Pictorial "About Me"

My sweet and sassy niece, Sarah, did this pictorial About Me on her blog (you've got to go see hers, she cracks me up!!) and I thought it was so fun that I needed to do it to! Rather than turning this into a game of tag, I will just invite anyone who wants to do this to join the fun!

Here's what you do: type in your answers to the following items on Google Image Search and choose an image to represent your answer from the first page of images. So, here it is:

First Name:

(So it is me?)

Middle Name:
(maybe this is too accurate for who I am!)

Maiden Name:
I got this from some herb place... yikes!
(Magickal Uses: Use caraway to protect against evil spirits. Place in sachets and carry to attract a mate. Bake into breads or cakes to induce lust. A bag of caraway seeds placed in a child's bed protects against disease.)

Last Name:

Age:

Where I was born:
(So sad, no Google images of Dr Batson's little hospital, who'd have thunk-it?)

A place I'd like to visit:
(If you can't guess, it is PEI-Prince Edward Island)

My favorite place to be:

My favorite animal:
(Doesn't this look like my little Buddi-dog?)

My favorite food:

My favorite color:

My first job:
(This is the shortest job ever... one hot August afternoon, dishwasher in this building, but I don't remember the name of it in the 1960s)

(My first real job... at Fotomate in Norfolk, VA in 1970)

One last totally unrelated item that I wanted to add...
What I like to do growing up in the metropolis of Greenville, CA

(Admission: 25 cents, Popcorn- 15 cents, Soda- 10 cents, candy- 10 cents... tough choice when allowance was 50 cents a week!)

Apple-y Goodness

All of my gardener friends tell me that one must wait until after the first frost to harvest apples. That frost/freeze makes them even sweeter.

But what does one do when the weather changes abruptly from fall to W-I-N-T-E-R???? Well, this ONE prayed very hard that the snow would hold off so I could harvest my apples on Monday AND, hopefully, have my trees "naked" before it snows. (I really don't want to lose branches because I have snow on leafy trees!) Apparently I wasn't the only one praying! The forecast was for snow Saturday and Sunday. Thank goodness we didn't get any. BUT we did finally get that freeze!

So this morning I was out picking apples! Back when I was picking peaches I scored a gugalin of fruit boxes down at Ream's! I love to have a standard size box for my fruit (or anything for that matter)! I filled up the back of my little Bug-hauler!! I was absolutely amazed when we filled up every single box I had (14 in all!) and there are still apples on the tree. (of course, you have to be a monkey to get to them. So that counts me out!)

As anyone who has fruit trees knows- getting the fruit off the tree is just the beginning of the work. We sorted as we picked so any apples that had birdie-pecks, blemishes, or got dropped went into one box (that turned into 2 boxes) and the other boxes are the "good" ones. I knew that I would need to take care of the "questionable" fruit today or it would start to go bad. I ended up putting up 10 quarts of apple pie filling and 12 quarts of applesauce.

I love the fun kitchen gadgets that make this process so easy. I have my Vitorio Juicer that puts sauce down one shoot and peels, seeds, etc. out the end. But my favorite, hands-down, is my Pampered Chef corer-peeler-slicer! It really speeds up the job!

I just love the smell of apple-y goodness wafting in the kitchen!! Today I got to enjoy that smell... but with 12 more boxes of apples in the garage I have the feeling that I will be smelling that apple-y goodness for a couple of weeks!

Stories

I wanted to share a wonderful FREE class with everyone. I recently finished a Type+Writer class over at JS.com but now she is offering this class.

What a fun thing to do. I love stories. My daddy was a skilled story-teller, my mom used to tell me stories about "Tell me about when I was born." or "Tell me about when I was two!"

I suppose that because of that start stories speak to my heart. I love the shared stories from other people's families: like Edna and her friend bring home a wringer washer on the trolley (with their husbands hiding and watching, scoundrels!!)

What a wonderful opportunity to record those stories that only we can tell.

Sweater Weather

Today is the first day that it really feels like fall! I got up and the thermometer read 36 F! Now for a lot of you that would be cold winter, but here it is just sweater weather!!

I love being able to drag out all of my snugly sweaters from the other closet. It's like meeting an old friend after a long separation. "Hey, did you miss me? Whatca' been doin'? Where've you been hanging out? (ha ha)"

Of course, I have my favorites: the green one I picked up on sale at Christopher & Banks, my pink 3/4 sleeve from Target that I've had for several years ago, my black-wuzzy mock turtleneck from Costco in the way-back-Palmdale-days... I love them all.

So with great happiness, they come out of hiding to keep me company and put their fuzzy arms around me for the next 6 months. Welcome back friends!

Long-distance Grammie

Long-distance Grammie-ing is NOT for the faint of heart! I happened to catch Spencer at the computer recently when he called me and coerced him into sending me some photos of Riley. It has been nearly 6 months since I saw them in April!

So here are some of my favorites of Mr. Riley... what a funny boy (and so like his daddy).

* Vintage Frames by Katie Pertiet

Cinnamon Gumdrops

Arriving home from a short errand I was surprised to see that Mother Nature had hung cinnamon gumdrops in my trees! I don't remember ever seeing a tree turn color in this fashion before. Instead of the tops being kissed with red it looked as if she'd hung large cinnamon gumdrops, Christmas ornament fashion, from my Bradford Pear and Elkhorn Sumac trees.


Have previous falls been this beautiful? I don't feel like I go through life with blinders on where nature is concerned but this year just seems better, nicer, more colorful than years past.





Each day is a treat for my eyes.

Maple Mountain

Fall is here! And, I love it. I love the cooler days (although we did have a few too warm days this last week) and the chilly nights. But I think the thing I love best about fall are the changing colors. I love the spilled paintbox look on the mountains and the dancing leaves in the streets.

Maple Mountain as seen from Hwy 89 between Springville and Spanish Fork, Ut
(color pop action by PSEFrank)

This year our local mountains have been particularly beautiful. Friday afternoon after running some errands the light was just right so I came home, grabbed my camera and set off in search of the perfect shot of Maple Mountain. I meandered along all the back roads from here clear down to Spanish Fork Canyon and then back again. I found that the best photos were the ones from further away instead of up close.

This very picturesque barn caught my eye. When I got home I had to play a little bit.

New red barn
(color pop and lomo actions by PSEFrank)

But the sweetest part of Maple Mountain is that I am able to see her from my bedroom window. I enjoy watching her change her clothes with the seasons and love her whether clad in her autumnal robes of gold and scarlet or in her white ermine coat for winter.

Captured this evening at sunset from my bedroom window
(color pop action by PSEFrank)

De-Lor-Ee-Ous

Last weekend DeLoris and I took our fourth annual Alpine Loop drive. I love traditions.

HEY-Little Joanie

This was a hard one for me... but I felt compelled to complete this assignment and post it because it bears such strong testimony of the power of God's love and caring for me.



Perhaps by sharing, others can believe in His love too.

The Things You Say