River and Desmond’s special day coming up on March 1st. Darling invitations, Lyndsy!

 

A Hayley creation

Lynda Ann shared this with me and I had to post it.  Hayley’s vocabulary far exceeds my own and her creativity is amazing.  Annie had the kids make Valentines for their friends and Hayley made one for Derek, Emmi’s missionary.  Below is the valentine.  I love the sentence:  “I admire your persistense and determination”.  What a great Valentine, Hayley! 

Memories of Mother

How grateful I am that Lynda Ann is a memorabilia person!  I mentioned to her that our theme for our Stake Women’s Conference is around pioneers.  We want to display home made quilts.  I mentioned to Annie that I would like to display the quilt that her grandmother and Aunt Lila quilted for her.  It is white Satan with the temple quilted in the middle of it.  She said I could certainly borrow it and wondered if I wanted the other ones she had.  I was surprised that she had some.  She had two more quilts.  She reminded me that mother had her lay on a piece of butcher paper and traced around her.  Using that pattern she appliqued a little girl, representing Annie, in the center of the quilt.  Oh the memories that came flooding back.  Thank you Annie, for taking such good care of them.  They will be passed down to your daughters some day.  I will take a picture of the temple quilt when I get it displayed and can get the full pattern of the temple on camera.

Valentine’s Day

I do love this day.  Mostly because of the tradition of my mother.  There was always a chocolate heart with my name on it left secretly on the front porch with a door bell ring.  Sad that we don’t do that anymore.  I remembering running home made paper Valentine’s around to my friends.  Sneaking up to the door, laying the Valentine on the porch, ringing the door bell and running as fast as I could my legs to move.  You never, never wanted anyone to know who had left that Valentine.  We didn’t sign them but the message was what was important and conveyed our friendship.  I often asked mother who left the valentine and she always said she had no idea.  Too bad that when I was older that I didn’t ask her.  I shall never know who left those chocolate hearts on my front porch!

From my love.  This was the best card ever.  It played the Peanuts theme song with four bubble pops at the end.  Of course, the Talbot’s card, the box of chocolates and the roses were all wonderful bonuses. 

We also went to Market Street Grill for a bite to eat.  Ended up running into Jim and Bonnie Parkin and the Tates.  No surprise that Neal would run into people he knew!

Mallory’s picture of her and Gam

As I look at it, the resemblance isn’t too bad!  Ha Ha  Mallory was going through some of her stuff and found this picture and sent it to me.  I don’t know the age Mallory was when she painted this picture.

I love that we can send pictures to each other through the phones.  Modern technology is wonderful!  \

So is modern art! 

A darling picture of our honors, high school senior granddaughter!

Great picture Emmi!

Andrew’s cub scout banquet.

Andrew had his first cub scout banquet and invited Neal and I to come.  Neal had just finished a neckerchief slide and decided to give it to Andrew.  Andrew was thrilled with it and Annie said that he wore his scout uniform to school the next day just so he could wear the neckerchief slide and show it off.  Andrew achieved all kinds of awards and is well into scouting much to his grandpa’s excitement.  Way to achieve a gold and 6 silver arrows along with three other awards!  Nice job Andrew.  Keep it up!

A close up of the slide Pa carved and painted. 

I won $50.00!!

Every year at work we have a football chart and you can buy squares.  Two years ago I won $25.00 but this year was even better.  The pay off is by the quarter score and I won the first quarter.  Maybe I’ll take Neal out to dinner!  Of course I was cheering for Seattle and they won!  So my team won and I won.  Can’t ask for better than that!

Once a month get-togethers

As a family, we decided at Christmas that we would all get together once a month. It was unanimous that it be the first Saturday of the month.  Well, January rolled around and no one was available including Neal and I so we missed the first month.  But today is February 1st and we held our first gathering.  It was kind of sparse, but we all knew that it would probably be that way taking into consideration all of our busy schedules. 

Today we had all the Gertsons, Cutlers were represented by Maren, Brock and Mr. Boston, and the Goss’s were all here.  I served lasagna, garlic bread and a tossed green salad. I also did something I rarely do and that was serve on paper plates!  Yup, I decided to go really casual.  I’m not sure any one noticed or was bothered by it.  Boy did it ever make cleaning up easy. 

It was fun to visit and get caught up on each others lives.  We had just enough time to play a few round of Six Handed Rook before everyone had to leave.  Oh yes, Jeff won the game today!

The first picture is of Andrew who made a hat out of the building blocks.  Wonderful imaginations!

Neal and Ron twins!

Thursday evening we had Ron and Judy over for dinner and a few hands of bridge.  When Ron and Judy came in, Neal wasn’t downstairs yet.  He was getting changed.  When he came down Judy and I burst out laughing because they had on the exact same sweatshirts by Tommy Bahama!  We did notice that the dye lot was just a bit different but obviously the same shirt.  Too funny.  We had to take a picture.  My goodness, their hair is even the same color!!!

Best movie and best book ever!

Neal and I went to see The Book Thief and absolutely loved every minute of it.  I had to read the book after seeing the movie.  Usually it is the other way around.  I prefer reading the book and then going to the movie but some how seeing the movie gave me a better understanding of the book.  Of course, the book filled in all the missing pieces of the movie.  I would recommend the movie and the book.  Wonderful story!

Found this funny picture that I took of Neal!

This was one of those cardboard pictures at the UVU basketball game that I talked Neal into posing with.  Isn’t he just darling!

Annie’s find

Lynda Ann has been going through all her storage boxes, cleaning and purging and has found some things that have been put away for years and forgotten.  She sent me two pictures that I just had to post.  The first one is a picture that I’ve never seen of the two of us getting off the boat that took us to Alcatraz and back.  Neither one of us remember this picture ever being taken.  Glad she found it.

The next picture is not really a picture but a cartoon that holds a great memory for both of us.  Too lengthy to try and explain on a post so I’ll just add the picture and if you are interested in what it means you can call Annie!  Thanks Annie for sharing some wonderful memories!  And yes, everything has to be a “dam” project!!!

One little act of kindness that has lasted for 23 years.

I know I’ve posted a picture of this Christmas Cactus but I couldn’t help but take yet another picture this year.  I hadn’t really paid much attention to it and happened to be cleaning Saturday and noticed that it was out in full bloom.  Usually it blooms at Christmas but because I had moved it to a new location in the bedroom it was late blooming this year.  A small plant brought to me by a neighbor just because.  That little act of kindness to welcome me into the neighborhood has lasted now for 23 years and each year when it blooms I always think of Gretta McPhie and I smile and thank her.

Tending a happy Desmond

Lyndsy had to work an afternoon and an evening.  As luck would have it, I just happened to be home during the short hours that she needed me.  This baby is one happy baby and I had to share some pictures.  He basically smiles and eats.  That is pretty much his happy little life.  What a darling little grandson!

Neal is busy carving for future eagle scouts

I love Neal’s creative abilities.  One of my favorite things that he does is when he takes a block of wood and turns it into wonderful personality.  Below are pictured three more of his creations.

Changing the china cabinet–remembering Annette

I love how Neal arranges the different sets of china in the cupboard.  It is always interesting how changing the china in the cabinet always gives the kitchen a different personality.  I love Annette’s china and how it makes me feel when I look at it.  I feel a touch of Annette’s personality – her tender side.  The memories of our years together come flooding back.  The way she took care of me, looked out for me and taught me to love music.  I love looking at the china and thinking about her.  How I miss her!

The Gertsons now have bunnies!

Annie said that she had them checked out and they are both boys so hopefully there will be no surprises one morning like Jamie and the girls experienced!  I believe the names are Bunny and Snoopy.  Snoopy is the black and white one and Bunny is the all white one.  Hey Jamie, any advice you want to through out there to the Gertsons? 

Emmi has been busy in pottery and very creative

She sent me this picture of her latest creation.  This is a Mocking Jay cookie jar.  Of course, the Mocking Jay from the Hunger Games.  Amazing Emmi and so detailed.

Desmond’s first smile!

Lyndsy sent me these darling pictures of Desmond and his first smile.  She said he almost laughed right out loud he was so happy.  She also sent me a picture of him snuggled in the blanket that I gave him.  What a cute little angel!

Christmas at Ron and Judy’s

After the basketball game at the U of U, Neal and I were invited to Ron and Judy’s for dinner, bridge and to exchange our Christmas presents with them.  We hadn’t seen them since before the holidays so January was our first time to get together.  We had a delicious dinner, played some bridge and then decided to take a break and exchange our presents.  As I opened one of my presents I noticed a pair of scissors sitting on the top of what looked like fleece material.  My first thought was that Judy was giving me some kind of project to do and it included a pair of scissors.  I slowly pulled out the scissors and started to thank them for what I thought was a really strange gift and all of a sudden Ron and Judy burst out laughing.  Of course Neal and I didn’t get what the humor was until they explained.  Apparently, Ron was wrapping presents and all of a sudden couldn’t find the scissors.  He hunted all over the place, on the pool table, on the floor, under everything but to no avail.  The scissors had literally disappeared.  He finally had to go and round up another pair of scissors.  These presents were wrapped before the holidays so all that time the mystery of the scissors had not been solved and it had bothered Ron over those weeks, wondering how he could have lost them when he hadn’t moved from that spot while wrapping.  Needless to say, we all had a great laugh over that one and for the rest of the evening many comments were made about getting old and forgetful!  They kept the scissors and I got the blanket – which I love!

Cameras flying in the sky?

Last week Neal and I spent Saturday at the U of U Basketball game.  There was an alumni brunch and the basketball game all for the price of (?).  So we headed off to the brunch where, of course, Neal ran into a person who used to live across the street from his parents.  He knew know one from the alumni group but connected with someone from his past.  He had a nice visit and then off to the basketball game at 2 p.m.  It was a good game and we had good seats and Utah won.  After the game we had to work our way across campus to get to our car.  As we were coming down the steps of one of the buildings we saw a young man standing in the middle of the sidewalk with a control box in his hand and high above his head was a small (what looked like) flying saucer.  We stopped and watched and asked questions.  It was a flying camera!  He could control the apparatus and the tiny camera inside it.  Neal and I were fascinated.  I’ve heard about them on the news but never see one close up.  Kind of creepy to think that you could go out in your back yard and someone could be spying on you from above!  By the way, we took these two pictures for Tucker to actually prove that I was at a game and drinking a coke out of a Utah cup!  Who would have ever thought! 

If you look closely at the second picture you can see the flying camera just to the right of the young man and he has the controls in his hands.  The black dot you see on the saucer above me is the actual camera lens.  You can also see that it has four propellers.  Interesting!