I could have titled this "bringing in the big guns" or "spoke too soon."
I felt so good on Saturday that I did too much and then Sunday was not particularly restful.
The bishop called me to a meeting yesterday at 11 am and let me go home 6 1/2 hours later. (I only got to be in Sacrament--the rest of the time was in unofficial meetings.)
After all that I went straight home to my pj's and bed, but that was not the end. There were more phone calls and not enough sleep.
After coughing through the night, I called my doctor back and now I am snuggling down with Cipro and a codeine cough syrup ("do not drive"-type).
Well, at least I finished Breaking Dawn.
The cats and me are snoozing together. (And Dad is glad he is in Bali looking out at the beach!)
See you in a few days....zzzzzzz
Monday, November 16, 2009
Saturday, November 14, 2009
Bronchitis and books
Well, I have finally risen from the dead (bed?) and am feeling alive again. Wednesday I went to the doctor after having slept for Friday, Saturday, Sunday, part of Monday, and Tuesday. The verdict was, "Yes, that wheeze when you exhale is not good. Here is a prescription for antibiotics for your bronchitis. Go home and go back to bed."
So, there I have been. Actually it has been perfect weather for dozing and reading--drizzle and wind. In the past two days I have reread the Twilight series, books 1-3, and I have started Breaking Dawn for the first time.
During the earlier sleeping days I read Patricia Cornwall's Potter's Field, Grandmother and the Priests by Taylor Caldwell (absolutely terrific!!) and restarted the Avalon series with The Forest House by Marion Zimmer Bradley. I'll return to that sequence, rereading Lady of Avalon next.
For those of you who share reading info on GoodReads, I am a dropout. I will be forever grateful to Tricia for Library Thing because that is where I catalog my books. I don't like to reenter them, so I really have not been good at GR. I enjoy reading everyone's reviews and have gotten some great suggestions from them, but I expect my reading log will be on this blog periodically. I wrote too many critical essays/abstracts/summaries in college to enjoy doing them for "fun" now.
I continue to buy books faster than I can read them. The recorded library is currently at 2001, but that does not contain Church books, children's books, or 90% of the paperbacks on the basement bookshelves. Maybe that will be my Christmas present to myself--time spent with the "cat" and my laptop down there while Dad copies our video tape collection to DVD. (He is only halfway through the shelves!!)
Well, time to go back to bed. Stay healthy, family units :)
So, there I have been. Actually it has been perfect weather for dozing and reading--drizzle and wind. In the past two days I have reread the Twilight series, books 1-3, and I have started Breaking Dawn for the first time.
During the earlier sleeping days I read Patricia Cornwall's Potter's Field, Grandmother and the Priests by Taylor Caldwell (absolutely terrific!!) and restarted the Avalon series with The Forest House by Marion Zimmer Bradley. I'll return to that sequence, rereading Lady of Avalon next.
For those of you who share reading info on GoodReads, I am a dropout. I will be forever grateful to Tricia for Library Thing because that is where I catalog my books. I don't like to reenter them, so I really have not been good at GR. I enjoy reading everyone's reviews and have gotten some great suggestions from them, but I expect my reading log will be on this blog periodically. I wrote too many critical essays/abstracts/summaries in college to enjoy doing them for "fun" now.
I continue to buy books faster than I can read them. The recorded library is currently at 2001, but that does not contain Church books, children's books, or 90% of the paperbacks on the basement bookshelves. Maybe that will be my Christmas present to myself--time spent with the "cat" and my laptop down there while Dad copies our video tape collection to DVD. (He is only halfway through the shelves!!)
Well, time to go back to bed. Stay healthy, family units :)
I love seasons
I was asked to post a picture of our colors. Here is the sugar maple in our front yard on a sparkling fall day. The burgundy maple and the golden maple have both lost their leaves already. The sugar was patient and waited for the "real" first frost. Actually, the pear is the slowest and has just barely begun to turn. The tree line in back is completely bare, and the apple orchard is browns and yellows and dropping daily.
Even though we have had our first hard freeze (21), I have not put the garden to bed yet. I am hoping Dad gets a weekend to help before the ground really hardens up. All the veggies are in and stored. We only use the freezer for this because I no longer have a canner (sold it when we left Ohio). We put away beets, peppers, peas, tomatoes, and beans. We'll do the same next year. These seem to work best for us. We ate all the squash, and this year we only had a half dozen blueberries or so that Cami and Lauren picked and shared. I hope there are more next summer:)
Wednesday, November 11, 2009
November 11 memories
Today is Veteran's Day--"the eleventh hour of the eleventh day of the eleventh month"--the end of World War I, the one that was supposed to end them all. Well, that hasn't happened.
But today is also a commemoration of something much earlier than 1918. Today is the Marine Corps Birthday. I have many memories of the birthday balls that my mom and dad went to. Mom always made a beautiful formal gown for the event, and Dad always wore his dress uniform. But the one I remember the most was really the funniest.
My dad had enlisted in the Marine Corps in 1941, before Pearl Harbor, but after his 17th birthday in October. He had graduated early from high school the previous June (age 16), and his parents had given permission for him to join the Corps. He worked his way up through the ranks, and after being a Master Sergeant for the requisite time, he was promoted to Warrant Officer. That was a big step up because now he was no longer enlisted or a staff NCO (non-commissioned officer), but he was an OFFICER. That meant new uniforms, new insignia, and a SWORD. Now his dress uniform was no longer dress blues but whites!!
It was a really big deal the first time he got to wear them to the Marine Corps Ball at El Toro in 1959. Mom had made a gorgeous green satin sheath with a matching cape and she was stunning. I remember Dad going out to the driveway with a sheet to cover the seats of our Ford Falcon so that she wouldn't snag her dress and he wouldn't smudge his whites. They left for the dinner and dance and we were with a babysitter. The ball was lovely, and mom was so proud to go as an officer's wife to the party at the officer's club instead of the NCO club.
The next day one of the neighbors saw Mom out in the yard and asked her when Dad had started working a second job at Disneyland. She was dead serious, and Mom was livid. Apparently the neighbor had seen only Dad in his whites in the driveway from across the street, and she had assumed he was now working in the sanitary department (following the horse-drawn carriages on Main Street with a shovel and barrel) at the amusement park. Suffice it to say, Mom never spoke to her again:)
I have to say again how proud I was and still am of my dad who served his country from 1941 to 1961 in the United States Marine Corps. He was an honorable soldier who was decorated for his service. He received a Purple Heart for injuries received in the South Pacific campaign. He landed on Guadalcanal when he was 18 and fought up the island chains. He was a drill instructor at Parris Island, and a supply sergeant in Okinawa and Barstow. He retired from the service in November of 1961 as a W-2 grade Warrant Officer. He taught me the manual at arms, the ranks of service, and the general orders of the day as well as all the verses of the Marine Corps hymn practically as soon as I could talk. I can remember sitting on the couch with him as he was reading a book, and when I asked him what he was reading he said he was studying to be a tech sergeant.
I love my dad very much and miss him still. He would have been 85 on October 20. He died much too young.
But today is also a commemoration of something much earlier than 1918. Today is the Marine Corps Birthday. I have many memories of the birthday balls that my mom and dad went to. Mom always made a beautiful formal gown for the event, and Dad always wore his dress uniform. But the one I remember the most was really the funniest.
My dad had enlisted in the Marine Corps in 1941, before Pearl Harbor, but after his 17th birthday in October. He had graduated early from high school the previous June (age 16), and his parents had given permission for him to join the Corps. He worked his way up through the ranks, and after being a Master Sergeant for the requisite time, he was promoted to Warrant Officer. That was a big step up because now he was no longer enlisted or a staff NCO (non-commissioned officer), but he was an OFFICER. That meant new uniforms, new insignia, and a SWORD. Now his dress uniform was no longer dress blues but whites!!
It was a really big deal the first time he got to wear them to the Marine Corps Ball at El Toro in 1959. Mom had made a gorgeous green satin sheath with a matching cape and she was stunning. I remember Dad going out to the driveway with a sheet to cover the seats of our Ford Falcon so that she wouldn't snag her dress and he wouldn't smudge his whites. They left for the dinner and dance and we were with a babysitter. The ball was lovely, and mom was so proud to go as an officer's wife to the party at the officer's club instead of the NCO club.
The next day one of the neighbors saw Mom out in the yard and asked her when Dad had started working a second job at Disneyland. She was dead serious, and Mom was livid. Apparently the neighbor had seen only Dad in his whites in the driveway from across the street, and she had assumed he was now working in the sanitary department (following the horse-drawn carriages on Main Street with a shovel and barrel) at the amusement park. Suffice it to say, Mom never spoke to her again:)
I have to say again how proud I was and still am of my dad who served his country from 1941 to 1961 in the United States Marine Corps. He was an honorable soldier who was decorated for his service. He received a Purple Heart for injuries received in the South Pacific campaign. He landed on Guadalcanal when he was 18 and fought up the island chains. He was a drill instructor at Parris Island, and a supply sergeant in Okinawa and Barstow. He retired from the service in November of 1961 as a W-2 grade Warrant Officer. He taught me the manual at arms, the ranks of service, and the general orders of the day as well as all the verses of the Marine Corps hymn practically as soon as I could talk. I can remember sitting on the couch with him as he was reading a book, and when I asked him what he was reading he said he was studying to be a tech sergeant.
I love my dad very much and miss him still. He would have been 85 on October 20. He died much too young.
Friday, November 6, 2009
M&M's and Linus Blankets
Don't you just love M&M's? This idea came from Family Circle, but I made a devil's food cake (of course, it's Halloween!!) and used their idea. Dad and I went to the New York Chocolate Show and visited M&M World on Times Square to pick up 2 pounds of orange candies for this. (No, I honestly did not sort through all the bags we have for just the orange ones, Tom!!) I made this little guy as part of the refreshments for our service project yesterday.
The RS met at my house last night for the 2nd annual Linus Blanket brigade. We made 13 fleece blankets to donate to the Project that delivers blankets to local hospitals to comfort children and others. (Ilana and Ronan both received them from local chapters when they were hospitalized in Wisconsin.) Our ward has donated over a hundred this year--crocheted, quilted, and fleece. It is an activity we are very excited about. Our blankets and the love that goes into them have gone to children at Hershey Medical Center, Gettysburg and Hanover hospitals, and Johns Hopkins hospital. Besides our nights of blanketing, sisters do these on their own all year long. We have used them to teach needlecraft skills (crochet and knitting) and piecing and tying quilts. As you all know, this is not work for me, just another way to share my love of fabric and yarn.
Ken, this one's for you
Hey, Ken, you were concerned that the whole project froze in time. Well, here it is, completed just a couple of weeks after the last post in March. The ceiling in person looks like a thatched roof with the greenish grass paper. The circle in the center is for the "palm frond" fan that isn't up yet.
The light in the room is so intense that it is hard to get real color. The walls are a soft green, and the tile is sandish. The dead plants in pots are actually intended. They are naturally drying herbs.
This is the place I like to sit and listen to rain on the sunlights in the ceiling. There are lots of my turtles on the walls and sitting around.
The cats love the room during the day. They curl up with the Hawaiian teddy bears.
My wonderful husband did in fact put up the paneling that made the whole room look just like the Hawaiian lanai I wanted to recreate. I love him!
There is plenty of space on the two slanted side walls and the tall back wall above the paneling for my Hawaiian quilts to be displayed (assuming I finish them someday!!) I have a trickly water fountain and music from Keali'i Reichel in the background. It is a great room for quiet thought.
Wednesday, November 4, 2009
Yes, I know, it's been 8 months--oh, well
(I will catch up on those 8 months another time.)
I have been thinking all day about this date 42 years ago. On Saturday, November 4, 1967, I was baptized at the Pasadena Stake Center by my fiancee, and my best friend.
Three weeks earlier, on Sunday, October 15, (my 20th birthday) we were engaged outside the Los Angeles Temple. At the time, Dad said he wanted me to know he wanted to marry me whether I joined the Church or not.
The Saturday of my baptism was really hectic because we (UCLA) had a late afternoon home football game in the LA Coliseum. Because I was on the Rally Committee that set up all the half-time card stunts that meant going to the game first thing in the morning. Since we were going to have to leave early to get to the stake baptismal service by 7 pm, Dad came over to the dorm in the 55 Chevy to pick me up and go to his first Pac 10 game. I honestly don't remember who we were playing, but we left as the game was tied and had to listen to it in the car on the way back to Pasadena.
I think we must have won because I do remember being in a great mood.
The only one I knew at the service was Dad. Like all stake baptisms in California, there seemed to be dozens of children. I was the only adult. I was confirmed at the same service, and the blessing I received from my sweetheart was the most beautiful one I have ever heard. It was quite prophetic, too.
A year and a half later, after we had been married in the same Stake Center, become pregnant with Eddie, and were preparing to go to the LA temple to be sealed, I received my patriarchal blessing. In that, the patriarch in the Los Angeles Stake, whom I had never met before, pronounced some of the same words of promise and blessing on me that I had received at my confirmation. That was the strongest testimony to me that the Church was true that I had ever experienced.
And two years later those words came back to me as I drove through the night to the Memphis hospital where an ambulance had taken Dad after his hand accident. The comfort that my Heavenly Father had known what I was going to face years away from the first blessing (and other times since) sustained me during that difficult time.
I am so grateful for a young man who believed what he had learned and practiced in his own youth, and who shared that with me. We have had such a blessed life together, and the family we created is our greatest joy.
I have been thinking all day about this date 42 years ago. On Saturday, November 4, 1967, I was baptized at the Pasadena Stake Center by my fiancee, and my best friend.
Three weeks earlier, on Sunday, October 15, (my 20th birthday) we were engaged outside the Los Angeles Temple. At the time, Dad said he wanted me to know he wanted to marry me whether I joined the Church or not.
The Saturday of my baptism was really hectic because we (UCLA) had a late afternoon home football game in the LA Coliseum. Because I was on the Rally Committee that set up all the half-time card stunts that meant going to the game first thing in the morning. Since we were going to have to leave early to get to the stake baptismal service by 7 pm, Dad came over to the dorm in the 55 Chevy to pick me up and go to his first Pac 10 game. I honestly don't remember who we were playing, but we left as the game was tied and had to listen to it in the car on the way back to Pasadena.
I think we must have won because I do remember being in a great mood.
The only one I knew at the service was Dad. Like all stake baptisms in California, there seemed to be dozens of children. I was the only adult. I was confirmed at the same service, and the blessing I received from my sweetheart was the most beautiful one I have ever heard. It was quite prophetic, too.
A year and a half later, after we had been married in the same Stake Center, become pregnant with Eddie, and were preparing to go to the LA temple to be sealed, I received my patriarchal blessing. In that, the patriarch in the Los Angeles Stake, whom I had never met before, pronounced some of the same words of promise and blessing on me that I had received at my confirmation. That was the strongest testimony to me that the Church was true that I had ever experienced.
And two years later those words came back to me as I drove through the night to the Memphis hospital where an ambulance had taken Dad after his hand accident. The comfort that my Heavenly Father had known what I was going to face years away from the first blessing (and other times since) sustained me during that difficult time.
I am so grateful for a young man who believed what he had learned and practiced in his own youth, and who shared that with me. We have had such a blessed life together, and the family we created is our greatest joy.
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