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Showing posts from April, 2007

One Fun Day

We all have specific days that are emblazoned in our memories. Some of them are happy days, some of them are sad days, but they are there, ready to pop up unexpectedly. I have one such day spent with my Great-grandfather. I could not have been more than ten years old. We had gone to Blanding, Utah to see my great-grandparents, Grandpa and Grandma Hurst. One day on this visit, I spent working outside with Grandpa Hurst. It was probably a typical day for him. We worked in the yard and picked grapes in the grape arbor. The grape arbor was build around a frame with grapes growing up the sides and over the top so it was completely shaded when you went inside. We went into the root cellar and got potatoes and carrots out for dinner and took them into Grandma Hurst. Then we worked together to make a bug catcher. We made a large flat square pan out of metal and then made a frame for it so it was about waist high for a grown-up. We filled the pan with sugar water and hung a light very close to

My Great-grandma's house

My Great-grandma’s house was huge. It was surrounded by at least 5 acres of land. The grape arbor stretched on for yards and yards. The barn was big enough to house a jet. The animal pens were so tall even Great-grandpa Hurst couldn’t see over them and he was tall. The trees surrounding the house were full grown and offered comfort and shade. At night the air was crisp and clean as we sat and visited and played and ate out on the back lawn. I used to play for hours in the grape arbor. The root cellar was a little frightening for me, I only went down there when an adult went with me, but when I entered, the musty smell of moist earth and stored vegetables was so inviting. It told my senses that there would always be food at Great-grandma’s house. Great-grandpa Hurst had made a box for cutting homemade bread. It was simply a three-sided box; just the size of a loaf of homemade bread with a slit to put the knife in just far enough back from the front to cut a perfect slice of br

Celebrity Look Alike

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You all got me curious. Okay, so my picture was taken 15 years ago, but I don't mind having Rachel Welch and Sally Field on my look alike list. They probably don't look like their pictures any more either. :-) -------------- This is my husband, Lee. They really missed the best look alike for him. Magic Johnson. -------------- This is my middle child, Tori. Jennifer Jason and Fergi. Kewl. She looks a lot like Jackie Kennedy too. -------------- This is my youngest daughter, Celia. She had a bunch of people I have never heard of. Christie Brinkley was a good match, Norma Shearer--definitely, Vanna White--no doubt. Indira Gandhi only intellectually and compassionately.

Christmas 1961

Today, April 20, 2007, we had a bomb scare at the Arizona State Capital where I work. We all went outside to wait and there was a young man there who was visiting the Capital. He had blue hair, parted down the middle with a goatee that was braided with blue beads to match the color of his hair. It reminded me of another Christmas memory. I think it was 1961. We were living in the "Ellsworth house" in St. Johns, Arizona. My Mom gave my sister, Inez, and I several cans of colored hair spray as Christmas presents. She bought us one of every color, green, blue, pink and silver. After opening them Christmas morning and trying them on our hair, which was fabulous dawling, Inez and I decided to spray some on Mom. She resisted so a chase ensued. Inez and I got her down on the floor and sprayed the bottom of both of her feet blue. She then got up and began chasing us to spray both of us when one of us stepped backward and stepped right on her foot and broke her little toe.

Christmas 1956

That year we spent Christmas in Illinois with Uncle Howard and Auntie Patty and their children, Bruce, Cindy, Karen and Craig. As you can imagine, this was a devastating time for us. Mom was, understandably, depressed and trying to deal with the heartache that accompanies such events. I don’t recall anything that happened leading up to Christmas morning, but I will never forget that day. The girls were all sleeping in one room and the boys in another. The girls woke up early and whispered out into the hall to see if the boys were awake. When we realized everyone was awake we schemed to wake up Uncle Howard and Auntie Patty. It must have been very early. They told us to go back to sleep. When our giggles were more than could be contained, they called us into their bedroom where we all knelt down for family prayer. This singular event was so awesome. Uncle Howard humbly reminded us--all that we possessed was a gift from our Heavenly Father--and expressing our gratitude before

Where have you been?

I have been to : --Ireland --Germany --France --Amersterdam --see the Tulip festival in Holland --Norway, Denmark and Sweden --Italy --England with Flat Maddison --Mexico --Cancun with Celia --Grand Canyon with Lee and his Mom, Nellie Bagley --Massachusetts, New York, Virginia, Florida, Texas, Iowa, Kansas, Colorado, New Mexico, Hawaii, Illinois, California, Washington State, Washington DC, Montana, Utah, Idaho, Tennessee, Arizona, Alaska and Pennsylvania --Navajo Reservation --Apache Reservation --Arlington Cemetery --a rodeo --a Phoenix Suns game, a Cardinals game, a Rattler's game, Diamondback's game and a Coyote game --the Electronic Show in Las Vegas --a boxing match with my Dad when I was 8 --Real Estate Convention in New Mexico --Bermuda --Disneyland --the Statue of Liberty --the Eiffel Tower --the Leaning Tower of Pisa --the Arch de Triomphe --the Roman Coliseum --the Louvre --Japan --Singapore I have been in : --the Mesa Arizona Temple, Manti Temple, Salt Lake Temple,

Turning 60.

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Looked in the mirror and realized I was not young and cute any more. You don't say that to people because they feel obligated to say it isn't true, but believe me, it is true. That does not mean that I hate myself, or that I think I am "ugly." It simply means I recognize my maturity of age and accept it with dignity. Now, what did I do for my birthday? I did a tandem jump out of an airplane at 13,000 feet. For a year before the event, I told everyone I knew that I was going to do it. That kept me from backing out. I didn't think much about it until someone died in a tandum jump the week before my jump. I thought about changing my mind, but wanted to try it bad enough that I did not cancel. The day of the jump, Lee and Dan Erwin, a computer programmer from the Arizona State Legislature, went with me to Eloy, Arizona. Dan jumped. Lee kept his feet firmly planted on the ground. We had no preconceived ideas so each thing that happened was a marvel to us. Upon arriva

Dinner at our house

I asked my children what they recall about dinner at our house. I recall eating each meal together as a family. When the children were small it was easy to plan meals around their father's schedule and eat together, when they were teenagers we lived in the small town of Eagar, Arizona, where restaurants and fast food places were scarce. That meant that eating at home was the normal thing to do. I was the cook. The hard part was being creative. I owned a bazillion cookbooks. They were all stollen when we moved in 2000. Strange, the only thing stollen from us was the box of cookbooks with all my notes and favorties marked. Conversation came naturally to us. We did not have the TV on during meal time. My recollection is that this was a relaxed and pleasant moment in our day. Here is what my daughter, Tori, told me. "I remember every Sunday having roast and when we were younger always making Jell-O. In Round Valley [Springerville/Eagar] I remember having tacos on New Years [she me