Sunday, August 30, 2009

Sunday

The middle car girl walked up and she and I spent an hour or so revamping a cute little denim jacket with new buttons and some lace.  She was happy with it and took it home with her.  It is fun to have grandkids visit. 
DH picked another half bushel of tomatoes today, so tomorrow I will be doing something with them tomorrow.  I just have to decide what.  Let me see, I could can them, make chili sauce, make salsa, make spaghetti sauce, make stuffed tomatoes, dry some.... well, none of those really flap my dress up.  Oh, well, I will figure something out.  It is hard to cook for just two people.  Sometimes I think we have a handle on it and then boom, we eat leftovers for a week after something.  We really did cut back on how many tomatoes we planted but the tomatoes are being very generous.  Something will come of them! 

Thursday, August 27, 2009

Blasts from the Past

Today, as I was scalding tomatoes and cutting them up for the crock pot spaghetti sauce, I was listening to the radio.  "Rain drops keep falling on my head" played, and it made me remember how my DD loved that song when she was little.   She would sing it lots.  I think she had a music box that played it too.  Then right after that song they played the "I wanna be just like you" which was another song she liked from the Jungle Book movie.  When that movie first came out, she and I and her cousins all went to the movie house in Kearns to watch it.  We all fell in love with the songs and the movie.    We still like them!  I wonder, does she still like the Raindrops song?

Wednesday, August 26, 2009

Campfire Games

I was thinking this morning about campfire games.  They are so for the little ones and OP really got into the categories game.  She was hollering and clapping and would say something when it was her turn.  She got after Papa for not clapping.  She was so cute and funny.  Lulu really liked them too.  Chev on the other hand is no longer a little one as she stayed in and read the first night then did come play the second night and actually, once she got going, she enjoyed them too.  
I remember my Mom towards the end liked the games too, and she especially liked the washer game.  The one with a washer on a string and everyone put their hands together that out to the other people on each side.  And someone was it and had to guess where the washer is.  I will have to throw some string and a washer into my camp box and try it on the girls if and when we camp again.  

Tuesday, August 25, 2009

Missed One!





Poor Chevy... although she was a good sport about the bug...

Pictures from Camp

Lulu... having a happy time.

OP during one of her happy times.


Jack and OP eating cake! Yum.


Lulu and her marshmellow stick.


Shawna contemplating life in general.


Jack attemping a life changing activity...


An act of bravery by all...


Papa having one of his happy moments...


Jack... lecturing on the fine art of roasting marsh mellows as family tries to follow his thinking...

Hawk Pictures




Here is the pictures I took of one of the red tailed hawks in our elm tree.

Monday, August 24, 2009

Arial Entertainment!

Yesterday, we had three red tailed hawks and a couple of magpies giving us quite a show out the window, playing on the wind currents, diving, flying very close to our windows, landing on the peak of the porch roof and the rock wall and the elm tree.  The hawks are like miniature eagles.  I am not sure what the magpies were doing hanging out with the hawks, but they acted like they were all together.  They stayed here for nearly an hour just flying about.  Very entertaining for us old people!

Friday, August 14, 2009

Food

As I have been making some salads and cleaning veggies and doing the stuff you do after grocery shopping, I was thinking about recipes.  Family type recipes.  My sisters and my Mom were very good cooks and I still use recipes from them, if and when I cook that is.  Today I made a fruit salad from BY, and a dip from MJ.  They all loved to cook.  I don't.  At least not too often.  I do have a few favorite recipes that I make maybe once a year per recipe, lol.  Now days it is easier to buy stuff pre prepared.  Especially when you are cooking just for two.  Here is a list of some of my favorite recipes:
Enchaladas-mine
Chicken and Dumplings-Granny
Fruit Salad-BY
Clam Dip-Mj
Saurkrout and Ribs-mine
Spagetti Sauce-BY
Candied Yams-BY
Corned Beef & Cabbage-mine
Frickashayed (sp???) pheasant-Granny
Salad Dressing-Granny
Fruit Dip-mine
Bean burritoes-mine
Brown beans-DH

Well, that was fun, lol.  Made me hungry so guess I'll go see what's for lunch!

Wednesday, August 12, 2009

Squirrely

We have maybe three long tailed grey squirrels hanging around up here.  They bite the produce!  And we think they are what is leaving all the poopies on the walks and around the house.  Grrrr!

It seems the summer is starting to wind down.  The car girls go back to school in just a couple of weeks.  They are looking forward to it.  And so is their Mom, I think.  

 

Monday, August 10, 2009

A Thank You

Got a card from Marcy and Roe (to us and family) saying thanks for the wedding present.  So, if you didn't get one, you were probably included in this one, if you are part of my family.  
Not much going on up here on the hill.  My desert four oclock is growing so big and has so many blooms on it, it is amazing.  I don't know if they keep growing bigger each year or what.  I should take a picture of it, yes.  I actually have been thinking of doing that, but haven't yet.  I have been pulling weeds, we have been invaded by morning glory the wild kind, what a pain.  I have worked lots out in the yard and it looks pretty good.  Mostly, it is good excercise for me... the only kind that makes sense really.  I hate just walking or something for the excercise, but when I do something, like moving rocks, or pulling weeds, that lets me see an improvement, then the exercise is worth it to me.  
DH's heart and stress test showed no problems, which we were glad to hear.  He still struggles with breathing, and probably needs to be on oxygen more, but is only on it at night.  He groomed the road up the hill yesterday, and smoothed some spots up here so I don't get stuck on my yard tractor as I tootle around on it.  It doesn't take much of a hole to get me stuck, lol.

Wednesday, August 5, 2009

Memories

I was thinking the other day about moving back to my home town from the city.  As a typical teen, I could not wait to "get out of town" and find a "real" life.  Little did I know....
I was twenty eight when I moved back home.  My Mother was sixty two when I moved next door to her.  We became a blended family.  She was part of almost everything we did from then on out.  The kids ran back and forth from her house to ours almost at will.  Jack fell on her step and made a huge lump in the middle of his forehead when he went to Granny's, I think before he could walk.  If I went to the store she went with me.  If she wanted to go to town in the evening for a coke and people watching, me and the kids rode along.  She went with us to pick asparagrass, to the drive in theater, camping, fishing, for rides, everywhere it seems like now.  We kept her company when she had things she wanted to do too.  I think myself and my kids are better off for having lived next door to her.  I know I had a better life after I moved back to the town than I did before then.  
In the end, the next door situation became hard to cope with.  It was hard to try to take care of two houses and contradicting demands on me from people whom I loved and wanted to help and do for.  I wanted to move away.  But, my Mom reacted so adversely to that, we changed our minds and stayed next door to her.  I am glad now, in retrospect, that we stayed and I had her friendship for so long.  
I have been vigilant to not be a burden to my kids.  I hope I have succeeded.  I am sometimes sad that we are not as close as me and my Mom were, but on the other hand, am glad they are independent adults with lives of their own.  A two edged sword, really... I sometimes have an overwhelming desire to be with them and see them and talk to them.  I think about being age sixty five, and the down hill quality of life that is left for me and wonder what will happen when life gets beyond my control.  I still miss my Mom... who was my best friend forever for so long.