeping buddies.









Since no other cat lived that long we were only used to little cats. Now came Super Cat! Tiger just kept getting bigger and bigger and wider and wider. By his senior years people would ask us, "So when is your cat going to have kittens?" We'd reply, "HE'S NOT!"

Tiger's other wonderful trait was that he had a purr like a Mack Truck! He was also one of the gentlest cats. In later years Cindy would cart him around like a sack of potatoes. What a wonderful friend... My Tiger!

Christmas Day 1960- Tiger and Joanie in her new bathrobe.

The happy part about this story is I just discovered these photos that I don't ever remember seeing before. Several years ago my sweet niece, Cindy, offered to scan a TON of family photos so that we could all share. I can't even imagine the time it took to scan, edit and create disks from over 2000 photos, but that is what Cindy did. She mailed me the disk and I looked at the "old photos" but never bothered to investigate the folders marked "Ann's Girl Scout Album"; that would just be all her stuff, right? No, this is where I found numerous photos of her silly little sister who-she-prayed-for, how can I be so lucky?

BYU vs UTAH... grudge match!

The ultimate grudge match of the Mountain West Conference kicked off at about 4:15pm today. It had all the promise of a good game... and it was a good game. Good in so many ways, try 12,000,000 of them, dollars! Yup, that is what the MWC gets to split from the BCS. (Do you really think I understand any of this except the $12 million part? Think again! I just know what I'm told.)

This grudge match becomes very personal in my family with 2 UofU graduates and 2 from BYU. There is plenty of good natured razzing that goes on. Apparently this match-up has been going on since the late 1800's!! (In general, not in my family!) I just went looking for some photos online and found out that this whole grudge match is dubbed the Holy War and is featured at Wikipedea.

So am I ever going to get to the point? Sadly, yes, BYU got taken to the woodshed and given quite a whoopin!!! BYU 24 - U of U 48. (I think perhaps only Max Hall should be taken to the woodshed this time. Poor Maxie did NOT have a good game.

Just remember the $$$... I just keep telling myself that!





Silly-ness, says I... look at this... a video game!

Amazing Weather

I've just enjoyed one of those rare November weeks for this climate! I've been out in the yard a couple of days in a short-sleeved shirt and working up a sweat (well, a glisten!).

I'd like to tell you that this is Southern CA weather until I actually look at the thermometer! The day-time highs are in the 50s but when I'm pushing the lawn mower back and forth (and back and forth) that is a delightful temperature! You ask why I'm doing so much lawn mowing this time of year? The answer is simple, yet stupid! We keep our lawn on the long side during the summer. It seems to help it stay green and nice. But if we don't mow it down short for the winter then, ick, we have a long matted mess to deal with in the spring. So Tuesday I mowed and hauled bags of grass to the recycling center. Ah, but today I scored! My neighbor, who owns a pickup truck was doing the same thing and I just added to his load. Between his yard, his in-law's yard and my yard we filled the back of his full sized truck! That's a lot of yard refuse!!! (LOL)

I love these "out-of-season" days that we get! They are such a treat! We can all appreciate a wonderful snowy winter day or a balmy summer evening... but a calm, warm November day... pure heaven!

Our First TV

(this is a Googled image- not our actual TV)

When I was 5 years-old we got our first TV; that was 1957 or 1958. I’m not sure what prompted this purchase. I am sure that we could ill afford this luxury especially considering that we only had access to ONE UHF channel (KCRA channel 3 from Sacramento). What I do remember is this…

Mom used to pick me up from Mommy Hazel’s, my babysitter, about 5:15pm or so and that was right in the middle of Popeye or Capt’n Sacto and I didn’t want to leave. I can only imagine now the feelings she could have had: she was tired, she’d worked all day, she just wanted to get home and here was this little daughter whom she loved throwing up a roadblock to that end! Mom never showed any impatience with me and my whim but I’ve wondered if that might have been a deciding factor.

I don’t remember the particulars of where we bought this first TV or who installed the UHF antenna that was on a long pole attached to out front porch (if the picture was fuzzy one of us would go out and turn the antenna while the rest stayed inside and hollered, “Stop, right there! That’s better! No, go back some!”

What sticks out vividly in this mental photograph was my kindergarten took a field trip to Joanie’s house to watch Romper Room in my tiny front room! We must have walked the ½ mile to my house from the school and all congregated there to watch Miss Nancy look in her magic mirror and chant, “Romper, bomper, stomper, do. Tell me magic mirror who… is watching today!” And then, just like magic she looked right into her magic mirror and saw my kindergarten class!!!

Daddy's Girl

Daddy’s Girl… I suppose that would be a good description of me. Although that may seem strange to some who knew the particulars of my growing up.
I was born when my Daddy was 55! Yes, unbelievable as it is, I am finally older than my Daddy was when I was born. My Mom was 16 years his junior. My parents lived in a remote mountain town without many employment opportunities so when my Daddy’s business failed and then other avenues of employment dried up Daddy left Greenville, and his family, to work. I don’t ever remember living with my parents together, but Daddy came to visit occasionally and I was always so excited when he did.
I recognize now Mom’s herculean effort not to let any of the frustration she felt at being a single parent and raising 3 girls alone affect us, but never made me feel that I came from a “broken home”. We weren’t broken; we just didn’t live together; that’s how I saw it.
I can’t explain why, given these circumstances, I felt so close to my Daddy as a child. I do, however, have some explanations for why I can feel that closeness now even though he has been gone for over 38 years. I never doubted my parents’ unconditionally love for me and death has not removed that knowledge! I’ve been blessed with the gifts of faith and discerning of Spirits (see 1 Corinthians 12:1, 4-11) and I feel his love and presence through the veil that separates us.
Then there are more tangible reminders that I am Jake’s daughter: fair, sensitive skin, a pronounced nose and high cholesterol, just to name a few. Two of the three (sorry, the nose is just there!) have been dealt with in amazing ways (well, maybe some would disagree, but I think they are amazing!)
I got a call this morning from the doctor’s office to tell me that my cholesterol was down to 132 (wee-haw, hip-hip-hurray and thank goodness for modern medicine!!)! I’ve been struggling to get this number under 200 since 2003. It finally took a Rx for Lipitor (insert commercial here) to get this amazing number because oatmeal everyday and other things just weren’t getting anywhere.
The other solution to my fair, sensitive skin has been solved in a less dramatic way, eventually. I’ve been going to a dermatologist this year with very sad results; most Rx just aggravates rather than alleviates the problem. About a month ago Gordon brought home some Sunbreeze Healing Balm that has helped the dry patches on my face, but hasn’t totally gotten rid of them. Anytime I try to use any lotions, even those for sensitive skin, it makes those patches worse. So a couple of days ago I thought, “what can I use to moisturize my skin without aggravating it?” The thought popped into my head, “Go natural… try olive oil!” So for the last two days I’ve tried that and hey, it’s working! The redness is going away and my face doesn’t feel shrink-wrapped!
It is funny how these simple physical characteristics remind me that, yes; I am my Daddy’s girl, in so many ways!

Baby Caden

Don't you just love it when you start remembering all the fun stories that are rattling around in your brain? I do! But, for those who know me, you know that I am such a story girl!!

Yesterday's reminiscencings about Brock (and my niece Sarah's comments about her niece Amy almost eating a beetle!! Ugh!) made me remember some of my favorite Caden stories... so this is his day to shine!

My first favorite thing that he would DO is walk up to me and put his little hands up, just so (ha! I have photographic proof!) and then open and close them to indicate that he wanted me to pick him up. (Now you tell me... doesn't that just melt any Grammie's heart?) Then once I got him up he would gently pat my shoulder. (Just like we did to him!) The happiest thing about this sweet little boy is that at 9-years old he still gently pats my back. (But fortunately, I don't have to pick him up!)







The grossest thing this little guy did was, well, GROSS! Simba, our enormous orange tabby cat had his litter box in the downstairs bathroom. When the little boys were visiting everyone was usually pretty good about keeping the door closed, BUT one day someone left the door open and little Caden went in, opened the cupboard under the sink, found a toothbrush and proceeded to brush his teeth... WITH CAT LITTER! (eewww!)... CLUMPING CAT LITTER!! (triple eewww! notice we skipped the double?) Rebekah had to dig it out from behind his bottom teeth with her fingernail (shudder!)

(This is Caden safely locked out of the cat-litter room!)








On a visit to Grammie's house in December 2000 Caden created the fodder for one of his funniest stories. Buddi, my little American Cocker, just loved "her babies". She would cry with joy when they arrived for a visit. Caden had a little toy stuffed dog that looked a lot like Grammie's Buddi, so he named his doggie, Buddy. Caden loved to chew on his Buddy's nose. So one evening he marched right over to Grammie's Buddi and opened up wide to chew on her nose! Funny thing is, she probably would have let him if we hadn't stopped him.

What a joy to have these happy memories all stored away for future use!!

Head-Banging

Brock was the funniest baby, being a typical redhead he didn’t deal with frustration very well. Now add that on to being 18-24 months old and you have a real combination for hilarious situations! His favorite way of expressing his displeasure with any given situation was to carefully sit down and then bang his head on the floor, ground, etc.; then he would cry. That, of course, made us laugh!

Rebekah and the boys had come to visit us in Palmdale in February 2003. We used to have these wonderful week long visits when the daddies were at work and the mommies just needed some adult company! One of the things that Bek needed to accomplish while she was in Palmdale was getting her taxes done at Foothill Business services. I offered to wait in the car with the boys so we didn’t have to drag them all inside. You can imagine that hauling 3 boys everywhere you go could give a mom a headache (but Grammies aren’t as susceptible to these types of headaches anymore!) I’d given Bek some Advil, but somehow one of them had dropped on the floor.

I knew that we would be waiting for quite a while so I liberated the boys from their car seats. Brocky climbed up in front with me while the “big boys” played in the back. Brock scrambled down onto the floor and found the Advil Mommy had dropped. Did you ever notice that an Advil tablet looks an awful lot like M&M’s? Well, Brock certainly recognized his favorite treat! I asked him to give it to Grammie; he wanted nothing to do with that plan! After several requests I had to take it from him. He was NOT happy. He glared at me and in his most sassy little 17-month old voice expressed his displeasure that I’d robbed him of his M&M! This made me laugh and I told him it was medicine and I didn’t have any M&M’s. Now he was really mad and started to respond in his most frustrated manner… he started banging his head on the steering wheel and in the process only succeeded in honking the horn repeatedly. Being the very compassionate Grammie that I am I laughed hysterically at his plight! What a funny boy!



Sadly, I didn't have my camera with me that day, but six months later I was doing a photo shoot for Bek & her boys. (This was pre-digital camera days for me and I shot 3 rolls of film! Can I hear a big hurrah for digital!!?) This day Brock wanted to play with an old broom instead of sitting with his family for photos. Ahh... but I got the shots. I'm glad he finally outgrew this phase.

(This story was written as part of the SIH class)

Stories In Hand

This week the FREE Stories in Hand class started over at JS.com. It is a totally different format than most of her classes. This isn't how to do digi-scrapping but creating a system for capturing the stories you want and need to tell. This fun 6 x 6" binder (that actually measures 9.5 x 6.5" but has 6x6 pages) is the muse, if you understand me, for my story telling.



The fun part is that it was a hybrid project! (part digi/part paper). I picked up the album at Robert's (gotta love Robert's Crafts, the store previously known as Provo Craft) and got a pink one (what else!!) So when I started all the class stuff on Monday and the course material was all in green and blue (also very cool, but not with pink binding!!) I just HAD to make some changes!



I didn't know, but learned on the message board, that I could open a PDF file in PSE6!!! Yea! I also made changes with the fonts and colors and FINALLY got to use the very cute pink and brown CTMH paper that I've been hoarding for at least 2 years! I am so happy with the results!

But beyond that... it was so fun to paper scrap again... looks like it's a good thing I didn't unload all my scrapping stuff on eBay!!

A Happy Day... A Happy Visit

I love happy days! And Sunday was a special happy day! "Little" Tadgh (who you will notice is almost as tall as his Grammie!!) was ordained a deacon.

My mother, the original Grammy, always made a point of being with her grandchildren on their special days. It meant so much to her and to them. With such a marvelous example how could I do anything different?








We left for church in a lovely rainstorm and by the time we returned everything was clean and fresh for family photos.

(Wait... what happened to the other boys? What happened to all the photos that WEREN'T taken of the Halloween costumes that we'd worked on like house-elves for 2.5 days??? Sad, very sad!!)

I guess that a story will have to try to paint the rest of the photos... but how lame is that?? Rebekah got the bright idea that she and Curt would dress up as Ron and Hermione, consequently I needed to be Professor Umbridge! (Hey! Alice-band, toad, square... do I resemble that remark?) So from the minute I arrived on Wednesday afternoon until the minute we walked out the door on Friday night we worked (yes, like house-elves) on the costumes. We made some very good likenesses of these characters plus Link, from Zelda, Indiana Jones and a J-something from the Star Wars movies. We braided Bek's hair so she would have Hermione's bushy brown hair. Bek even printed of Gryffindor patches for their robes.

When I told her we hadn't gotten any photos she told me "Some lady took pictures of us." Yeah, so do you know her? Are we going to get copies? Hmmm... I guess that is what I get for leaving my camera back at her house!!!

Prior to the Flynn visit I was in Palmdale and I even got to star on Auntie P's blog (see, it really is all about me!!). Now I am on the last leg of my trip... sitting in a Motel 6 in Elko, NV catching up my blog! What a lovely trip and visit with all my wonderful California family!

Roselawn

Returning to Livermore is always fraught with emotion. It usually includes a visit to Roselawn cemetery to visit Tony and Amanda’s grave. Perhaps if I’d lived there longer than 2.25 years there would be more to remember than just those difficult post-divorce years that were closely followed by Tony and Amanda's death.


I am so grateful for the Gospel of Jesus Christ! Where would I be without that hope of a glorious resurrection and the promise of being with my dear “babies” again? I am so grateful for the whispering of the Spirit that came to me on the last anniversary of their death: “Tony and Amanda have been spared the last 27 years of earth-life’s trials.”

With some planning this visit was perhaps a little less emotionally draining than previous ones. I brought a potted mum and my computer. I wanted to record some of my feelings there at the cemetery.


I visited with Cindy on Monday, the day before my visit here, and that is always a uplift for me. Then in the morning before I went to the cemetery Sue and I talked about them and the profound influence their passing has had on so many of the people we interacted with in our short time there.

At their funeral Bishop Probst told a story about a child who was critically ill and the herculean effort to fly the child to the United States for medical treatment. Just before the child was going to fly for said treatment she passed away. When people asked "Why?" the answer was so that many hearts could be stretched and touched. I saw that with Tony and Amanda... from the little lady who made Tony a white bow tie to be buried with to the Cub Scout troop from Sacramento that sold Christmas gift wrap and then brought the proceeds to me to help defray costs to the packed Pleasanton Stake Building for their funeral. There were so many wonderful people who reached out with prayers, gifts, and kind words. There are so many long lasting repercussions from their death that have shaped peoples lives for the better.