Monkey Bones

Really cute store on Emmi and Tucker that happened years ago but just came to light.  Yesterday afternoon we were waiting for our dinner to get done.   

These could be monkey bones according to what Tucker told Emmi . . . . Read on . . . .    

Tucker was in the basement, Neal was in his office and I was on the couch.  I get a text on the Gertson family chat from Emmi.  She says:

    "Stupid question time.  Those little crispy bits of noodles or bread or whatever that you can put on salads and various ethnic dishes.  What are those called?  tucker told me when I was like 6 or 7 that they were monkey bones and I've never touched them.  I know they aren't now, but I totally believed him for years."

Well, I was laughing so hard and I knew immediately that they were those chinese noodles that you buy in a can.  So I responded and in the meantime sent Emmi's text to Tucker knowing that he would get a kick out of it.  All of a sudden I hear Tucker laughing from downstairs.  I was still laughing myself when he came upstairs.  Tucker said he absolutely didn't remember doing that but wasn't surprised.  Then we get another text from Emmi and she said,

    "Well, he went to South America on his mission so it was totally believable that he ate monkey     bones.  I can still clearly remember the whole thing.  He was sitting at the end of the tabel by the wall eating some spicy looking thing he made.  He dumped these things on top and I asked what it was and he said, 'monkey bones'.  I said no way and he said 'oh yeah we used to eat these on my mission and they're great.  He then offered me some and I got up and walked away."

Emmi and Tucker text back and forth for a while and it was chow mein noodles that he told her were monkey bones.  Cute story!  

February

 We woke up this morning to a couple inches of snow on the ground.  Seems like January but it is already the middle of February.  Can't believe January is over.  Where did the month go?  Honestly I don't like January and am always pushing January out the door as soon as the month starts.  I guess I do that because in my mind February holds the hope of Spring.  It is kind of fun to think of flowers, buds, blossoms and even the grass getting their beauty sleep before the months ahead of flourishing and coloring the earth.  I'm going to take a picture (hopefully I will remember) at the beginning of each month and see how the earth slowly changes seasons.

This was the first week of January 2025.

Valentine's Day

Neal has never made much of a fuss about Valentine's Day.  Sometimes he will bring me flowers but usually our celebration is to go to Market Street and have a nice lunch.  

 We both love Market Street.  It hold lots of great memories from our dating and the night before we were married.  Good place to be on Valentines.

I did send out the traditional $2.00 bill in a Valentine card for each of the grandchildren.  I heard from Mallory and Emmi that they received there's.  Emmi sent me a picture. 

I also took Sprout up to Dogtopia to play with the other puppies.  They were celebrating Valentines with all the puppies.  This is the picture they took of him with the red back drop.  So cute.

I told Annie a story about my childhood and why I loved Valentine's Day so much.  She said she had never heard that story before so I'm going to put it in my blog.  

I remember as far back as I can that every Valentine Day, sometime toward dusk, the doorbell would ring.  Mother would purposely send me to the door.  I would open it, ready to greet a visitor to find no one standing there, but looking down on the porch would be a chocolate heart with my name across the top.  Wow.  Who could have left me a chocolate heart and how would they know my name, that I lived there and actually spell it right.  Every single year for as long as I can remember, it would be the same scenario with the same thoughts.  I'm sure sometime in junior high I must have finally put things together and figured that mother had a neighbor drop the chocolate heart on the front porch.  I think that is why I love Valentine's Day so much.  It isn't a day of gift giving but of remembering people you love.  I surely felt loved by a mother who had so very little money but always managed to make that day just a little more special.  Thanks, mom, for a wonderful memory.

Silent Laughter

 Lynda Ann came by the other day and wanted to set us up with Fandango.  She got it all set up and then I spoke into the remote and said Fandango.  This is what came up.  Well needless to say we double over we were laughing so hard.  When we finally took a breath I said again, "Fandango" 

And this is what came up.  Well at this point we were beyond even breathing we were laughing so hard.

I have to admit that I love these moments with Annie when I laugh so hard I can't breathe and she does the same thing.  We did finally get the Fandango to come up.  Funny times.

Needle

Derek called us the other night.  He was getting a ride downtown to meet with his Broker.  He was sporting an awesome pair of sun glasses and I told him I would love a picture of him.  This is what he sent.

He said this picture was of him as the God of Fortune:  Tai Shen

Loved the pictures of Derek.  He says he has over 100 pair of sun glasses and is going to decorate a wall with all of them.  Notice the gray in his beard and in his hair.  Yup, even though he is the youngest, he is aging along with the rest of us.  :-). Great pictures Derek, thanks!

 

Football

 I would have to attribute my love for football to someone I prefer not to mention in my blog.  With all the negativity that went along with the BYU football games you would think that I would hate them, but I chose to overlook what was going on off the field and concentrate on the game itself and I learned to love it and appreciate the strategic calls of the game.  Not a big fan of college football, more of the NFL and I love the Chiefs.  Neal, Tucker and I were invited out to Annie's to watch the big final game of the season.  It is always fun to go out there because she really makes it a fun time with the big screen and all the amazing snack food.  We all gorged ourselves, that is for sure.

Left to right.  Alex, Hayley, Mallory, Ding Dong (that is his nick name and for the life of me I can't remember his real name - sorry Ding Dong), and Andrew.  Ding Dong in best friend of Andrews.

Left to right:  Lynda Ann, Jeffrey, Mallory, Kassi (one of Mallory's missionary companions) and Tucker.   Neal and I were on the end.

And Neal watching the game with great interest!!

It was a fun afternoon.  Thanks Annie for having us all out to your home.  Sadly, the Chiefs lost.  

A Day With Mallory

 Mallory came early this morning to drop Brinkley and Sprout off at the groomers.  After dropping the puppies off we hopped in my car and drove to the Pancake House for breakfast.  We mostly talked about how close she was to graduation and how uncertainly her future is right now.  But, I know things will fall into place when it is time.  

We had met at the groomers and had left her car there while we went to breakfast.  We decided that both of our cars needed to be washed so we picked up her car and I followed her to the car wash.  From there we went to Costco to fill our cars with gas and then ran in Costco to get some bread.  As you know, going into Costco for one item just isn't a reality.  By the time we left I had spent $105.00.  I just never get out of there for less than $100!!!  It's to laugh.

Our next stop was home to drop stuff off and then I wanted to see if I could find a temple dress that I liked that zipped up the front.  We got in my car and headed to White Elegance.  I did find dress.  Just as we finished up there the phone call came in that Sprout and Brinkley were ready to be picked up.  We picked up two very happy puppies and came back to the house.  I still had one more errand to run so we dropped the pups off in the care of Neal and drove to Leslie's Pastries to get some eclairs that I had ordered for dinner tomorrow at Annie's.  

We had such a FUN day.  I didn't take any pictures except this one of the two pups waiting for us to let them in the back door.  Look how cute their butts are!  Couldn't resist taking a picture of them.  They are such good friends.  

Thanks Mallory for a very, very fun morning spent with you.  I LOVED our time together!  Such fun memories.  

Cooking Soup

 I had a big ham hock left over from Christmas and some extra ham.  I asked Judy if she wanted to spend the day making soup with me.  Of course she did because she loves to cook.  I took the soup bone and extra meat to her house and we spent the day simmering, chopping and making the most delicious soup ever.  We each ended up with 5 quarts of soup to put in our freezers.  We had so much fun.  Neal came up about 4:00 and we had soup and then played bridge until about 9:30.  Such a fun day and evening.

From Hawaii

 Emmi had the opportunity to check off one of her "bucket list" items when she had the chance to go to the Big Island to see an active volcano.  Lynda Ann happened to mention Emmi's adventure to Marissa Mehler, the Relief Society President who also teaches school.    Marissa said that her class had been reading a book about volcanos and wondered if Emmi would be willing to talk to her class about her experience of seeing a live volcano.  Of course Emmi said she would be happy to do that but reminded Marissa that she wasn't any kind of an expert on volcanos but would be happy to answer any questions that she could.

 What a great experience for Emmi to have seen the active volcano and then be able to share that with a class of students.  

Projects from Lynda Ann

 Annie came by the house the other day and brought her Valentine project.  We sat at the table and I was able to help her finish these darling magnets.  I'm always surprised at what Lynda Ann is able to create.  She so reminds me of her grandmother Ross (my mother).  I tell Annie that she has her grandmother's spiritual genes.  Annie will see something she likes and she will immediately figure out that she can make it for a tenth of the price they are asking.  Mother used to do that.  We would go shopping and I would see a dress I liked and mother would draw a picture of it and say, "Oh Hell, I can make that for a half, or fourth of the price."  And she always did, as does Annie.  I'm always thrilled to be on the receiving end of Lynda Ann's projects.  LOVE THEM!

Cutest chicken magnets ever!!

She also made me a Primary bag to haul all my primary lesson materials and crafts in.  I love it!  I will be using it this Sunday.  It is already full of the little crafts and the lesson handouts.  

A New Start

 Tucker has pretty much wrapped up things in Kingsburg and has officially moved to Salt Lake starting a new job with Pella Windows.  He arrived a week ago and unloaded a car full of all the stuff he could cram in there.  He only had two days with us and then flew to Denver Sunday evening to spend the week in training for his new job.  It has been a whirlwind of activities and fun to have him with us for a couple months until he has a chance to get himself settled with his job, a steady income and find an apartment.

This is a picture of the basement after his car was unloaded.

Almost overwhelming :-)

This was his first welcome from the company.  It was delivered the second day he was with us.  

We are happy to have him back in Utah.  Happy to have him feeling good about the future.  He is sad to leave his three girls but thanks to modern technology he can easily keep in very close contact with them.

Fun Memories

 This picture was sent to me from Mindy.  She was, like most of us, remembering Jeffrey.  I believe this picture was taken at one of our family reunions and is a great picture of the three of us.  Our little family.  Annie has mentioned that some times it is hard at family dinners when the Maxfield kids can talk about past memories and kid around with each other.  For her it used to be Jeffrey and now that Jeffrey is gone so are those times of reminiscing with each other and bringing up past fun experiences when they were little, teens and adults.  We miss you Jeffrey.  You will always be a part of us even though you aren't physically here right now.  Thank you Mindy for sharing this photo.