Sunday Scripture: Marriage

And they were married,
and given in marriage,
and were blessed
according to the multitude
of the promises
which the Lord
had made unto them.

4 Ne. 1:11
Book of Mormon

Summer Stock: Sprinklers

A sure sign of summer: running through the sprinklers



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Photo Hunt #164: Book

I've posted the picture to the left before, it's a picture of my home-made waffles fresh out of the waffle iron. My family loves them. When I make them they all show up and they want me to make a giant batch so they can take them home and put them in the freezer. They toast up nicely in the toaster for breakfast--they like them better than eggo waffles. For my book picture I thought I'd take a picture of the cook book that holds this much loved recipe. On this same page is "mom's pancake recipe". I might be the cook, but Better Homes and Garden 1977 edition is the author.


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Photo Story Friday: Through the Clouds

Saturday we took the grandkiddies for a ride on "Thomas the Tank".
(For those of you unaware of who this might be he is a train engine featured in a PBS children's television show)



In order to get to our destination we took a narrow winding road through a mountain pass (Indian Canyon). The day was rainy and as we neared the summit of this pass the clouds were sitting in the tree tops.



So of course, a lesson on the water cycle was called for. (My audience were all under the age of 7) I briefly explained how the clouds were so heavy with water that they couldn't get over these very tall mountains so they were bumping into them. When the clouds bump into the mountains it makes the rain fall until they are light enough to float up and over.



As we came around the curve a cloud was sitting in the road right in front of us. I took these pictures while driving so you can't tell but off to the left the cliff drops straight off and there is an expansive view of the canyon. With the cloud in our path and the view to our left if felt as if we were floating in the sky. Honey my oldest grandaughter exclaimed with delight, "Oh grandma are we in the sky!" She wanted to stop right then and there and grab a cloud.

It was a missed moment, we were travelling with others who were ahead of us so we didn't stop. On our way home by another route she looked wistfully at the tops of these same mountains that we were now driving at the feet of and sighed. She made a woeful comment, "I wish we had touched the clouds."






Hosted by Cecily and MamaGeek

Sepia Scenes #10 and Window Views #6: Heber Creeper

The best way to see a country is from the footplate of a locomotive.

~George Dow

This past weekend we took a ride on the "Heber Creeper" a string of antique cars both open and closed pulled by a steam engine. For my Sepia Scenes I took a picture of the engine.







For this weeks window views I took a picture of the windows of the cars directly behind the engine



This is a picture of my grandson, little bear, looking out the window of the train, he had a wonderful time.





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Wordless Wednesday: Cosmo

meet Cosmo, the baby camel, he is just 7 weeks old. We met him at a petting zoo this weekend. He was so charming and friendly. He had the softest of lips as he nuzzled your hand searching for food--I just fell in love.


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Tuesday Tales: Concerning Feet

“Ah, the patter of little feet around the house. There's nothing like having a midget for a butler.” ~W. C. Fields
I don't own the best pair of feet . . .

since my post this morning I have been to the doctors and had an outpatient procedure on my toe. He hit a nerve literally as he was using the syringe to numb my toe. At this moment I am feeling the need for a butler . . . but the only patter of little feet around my house belongs to little bear. but a hug from him is pretty sweet when I'm feeling down. Just as long as he stays off my feet :)

Teaser Tuesday: Sunshine by Robin McKinley

I must be super busy!
This is the 4th week of doing a teaser from this book
I've been babysitting from 7:30 am to 7:00 pm for the past month
I've had two graduations
and I've been planning a wedding
I guess reading just isn't a priority right now
so here we go again:



Sunshine
by Robin McKinley



"I have not turned you." he replied. "In three hours, when the sun rises, you will find that sunshine is your element, as it always has been."

pg 192




I'm in the future in a place called New Arcadia. This is a time following the wars--with the others. Creatures who are not human, such as weres, goblins, vampires. Humans have recovered somewhat establishing communities and keeping the others isolated. But their numbers grow daily. The time of the humans as the dominant species is threatened.


read the review here

Monday Mission: Summer Essay

Monday Mission
May 25, 2009
Kaye

A Preview: What I Did on My Summer Vacation

Summer will be busy and fun this year. To begin with we are taking little bear (in particular because he is just mad about Thomas) to ride Thomas the Tank and have his picture taken with him. All the little grandkiddies will get to come along just because-- This is scheduled for memorial day weekend, and since I scheduled this post to publish it will probably already have happened when you read this. Pictures will be forth-coming.

Our next fun adventure is an overnight stay in a motel with the whole family! It will be the night before the wedding. I think it will feel just like Christmas Eve and the wedding will be like unwrapping a lovely present on Christmas morning. We are all very excited about this happy adventure.

Big Bear did a history fair assignment on a northern county of our state. He learned so many fun things and now would like to spend a week seeing them “for real”. We have made reservations to stay at a campground and from there we will venture out and explore some new and interesting things, including working a day on a fruit farm. We will spend Sunday afternoon looking at tombstones in a small town that was founded by our ancestors. An ancestor scavenger hunt is planned, I think that will be very interesting for all of us.

During July we will once again pull the camping gear to the tops of the mountains and spend a week relaxing and playing. I hope we get to go geo-caching again. The kids definitely want to get the boat and the jet skis out and of course the 4-wheelers. That will be a very relaxed and plan as you go outing. I think I like those the best. I especially love the singing around the campfire with this very musical family.

I have a glimmer—let me repeat, a glimmer of hope that perhaps this summer with J4 getting married and moving out that Mr. J will finally begin construction on that promised family room. He always side steps the issue, so I won’t know if he is sincere until he actually begins. Wish me luck. That would be my favorite part of summer.

In between these planned breaks there will be plenty of moments in the water; water fights, jumping on the tramp with the sprinklers, running through the sprinklers, playing in the little pool, and about 5 baths a day to warm up after water activities. I will be spending hours washing and drying towels! Although each grandchild is assigned a summer towel and I only wash them once or twice a week—it still adds to the wash load.

There will also be the enjoying of cool summer confectionaries; otter pops, popsicles, ice-cream, milk shakes, smoothies and limeades. I just love cherry limeades.

After writing all that I’m ready for summer—bring it on!

And as a special note—Monday Missions will be taking the summer off as well. This is my favorite meme. I love the challenge of thinking of fun and creative things to write each week. I’d like to leave a big thank you to the Painted Maypole who, despite a very busy schedule takes time to invent the weekly mission assignment. Here’s a blogger challenge. Put your thinking caps on and join the fun, Monday missions will resume in the fall.







If you just have time to sit and read (hahaha) here is a post I did about my dad and the Korean War, just because it's memorial day here in the states

there is also a nice memorial day post at Pollywog Creek
and one at color informal

Monday Musings: Gift Certificates

Today’s MUSING MONDAYS post is about gift certificates…

Do you give gift certificates to book stores as presents? If so, do you give for actual stores or online stores? Do you like to receive them yourself

If I know a person enjoys reading and I know where they like to shop for books then yes I do give a gift certificate. I love getting a gift certificate. As a mother and grandmother I often put things like buying books at the bottom of the list and count them as a frivolous purchase. Why buy when you can rent from the Library for free? So a gift certificate for me is a little bit like a gift to a spa. It just makes me feel like the person who gave it to me really knows me and wants me to have a little bit of selfish pleasure.

Monday Movies: How do you watch Movies?

If you play along with this weekly meme then obviously you enjoy movies. But how do you watch them? Do you wait in line for the big premier at the theater? Do you savor trips to the local video store perusing the titles up and down the aisle? Or maybe you only watch them from home as they arrive in your mailbox, inbox, or on T.V. And maybe who you watch them with dictates how you watch them.

I do love to watch a good movie

#1 way—usually reruns on television. I tend to stay up into the wee hours of the morning, but I find especially on weekends that this is when most of the movies are played. Then I get to enjoy them in peace and quiet with no interruptions.

#2 way—one of my kids brings over a video and we have a movie night. This is usually very noisy and requires that I watch the movie again when I am alone. But I do love movie nights with my kids.

#3 way—the most recent kids movie release. On the day of release I am subjected to multiple viewings and usually by the end of the day I have the script memorized. On a positive note Barbie animation has improved 100% since their first movie release, Princess and the Pauper was pretty freaky. Unfortunately their plot lines have not. We had the “Bee Movie” a couple of weeks ago, I did watch it multiple times—but it was pretty funny.

#4 way—the occasional trip to the theater. I save this for movies that I really, really want to see. And I make a special trip up “north” to the city (one and a half hour drive). There I go to a theater with the big curved screen, surround sound, stadium seating and it’s clean. It costs quite a bit for the tickets, the gas, the food and the treats—so I only do this once or twice a year. This year I took the granddaughters to see Coraline. Mr. J and I are going up soon to see Angels and Demons, and of course later in the year we will be seeing Harry Potter. I’m dreading this movie though—I’ve never recovered from the tragedy contained within the pages of the book, my heart has never healed. It’s weird but I still feel the loss of that beloved character keenly and I’m still shocked that Ms. Rowling would do him in. I’ve never felt kindly towards her since.

Sunday Scripture: Mourn

Memorial Day at the cemetery, photo by J1 (click to enlarge)

My harp also is turned to mourning,
and my organ into the voice of them that weep.

Job 30:31
KJV

Photo hunt #163: Plastic

Brightly colored tops will be worn with the brown skirts I made for the wedding. The outfits will be dolled up with custom made necklaces of

fun colored plastic beads.

Thanks to my good friend Ali--doesn't she do great work :)

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Photo Story Friday: Rhubarb Cake

As a sign of spring I posted some pictures of the rhubarb plant that grows in my back yard just as it was poking through. I had some curiosity about the plant so I thought for photo story Friday I would post pictures showing the plants growth. As a note of interest, when we moved into our home 30 some odd years ago our elderly neighbor told us that this stand of Rhubarb was over 50 years old. So we're looking at a plant that has lived in this spot for 80+ years.


this is the rhubarb in the spring just as it's poking through (March I think). It comes up pink and then the pretty green krinkly leaves uncurl. The brown debris is last years plant

This picture was taken about a month ago (so that would be middle of April). You can see that it has filled about half of the brown ring it occupies. It is probably about 2 feet tall here

This was last week. The two men in my life, Mr. J and J3 had a barbecue and night out for the women in their life, J3 barbecued some awsome steaks and Mr. J made rhubarb cake in the dutch oven. This is the fully grown plant. As you can see the brown ring is completely covered, It's about 4 feet tall, I'm not sure how big around it is. That's Mr. J cutting out the stalks for the cake.

Sweetings is 37" tall, she's holding up a stalk of Rhubarb, and when the leaf is trimmed off it makes a great peter pan hat!

The family loves Rhubarb cake and the first of the season is always the best. They had it eaten before I could snap a picture of it in the dutch oven. We serve it warm with vanilla ice cream. It is so delicious. This was the only piece left after the end of the day.

Rhubarb Upside down Cake

5 c. diced Rhubarb in bottom of 13 x 9 cake pan

sprinkle over top:

1 c. sugar

1 sm pkg red jello (any flavor, I like cherry)

3 c. mini marshmallows

prepare 1 white or yellow cake mix pour over top. Bake at 350* 45-50 minutes.

Rhubarb Jam

8 c. chopped rhubarb

7c. sugar

cook 10 minutes, stirring often

add: 1 20oz. can crushed pineapple. cook 7 minutes.

Remove from heat.

stir in 1 6 oz. cherry or raspberry jello. Stir until jello is completely dissolved. set in jars.

last year I followed the directions for freezer jam from the pectin box. I mixed the rhubarb, and sugar and cooked it for 10 minutess. I added the pineapple and the jello stirred in the pectin and then put it in plastic containers and froze it. I like frozen jam better.

Enjoy :)

Hosted by Cecily and MamaGeek

Thesaurus Thursday: Commencement

Word of the day: Commencement; Ceremony marking the beginning of a stage

The "word of the day" is chosen by me. This is an "increase your vocabulary activity" Play the game like this: Open up a thesaurus on-line. Type the word of the day in the search bar. Using the generated words write a sentence, paragraph, poem, story; anything you choose using at least one of the generated words.

Today my youngest daughter graduated from high school. This ceremony marks the dawning of a new stage of her life. It is the onset of adulthood. The convocation was held at the local college. The celebration was filled with traditional speeches, including the proem delivered by the class president. All speeches were surprisingly short and to the point, and even quite humorous. My daughter is in the vocal jazz group and they favored us with four excellent musical selections. I was one proud mama. As a tradition they sing “Bridge Over Troubled Water” and each graduating senior is given a solo line to sing—she sang clear as a bell. The awarding of the diplomas was the highlight of the ceremony, followed by the moving of the tassels and the tossing of the caps! This graduation not only marks the start of my daughter’s independence, it is the opening of a new chapter in life for me, and I am no longer responsible for a dependent child. I have plenty of people to care for—but the primary care is no longer mine. I guess we both experienced a genesis today.