A LITTLE OF THIS AND A LITTLE OF THAT

The following came from Colette Amelia's blog:
Have faith...have patience...everything has its time.

sometimes boo boos are wonderful...

Everyone has function.

"It's a sign of wisdom that seeds don't squander their energy all at once, instead calmly waiting until the time is right. Seeds aren't stupid." ~ Midas Dekkers

(We have several oak trees out front and they do not leaf until there is no possibility of snow. Every spring I think they are dead. The trees that are in a hurry often get heavy laden with snow and lose branches. I guess the steady, slow oaks know something. We should take a lesson.)

Yesterday there was an incident in the neighborhood. Cop cars surrounded a house that has been for sale, no one is sure if anyone is living there or not. The police must have had a search warrant because they broke into the garage which contained a huge pile of clothing and a car in there sideways. Sideways! How do you get a car in a garage sideways? The neighbors have heard gunfire a couple of nights but thought it was their imagination, who fires a gun in the middle of the night in this neighborhood? Anyway, I was talking to a woman who is the next door neighbor.

"Don't you want to come to my house and stay tonight?" I asked her.

"No, I'll be fine. I have swords," she said. SWORDS? She has swords?

Today she send me an email: "My swords are still clean and bright!" so no one was "run through" in the night.

I had to close Phil's site off and this was part of an email he had up.

He's a funny one, that kid is. I don't know that I've done much urinal training with him, as they're usually higher and I usually only get him at Church for public restrooms. At least he's a "straight shooter" now that his dooder has been fixed.

Yup, Phil gets some interesting emails.

(This is Google's idea of a doodler. In fact this is a "super doodler.")

I went visiting teaching to Mrs. Bird today and will put her latest escapades on the blog soon. Have a great day, have faith, patience and remember, don't send your leaf's out when there is still a chance of snow. And if you doodler isn't a straight shooter, it seems that you can have it fixed. I'm so happy to pass on helpful information like this.

WORDS TO LIVE BY

I have an extremely smart friend who says profound things from time to time. This was the last two lines of her yesterday's email. I wanted to share it so you could benefit, like I did.

"Have a good day, my friend. We'll be brave, won't we, because what is our other option??"

So I hope you will have a good day today and are brave as lions and tigers and bears, oh my.

THE MOUSE IN THE BAG

One of my favorite people passed away last month. (This is the story I wrote about this family some time ago.) She was an amazing woman. She was afraid of nothing, not hard work, kids with bleeding wounds, teaching in front of a huge audience or most anything else but she had one vulnerable spot. Mice frightened her. She screamed every time she saw one or even thought she saw one. She set herself up for mouse-pranks with her children being the pranksters.

And her children obliged with mouse pranks. She found fake mice they kindly left around the house for her enjoyment. After she screamed, and held her hand to her heart, she tossed the fake mice in the trash, until the day the kids bought an expensive mouse. It had real fur and realistic beady eyes and whiskers. After she screamed she took a good look at it and realized her kids had spent some serious money on Mousie. So, being thrifty, she put him in a bag and put him in the very top of the closet. And then she forgot about him.

Until a year or so had passed and she was cleaning the closet. She saw the little bag, way in the back on the top shelf. What could it be? She opened the bag and screamed and nearly fell off the stool. Then she remembered. Since Mousie was such an expensive and realistic mouse she put him back in the bag and back he went on the top shelf.

You can predict the rest of the story. Every year when she cleaned the closet she saw a little bag and wondered what was in it. Every year she opened it and screamed and nearly fell off the stool. Every year! Until finally one year she had enough and Mousie went into the trash. And good riddance, Mousie.

Let this be a warning to you. Don't save your child's expensive mouse just because they spent a lot of money on it. You will regret it every year until you have finally have had enough and it goes into the trash. Or you die of a heart attack. I'm just saying it could happen. You've been warned.

MARK WON SECOND PLACE IN THE STATE SCIENCE FAIR

This is our grandson, Mark. His science fair project made it to state--held at the conference center at BYU.

He measured solar panel's collecting power by how they were positioned. It was more technical than that. I'm a non technical woman. Mechanical things rust out and quit working in my presence. Cars stall--but first they make funny noises that no man has heard before. Then they stall and have to be towed. Cars never stall or make funny noises for Phil. Mark will probably lead a charmed life, like Phil, because he might know what to do when cars make funny noises and stall and cars simply can't stand anyone knowing what to do. That's why they pick on me. Mark will be a genius of car noises and stalling problems, I just know it. Cars will stall for his wife. That's how it goes.

He found that it does make a difference how the solar panels are positioned! And when asked if he would install solar panels he said if they didn't cost so much he would.

Some of his important wires and measuring stuff. Way too technical for his grandma. I'll bet some of this stuff came right from under the hood of a woman's stalled car, right after it made funny noises.

Here he is conducting his experiments.

And indeed he was not only considered but he took second place in his division, which was: Physical Science--Physics. Congratulations Mark!

Mark is telling his grandpa something very important. I'm not sure his grandpa could hear over the noise of all those kids. They had neat things for the kids to do when they weren't manning their exhibits. Rock climbing, a magician, and here Mark is waiting in line for the Flight Simulator. When asked if he wanted to be a pilot after "flying" a plane he just shrugged his shoulders.

Congratulations to Mark who is redefining reality.

And besides all the technical stuff he's a nice kid and his grandpa and I adore him. Who wouldn't?

Maybe he will put himself through college by installing solar panels, who knows? Or maybe he will be able to diagnose car problems just by listening to the funny noises. That could make him rich.

ENCHILADA RECIPE ON MY COOKBOOK BLOG

Recipe here.

A HANDY EXCUSE FOR ODD BEHAVIOR

Here are a couple of photos of Taylor's new and improved ankle. Now, if one of the screws dislodge he can always say, "I have a screw loose." That will explain many an odd behavior, Not only that but he can blame it on someone else--the surgeon.

GOOD THINGS

Today our son, Taylor, who thinks he is sixteen years old and that jumping down EIGHT stairs won't be hurtful, had surgery on his broken ankle. The doctor put two screws--that look like they are three inches long--in his bone to hold it together. The good news: His ankle is going to be fine. The bad news, he can't walk on it for six weeks. Get well and heal soon, son. We love you.

PS Being sixteen years old is overrated.This is our neighbor, Boyd who is also our home teacher. The little porcupine is his eight-month old grandson who has had hair like this since the day he was born.

And how nice is it that Boyd came to share his grandson with us. Who else would do such a thing? Boyd would, who is the best kind of a friend. We love him and his little porcupine, too.

This is the amaryllis Boyd gave us for Christmas. It bloomed in early February. Now, in March it is blooming again. So far it has two flowers but two more are on the way. What a faithful flower it is. The first bloom is busy making seeds. The last good thing is that I've found a new fingernail polish that I love. It's called China Glaze and is way superior to O. P. I. I bought a red and it lasted five days before I had to redo it. Then I bought a pink and it lasted a week and four days before it needed redoing. The index fingernail had to have a quick redo after day six, not because it chipped but because it wore off the edge from constant dish washing and my repotting the geraniums that I had stored in the basement. Really, this is the best fingernail polish I've ever used. You should buy some. Unless you are a boy and then you should buy some for your favorite girl.

I hope you had some good things in your life today, too. If not, they are a comin', I just know it.

THE GRANDCHILDREN DANCE CELTIC

Tonight Trent called and said that Noah, Willow and Meghan were dancing their Celtic dances at the library. We flew and got there too late to see Noah but did see Willow and Meghan dance. I hardly recognized them. They had curly wigs on--well, not Noah. They did a wonderful job. I got a little teary eyed--as I always do when I watch children performing and since they were my grandchildren it was hard not to get emotional. I blinked a lot.

I wasn't up close so these photos are way too dark. When Willow saw us she grinned and waved. I missed it, of course. But I caught Meghan's smile.Getting dressed in regular clothes after they danced.
Their mom, Michelle in the background, making sure all the shoes and dress parts got packed.

Noah gave us a private recital.

He did a great job.

We are so glad we got to see the kids dance. They really put on a good show--in spite of the fact that some youngster pulled the fire alarm and we were told to evacuate the building. It didn't faze their teacher. "Dance on," was her motto. And they did.

FAREWELL MY SWEET FRIEND

Tomorrow I bid fond farewell to my good friend, sugar. It must be done. "Parting is such sweet sorrow. I hope not to see thee for many 'morrows."

Pam is going to go on this journey with me. Anyone else want to tag along? Come on, it'll be fun. Okay, it won't be fun but try to ignore that part for the greater good. Skinniness. A little skinniness is not only the greater good but lesser too. Let's do this.

SPRING BLIZZARD IN UTAH

Spring in Utah is very unpredictable. My tulips and daffodils are coming up but yesterday they were covered. In snow.

Kramer was very interested in seeing if anyone would come down the street in blizzard so he could BARK-BARK-BARK! After the snow everything was covered.

And then today? Sunshine. That's life in Utah in the spring. It was so warm today I just wore a sweater when we went out. No pants or shoes and socks. Just a sweater. Phil is so understanding.

MY COMPUTER DELETED MY ENTIRE "TO TRY" RECIPE FILE

Thank goodness I printed this recipe off before my computer became a cannibal. It's here.

MRS. BIRD DOES THE LAUNDRY

Mrs. Bird is a laundry genius except for one thing, forgetting to check the pockets of her husband's pajamas. His pajamas are black and grey stripes so they are washed with the black clothes. (Mrs. Bird wears a lot of black--I don't know if I've ever seen her in any other color of pants.) So, when she is loading the washer with all the black clothes, instead of checking the pajama pockets she is thinking, Do I have any more black pants that need washing, and while the washer fills with water she dashes upstairs to check.

Later, when she opens the washer to put the clothes in the dryer she is faced with--once again--little bits of Kleenex ALL OVER THE BLACK CLOTHES. Usually she stands there for a minute and then, after she has sighed a bunch of times, she takes every item out, shakes them, and then, after depositing a billion bits of Kleenex all over the laundry room floor, she picks little bits of Kleenex that didn't get shaken off the clothes and rewashes them.

The other day she had had it. She put every item in a laundry basked, stormed upstairs, hollered for her husband and by the time he came she was outside with a chair and the leaf blower.

"Hi, Honey," he said, going to the open slider. "What's up." With Mrs. Bird for a wife it could be anything.

"Just come out here and hold this." She shoved a pair of black and white pants into his hands. Then she turned on the leaf blower and blew the pants until they were mostly only black. She did that with each piece of clothing he held up. She had him drape the wet clothes over the back of the chair.

By about the second item of leaf-blown clothing Mrs. Bird's husband is laughing. He is laughing so hard he can hardly stand up to hold the clothes.

"Don't you dare laugh, you Kleenex-pajama-pocket-man, you."

This made him laugh harder.

Then Mrs. Bird looked up to see her back-door neighbor, opened mouthed, watching them.

"I thought of telling her what we were doing," she told me, "but it would have taken too long and I had laundry to do. Besides that, maybe she thought we had invented a new way to dry clothes and I wanted to see if she'd try the same thing later in the week."

After all the clothes were leaf blown, her now wheezing husband took the leaf blower away from her and blew all the bits of Kleenex out of her hair and off her clothes. Then she did the same for him. The neighbor now had her hand to her chest.

"I don't think she could see the bits of Kleenex from her yard," Mrs. Bird said. Then she smiled. When Mrs. Bird smiles the whole room lights up. In this case it was the whole back yard. Birds came out to sing. Mrs. Bird's husband put his arms around her and give her a big hug and then he took the chair back in the house, she took the laundry back downstairs to be rewashed and I got a blog post out of it.

Aren't you glad I'm her Visiting Teacher? I will have new Mrs. Bird stories every month. Long live Visiting Teaching--and Mrs. Bird--and her laughing, wheezing, amused husband. And may the back-door neighbor realize what a choice position she is in. There are bored people all over the world who would trade places with her, I'm sure of it.