Remembering... 40 years ago

Sunday was Miss Fiona's 4th birthday and Grammie has earned the privilege of being the birthday cake baker! I love this new role! But, actually, it is just returning to a very old role; a 40-year old tradition.

My sweet Mama gave me her cake decorating books and tips (because SHE wanted to learn to decorate cakes) so I could make sweet cakes for my children. I've reflected at how very kind this was of her.

This was my first grand attempt for Tony's 5th birthday. He wanted a cowboy and Indians theme for his party. Back then, when money was so tight, the 5th birthday was the first one where we had a *friends* party for our children.

I went and bought a new decorating tip just to make all of these fun balls on his cake.

(This is the same tip that I pulled out Saturday to create Miss Fiona's master-piece featured in a separate post!)

As I scanned and edited these old photos, yellowed with time, I started having memories pour forth from these simple images.

I think this photo is the one that really got me. The casual observer only sees Tony and Bekah with his party cake and cupcakes for his friends party.

I see-

• my old Formica table with gold flowered chairs that we bought or acquired when we moved to our trailer in 1974.
• on the window sill is the start of the first shamrock plant I ever had. Mike had been at a week-long training seminar in Shalishan, Oregon in January and brought back the funny little bulbs for me. It is potted in a Lucerne sour cream container.
• also on the window sill is a start of my Mom's Christmas cactus, tucked in behind my stylish curtains.
• out the window I can see our 1970 Chevy Vega, parked at the curb. It was my favorite green.
• Tony's #17 jersey is one I made him. Mike's favorite number was 17.

And this one of my darling family.

• Amanda is 11 months old, Bekah is 3.5. I love how interested Tony's sisters are in his special gifts and how he is sharing the experience with them.
• our not-too-long green shag carpet.
• my little rocking chair from when I was a tiny girl.

I'm so grateful for these happy memories.


**
And as long as we are on the memory train I had to share these photos of my darling Tony and his 2nd birthday cake.

I like doing things ahead of time... doing things last minute stresses me out too much. Fortunately I learned this lesson early on in my life and usually avoid a lot of stress...

but not this time.

We'd only lived in Priest River Idaho for 3 months when Tony's 2nd birthday came rolling around.

(Isn't he darling? I love his sleepy morning face!)

Grammy, my Mom, got him this red wagon for his special day.

He's put his favorite toys and his special quilt, made by Auntie Ann, in his new ride.

I'd made a fabulous cake for him. It had homemade marshmallow frosting that came up in beautiful peeks with swirls of dark chocolate on the top and sides. I put it, for safe and secret keeping, on top of the refrigerator.

Imagine my disappointment when I went to get the cake and found that the heat of the fridge had melted all of the marshmallow frosting down around the bottom of the cake. Luckily I had it in a cake-cover-plastic-deal and was able to smear the, now milk chocolate, frosting back up over the cake.

Funny story, but here's the thing... Tony was thrilled that his 21-year old Mommie had made him a special cake for his special day.

I'm so grateful for all the memories that came pouring out along with Fiona's special birthday cake!

It's All About My Finger!

 I've said this before, I'm pretty sure that most people really don't care what I blog about BUT since this is MY blog I get to choose what goes here! I kinda like that!

I've been editing my way though my 2016 blog book and have gotten to all of the drama about hacking off the side of my finger last June with my rotary cutter. I took lots of photos, few of which turned up here, on Instagram or Facebook. I save the gnarly ones, or should I say I save my friends from the gnarly ones. The brave of heart can come read my blog book if they are really that interested.

I've added periodic photo updates on the healing process to my book. It is still startling to me how long it took to finally heal. I guess that was a whole-hunk-a-lot-o-skin to grow back. I'm just grateful for a strong and healthy body. I didn't have any infections or complications. I do still have some soreness on the outside of that poor little fingee!

I was showing Deborah and Camille my finger while they were here at Christmas time and told them that previously this had been my favorite finger.

They laughed! Who has a favorite finger? Well, me I guess! I just liked the shape of the finger, the nail bed and slight twist to it. Odd, but there you are.

So this is the healed digit tonight- nearly 7 months later.

I still have a flat, hard spot right along the cuticle where I think it is still trying to fill in that gaping hole.

But this is the one that shows just how much is still gone. It used to be plump on both sides!

And you know I always have a funny story...

We had a spiral cut ham while Spencer's family was here. It was delicious! I normally put the ham bone aside to make split-pea soup but the sliced ham went so fast that I pulled it out of the freezer and was going to slice up what was left. Deb was sitting at the counter talking to me. With my first cut I absentmindedly put the sharp blade right on the nail of that same finger...

Deb said, "Grammie, I'm taking that knife away from you!"

Thanks for saving me from myself sweetie!!

Leprechaun Feet

Dieting finally caught up with me this last weekend. I'm normally a HORRIBLE dieter! I'm miserable and cranky. But, miraculously, I haven't experienced that until Saturday... I was cranky and irritable all weekend long! I mentioned this to Camille and she suggested that I probably needed to add some healthy fat to my diet-

Bring on the avocados!!

What the heck does this have to do with leprechaun feet, you ask? Did I eat so much green food that my feet turned green? No to both.

Rewind to Christmas (yes, I know... I'm moving in the wrong direction!) Stuart and Stephanie gave me a gift certificate for a pedicure at Stephanie's favorite place. I still hadn't redeemed it because my toenails needed time to breath after YEARS of non-stop polish.

In a non-fat way (remember the avocados and don't forget my new obsession with peanut butter and honey toast) to make an attitude adjustment I decided I needed to go to the Temple... so I did. (Sheesh, are you kidding me? Tell me about the stinkin' leprechaun feet already!!) I took my Christmas gift certificate with me so that AFTER the Temple I could finally go get my pedicure (see, I'm getting there at last!)

Before I got in my car at the Temple I looked at the address and saw that it was straight forward enough that I could just drive straight there- no Google maps needed. I found the shop with no problem and was immediately treated to the spa chair pedicure!

ANOTHER ASIDE-

Sunday, when everyone was here for 3rd Sunday Grammie dinner (this month was Leprechaun's feast!) I was holding a somewhat fussy Liam (not a usual condition for Mr Chill!) I laid him across my lap and was patting his back and remarked to Kevin, "Why do babies like this? Do you want someone pounding on your back?" We agreed, "NO!"

AU CONTRAIRE!!

I loved being pummeled by that massage chair! I even schooched WAY down in the chair so it would get right below my neck... Yup, and soaked my skirt!! Sweet little nail lady wrung it out for me!

And even though St Patrick's day is today I still got glittery, green toes. I LOVE GREEN!

I was the only patron in the shop most of the time and totally enjoyed being pampered. Finally I needed to take my still-somewhat-damp skirt and be on my way. I gave her the gift certificate and a tip folded together. She opened it up and looked at me kind of funny...

"This gift certificate is for the nail salon across street."

Maybe I still have some residual brain damage from dieting!

BUT win/win... I get another pedicure NEXT month!!

Laundry Pedestal

You may remember that last March we bought a new front-loading Samsung washer and dryer. Boy, oh boy, are they ever the pip! This model has the a steam feature on both the washer and dryer. Gordon's undershirts have long been plagued with deodorant stained armpits. NOT ANY MORE! It only took one wash on the steam cycle and his *bunders* are as clean and white as new... even the ones that are practically threadbare.

There is only one problem with my new super-dee-dupper laundry-duo... they are too low. My poor old low back just can't do all the bending over so I end up kneeling on the rug in order to move a load from the washer to the dryer. (Guess it's a good thing that my knees still work really well!)

I NEEDED a laundry pedestal... but I wasn't going to pay the $259.99 a piece that's wanted at Lowe's. (Where we purchased the washer and dryer). Besides the drawers in those are so shallow you really can't store much in them.

Enter Pinterest! (Can that ever suck you in if you'll let it!)

I had a purpose so I dove right in. I spent several hours over a couple of days ferreting out just what I liked the best and came up with some very workable and helpful plans. I liked Courtney's take on Ana White's plans that she got from Sausha... yeah, that's kind of how it goes on Pinterest!

Behold... my new laundry pedestal!!

I am so happy with how it turned out! And, for me, half the fun was in the making. I like that there is no bottom shelf so I can easily clean under there AND let's face it... retrieve lost items that always fall behind the washer and dryer disappearing forever!

One tweak Courtney made, and I copied, is the four legs support the pedestal top and the frame is screw right into the 4x4" legs instead of using brackets. I also made my pedestal 58" x 30" x 15 3/4" so I can still hang my ironing board next to the dryer.

I went to my favorite Home Depot where, for a fraction of the cost ($100), I bought the materials. They offer free cutting at my store so I had them cut the MDF for me... I'm terrible when it comes to using a circular saw! And even though I wore gloves, I wore a blister at the base of my right thumb from drilling in all of those 3" screws!

I also discovered that a quart of Behr primer and paint would have been more than enough. (Hmmm... what else do I want to paint smoky-grey-blue?)

(BTW- can you believe this beautiful January weather here in Utah? I feel like we're having a Palmdale winter!)

Once it was all built, painted and distressed Gordon and I moved it into the laundry room but we knew there was no way WE could lift that washer up 15 3/4"!! Enter our wonderful friends (and Home Teachers): Clark, Brooks and even Spencer came to do the heavy lifting.

I dazzled them with my skills of hooking up the washer and dryer AND then getting out from behind them. I told them I'd just climb over the top. They watched me lift my leg to the height of my shoulder and crawl out like a squirrel...  they were amazed. Clark said he never would have been able to stand up...

And I was also needed to shimmy under to level the back legs on the dryer. There are many times when being a short gal is very advantageous! I've never wanted to be tall... good thing, I guess! (Hey, those are good lookin' 62-year old legs! I'll keep them!)

I'm so pleased to have my washer and dryer at this new, convenient height! It has opened up a whole new level of laundry fulfillment!

Nature is Back in Balance!

I posted a pix to Instagram and Facebook last week when my bed went flat... the responses were quite amusing! So maybe I need to start by way of explanation-

'NATURE IS INDEED OUT OF BALANCE"

It all started in 1974 when I hurt my back loading firewood... wait... maybe that is too far back for this post, but a necessary fact nonetheless!

From there I will fast-forward to 10 years ago (Is that any better? My brother-in-law teases me that when I tell a story I go WAY back!) We'd recently moved to Utah and I was called as the Girls Camp director for our ward. I took my blow-up mattress with me, no sleeping on hard surfaces for this Grammie. Shortly thereafter I ran away back to CA because I missed it so badly! And I slept on my air mattress again for the 3 weeks I was gone.

When I got home I realized that my back didn't hurt as much (see I told you this would be important) so I decided to make myself a poor-man's-sleep-by-number-bed. Gordon and I had been sleeping on two twin bed mattresses pushed together to make a king-sized bed anyway, so it didn't impact his bed.

That first mattress lasted for a bunch of years before I had to replace it. The later models just didn't seem to have the lasting power.

Last fall I had a soap-bubble party out on the back deck locating all of the pin-hole leaks in various mattresses of different sizes and patching them. (Whew... this is getting long!)

ANY-way, about a week ago my air mattress, which had been patched, started leaking again. And since my back has been worse lately (lo, these 40 year later!) I decided it was time to get a REAL mattress!

I decided on a Novaform foam mattress, that is similar to the Tempura-pedic, sold by Costco. They didn't have any in the local warehouse so I ordered it at Costco.com and waited patiently on a Rube Goldberg make-it-do situation of leftover foam pieces, two pillow and a foam topper that used to be on the air mattress. I felt like I was sleeping on a trundle bed!

But Monday finally arrived with the UPS dude delivering a HUGE 72-pound box that contained my shrink-wrapped mattress. It took a few hours to for it to "recover" (Sleep Innovations term for getting un-shrink-wrapped) but...

BEHOLD THE BED! NATURE IS BACK IN BALANCE

And I'm not the only one who is pleased about that fact!

But here is the last bit of fun that came with my new mattress... the gi-norm-ee-ous box transformed by the Grammie-faerie into a Fiona play house!

She was a little unsure whether she wanted to go inside to get her new pony but Camille sent me a couple of photos last night of her thoroughly enjoying her new digs.

Somebody's Got a Screw Loose!

OMSH! I think that is me!!

Yesterday I wanted another ceiling fan, this time in the master bedroom. I just like how they move the air around on hot days. Somehow it makes 78* a little more tolerable.

Since I had previous experience last year, I knew that I could easily install this one. But is seems that I'm a little challenged when it comes to the screw part! (Sheesh!) Last year a posted this-

Okay true story… I was installing a ceiling fan today when I lost one of the mounting screws. I looked everywhere for it. Finally I had to go down to Sunroc and buy two screws that would work. I just took off my bra...tink, tink, tink... guess what I found? (7.29.13)

Because of that experience I wanted to be oh-so-careful, but somehow my Grammie-hands just can't handle the job like they used to. I needed to move the bed out of the center of the room so I could install the fan, of course that exposes all of that wonderful, long pile, brand-new, never-been-walked-on carpet that we installed several years ago.

I was very methodical, but, yup, still dropped a few screws, but they were all big and easy to find. Finally I get the screws that hold the cover over the lighting fixture and dropped not one, but two of the three screws! Great coogily-moogily! I glanced around hoping for an easy find, but these weren't normal sized screws they were teeny- not even a 1/4" long! (Are you kidding me?)

So I-

• Got out my high-powered flashlight. Ha! I found one!
• Used the strong magnet on the flashlight... no luck.
• Remembered reading that a way to find small things is to put a nylon stocking over the end of the vacuum hose. Yeah, not so much... I loosened my grip slightly on the stocking and the vacuum ate the stocking!
• Laid down on the carpet to get the horizontal view- erm, no.
• Tried each of the above several times. All to no avail.
• FINALLY, I started vacuuming very slowly and as soon as I heard a click on the beater bar, stopped and found the teeny screw.

I suppose that *All's well that ends well* but sometimes I like to have just a little less drama with my DIY projects.

MY *Awkward Family Photo*

I have to make a disclaimer at the beginning of this post... of all the sewing I did for my kids (and it was tons) this is the only epic awkward fail!

I got the great idea to make matching outfits for the kids and I for Easter 1993. Now there is nothing wrong with that, but the fabric choice... yeah, within a few weeks I began to question it.

And after I saw this photo I think the whole kit and caboodle went to Goodwill!

This is the days before digital... so I have a series of shots taken that are similar to this. I would set the timer, run to get into the photo and then try to look all cool and collected. Fortunately one of the kids 'fessed up that they'd been goofing off in the photos so I did get ONE group shot where we all looked normal... even if our cloths were...erm... interesting!

But look at my darling children! They never complained.

Spencer, 9.

Camille, 7 1/2.

Stuart, 7 1/2.

These photos have produced a lot of laughter in the last 21 years. Now I think I am brave enough to show them to the world...

I just have one thing to say... be kind!

“No lace. No lace, Mrs. Bennett, I beg you!”

Anyone who knows me knows I am a little quirky! One of my quirks is quoting movies/books... it just makes me happy.

While at JoAnn's last night I proclaimed aloud, "No lace, Mrs. Bennet! No lace!" Luckily Stephanie is used to me enough that she didn't even bat an eye. Finally I said, "Do you know that quote?" Her reply, "Something Jane Austen?"

And those naughties at Orem JoAnn's truly had NO LACE! Nor any matte bridal tulle! Are you kidding me? The perk is that I drove to Spanish, got the tulle and could measure an exact amount for the LACE! (5 yards)

Today Grampy and I drove up to Draper JoAnn's to find the lace for Mrs Bennett Lewis' veil, who has her bridals on Monday.

Don't Judge Me...

Let's start with the fact that I ascribe to the adage,

Housework makes you ugly!

Then we will continue with the fact that the top of my pantry is 97.5" (over 8 feet) tall and I am only 63" tall AND I'm not 30 anymore!

So the top of my pantry doesn't get cleaned too very often. But today was the day! Luckily I have a little canister vacuum with a shoulder strap just made for jobs like this.

When we first moved to our house almost nine years ago I bought some beautiful house plants at Home Depot to go up on top! I quickly realized that I DID NOT want to drag the ladder into the house once a week to water them. So I returned them and got silk plants.

Yup this is the view from the tippy-tippy-top of my ladder. You know the place... it says don't stand on this or you will die!

Since I'm not 30 anymore I would rather be on the firm foundation of my knees *up on top* than balanced on the rung of death!

Gordon fetched and carried all of the things I needed:

• damp micro fiber cloth (OMSH was it dirty)
• spray cleaner
• vacuum
• hold the ladder
• is this even?
• is there still dust on the plants?
• I don't care if there is still dust on the plants!

Of course, I decided to do the AFTER I'd already swept the floor. Note to self: Next time do the top first and then the floor...

And by the time I was finished I'd had at least 2 hot flashes and my hair had melted flat to my head...

See! Housework makes you ugly!

An Autumnal Explore

Our sweet Kevin (Camille's-kind-of-Kevin) told us he would be working up at the Timber Wolf today and asked if we'd like to come up for lunch. YES! We always love it when Kevin cooks! We dined out on the deck with this beautiful view and the warm September sun adding to our enjoyment.

As we were leaving Gordon asked if I was up for a drive up the canyon. This time we decided to take Right Fork instead of Left Fork. Right Fork almost immediately turns into National Forest land. It was a perfect fall day for a drive!

The aspens have started changing... this isn't the best specimen but beautiful nonetheless.

One of the things that I like best about this drive is all the free-range cattle. The *alpine air* must agree with them because many of them are enormous! Not fat... just BIG! I convinced Gordon to stop and let me take a photo of this cute mama and baby.

However about fifteen minutes later we came upon the KING OF THE MOUNTAIN! Holy-freakin'-cow-BULL! This dude started giving us the stink-eye as soon a we rounded the curve in the road and we didn't even think once about stopping to ask HIM if we could capture his likeness! He will have to remain in my mental photo album.

I had no idea that bovines could give the stink-eye!

Photo-bombing

I love the new name for something I've done most of my life... photo-bombing.

The other night, after a long day and a not so restful night's sleep, I was trying to wind down and go to bed. I decided to take one last look at the internet on my iPad mini... within minutes I was in hysterics!

First I watched this video which got me started... (the last scene is my favorite).

Then I found these photo-bombing animals on Pinterest by the time I'd gotten to the bottom I had tears running down my face (keep in mind that it was nearly midnight).

I watched video and looked at the photo-bombs again... just for good measure.

But you know what it left me with? An insane desire to have *Pirate Cat* to do some personal photo-bombing just for me...

Aahhh! PhotoShop... I love you!

Snow Overcometh Fernando...

(This is a post that should have been written last month, but alas... you get it now instead!)

Fernando, our new/old truck, lives at the curb and in the snowy nether-reaches of Utah that can be perilous! When Gordon's Contour had to live at the curb we got a parking ticket because we left it, snowed in, for a couple of weeks. I didn't want to repeat that with Fernando so every time it snows I go clean off the snow and then drive him around a little, knocking down the snow so our local law enforcement can see that he hasn't just been abandoned at the curb.

That worked fairly well until this time about a month ago. I did my normal clean-off-the-windows with the snow brush, but since Fernando's wipers were old they didn't wipe too well. My normal routine is to drive back and forth through the parking spot, from both directions, to knock the snow down. On my third or fourth pass I decided to include the mailbox as well so the mail-lady could get to the mail box.

Ahhhh! It wasn't until too late, looking through a badly wiped windshield, that I saw I was headed for a HUGE berm of snow in front of Kidd's house. Well, no matter! I will just dig a little and back out...Famous last words!

I dug and rocked and salted, all in vain! This was on Friday afternoon. When Pam got home she said to Brad, "I see you missed the truck so much you bought it back!" I called and had to admit my silliness and told them we'd get Fernando moved on Monday. It took a tow-truck to pull Fernando out of this mess.

No wonder he wouldn't budge! He was totally high centered on ice and snow!

It was so bitterly cold that day; just standing on the sidewalk, all bundled up, I got chilled to the bone. It made me reflect on those pioneers from the Martin and Willie handcart companies who were stuck in similar circumstances! I don't know how any of them survived that harsh, bone-chilling cold!

On Thursday of that week (1/17) the sun came out bright and clear. Even though the temperature was still in the low teens the sun was a welcome relief. I went out and shoveled not one but two parking spots at the curb for Fernando and an extra space for company. It felt so good to be outside working!

"So Here I Am, Just Mindin' My Own Business..."

"...out for an evening stroll when some *yappy-crappy* little dog outs me! *Yap-yap-yap*  Mind your own business Whitey! Hey! I'm allowed to walk on the public street if I want to!"



"Then this absolute FREAK OF NATURE in plaid shorts comes stomping up to me! Hey! Watch where you're stepping! My legs are fragile (fra-GEE-lay... must be Italian!) but does *FoN* pay any attention? No! And then this huge foot comes way close to me... watch out!  Don't touch me... I have tarantula skills!"



"HA! It works every time! Act fierce and they go away and leave me alone. Now, if I can just get up this curb and into the grass I will be set for the evening of catching my fill of crickets! DE-lish!"

"OH MY STINKIN'HECK!! (hey, I AM a Utah Tarantula!) There's the grass! I can feel it with my front furry feet! Wait! WAIT!! WAIT!!! Something green and long is prodding me ahead! I don't like this! Where did that nice cool grass go? I'm trapped in this tall white thing! Wait... wait... I can just climb up the side! But every time I try there is a 7.0 earthquake and I fall back to the slimey-peach-scented-floor of my prison cell! Wahhhh! I was just mindin' my own business!! Sniff! Sob!"

"Then, and you're not going to believe this, the whole sky goes dark blue! I can distinguish the faint letters... B Y U! What does this mean?"

"Mild aftershocks keep coming in a rhythmic pattern, but I'm holding it together! When all of a sudden the sky lightens and I hear the most awful screeching and wailing from some little mutant FoN beings who go by the names of Zoe and Lucy! Zoe is very respectful and wants to know all about me but that Lucy! Stop with the screeching... you are breaking my poor arachnid eardrums."

"I never thought I would be thankful to see the sky go dark again... but I am! Blessed silence and just a rhythmic rocking motion. (Eeww! I think I'm going to be sick!)"

"Then, if you will believe this, the sky lightens again and my prison cell seems to be slowly tumbling! What is that? Hey I know that! Dried grass, dirt, weeds, bushes... I'm going to make a break for it! FoN starts to leave... but WAIT! No! don't come back at me with that pink-clicking thing!"



"Oh, blessed freedom! I guess I will think twice before I go out for an evening stroll down the middle of the street! It's grass and weeds for all the way!"

**By special request from Tawna! 

CAULIFLOWER...

AND OTHER GIRLS CAMP ODDITIES!

Noelle was given the *top-dog* assignment as *Chief-Cook-and-Bottle-Washer* just 3 weeks before camp (the previous CC&BW had to back-out unexpectedly) so it was a bit of a scramble to get everything pulled together in time to cooking for and serve 330 bodies X 3-times a day! One of the good ideas Noelle had (and she had many!) was to split up the menu and ask each of us assistants to be responsible for figuring out how much of everything we needed to buy for our 2 meals. (10 meals divided by 5 bodies... see how that works?)

Since all of us were novices it was a bit of a guesstimation game... we all just did the best we could using all of the information we could glean from years of cooking and internet recipes. There was a lot of conferring with one another to determine if we really had the right amounts. (Did I even order beans?)

Some of it we nailed right on and others... well, let's just say that perhaps the *eaters* just didn't consume the recommended daily allotment of...

C-A-U-L-I-F-L-O-W-E-R

Cauliflower made its first debut at Tuesday's salad bar lunch. Holy cow... how much do we have left? We cooked up cauliflower and broccoli for dinner that night. We still have some left? We toted out cauliflower and her little green friend for Wednesday lunch and dinner... AND WE STILL HAD IT COMING OUT OF OUR EARS!

By Thursday morning it had become a running joke *somebody-who-shall-remain-nameless* artfully arranged them on the tables as center pieces and announced to the hungry bodies, "Please only take 3 pieces of cauliflower and broccoli so there will be enough for everyone!" Bwahahahahahaha

Tuesday was a VERY early start! Judy, Carolyn and Colin were all up at 4 am (my clock only has 4 pm!) to start the pot roasts for dinner and french toast with buttermilk syrup for breakfast (oh my Yumminess!) Who couldn't like buttermilk syrup: butter, lots of it, buttermilk, vanilla, sugar!

But with all that sugary sweetness there was a bit of a sticky mess to clean up. I made myself a bucket of soapy water to wipe down the counters, but in my haste I accidentally plunged my cloth into the pot of syrup instead!

Now I ask you... can you tell the difference? I didn't even squeeze my rag in it!  But the majority decided that it was unhygienic! to reuse that syrup and down the drain it went! (sniff... sniff I would have taken it home!)

By after lunch those 4 o'clock ladies needed a nap! Judy came out looking all puffy-eyed but she had the perfect solution! Cucumbers! The plain kind, not the stripedy-kind.

We even had Super-Heros (in costume and out) to help us through our week of cooking and cleaning! This cute Super-Hero's auntie seeded and cut up most of the 20 pounds of tomatoes for pico de gallo. THAT is definite Super-Hero status in my book! (Thank you Heather!)

AFTON- aka the Masked Avenger

I like to say that it was like preparing for Thanksgiving dinner for 4 days straight!

And the oddest of girls camp oddities? I just don't have words!

Vacuum ASS-E-CORIES!

Teeny Burros

Along 4th South, by the Harward Farms building, is the cutest family of burros!



I've been watching them for several weeks now and finally just stopped to take some photos with my MPC. These are miniature burros so the babies are truly teeny...



This-day they were gamboling and nipping at each other, naughty children!



The little dark one seemed to be the instigator! Look at his mischeivious little face! He wants to give his friend a *yip*!