25th most popular name is SUSAN!

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Blog spot versus Facebook

I have tried - really tried to get into facebook. I've been given cute pets and fun toys and lots of friends... but I simply can't get excited about it. I finally decided that it is tooooo much and my brain turns off.

I have loved blogging and I quickly found myself watching for blogging opportunities. Although you wouldn't be able to tell it by the frequency of my blogs this last two weeks :-( But it is so fun to read each other's thoughts and share each others excitements. It is easy enough for me to do and other than checking everyone's blogs daily to see if they have added something new, or another fun comment, it doesn't take alot of my time.

I know that I get uncomfortable with new things and any time I have to start joining this or that to even move around in a onsite spot I quickly quit. I click out and off. I am too paranoid to move through alot of unknown territory.

So - all my friends out there on face book - this is where you will find me...sitting cozily in my chair with my computer on my lap writing another blog.

I love you all - I will let today's world pick up steam and move right past me. That's okay - I'm getting to be an old woman and very set in my ways.

Neti Pot

Ever since I started on my diabetes medications I have had an almost constant runny nose. I had always been so thankful I didn't have to suffer with the hay fever Ed has but the end result is practically the same (except when his eyes get into the act)...sniff sniff sniff sniff sniff all day long
S0 - Last week I got me a neti pot! I had watched the Oprah show where Dr Oz and Oprah discussed the benefits of a 'nose bidet' and I watched as a total stranger came out of the audience and with just a little instruction from Dr Oz proceeded to pour water into her nostril from the pot and after about 5 seconds I watched as that same water drained from her other nostril. About six months later they had that same lady back to visit and she said that the neti pot had stopped her sinusitus and constant nasal problems. So I decided I wanted to see if it really worked.

I found one on ebay and ordered it and tried it for just one week. I immediately tried it out with just plain tap water and that was a MAJOR mistake - owwwww! plain water and sinuses HURT!! So then I searched on the internet and found that you needed to add 1/2 to 1 teaspoon of salt to the cup of water to create a saline solution closer to your body's own levels.

Then I poured into the right nostril and after a few seconds the water made its way up my nasal passage through the sinuses and back down the other nasal passage and out the left nostril!! I found that if I could feel it running down my throat I needed to lean my head more to the left. Amazingly there was no discomfort in pouring the water from the neti pot through my nose and out again. At the end I would sneeze and totally clean out my sinuses. And then I had NO drainage for at least 10 hours!!! Wonderful.

What was even neater was Kelly's reply. Ever since he had a missionary companion fly off the handle and sock him in the nose (breaking his front teeth and giving him a deviated septum) he has suffered with sinus problems and sinusitus. I gave him my neti pot after using it for one week and told him to try it for two weeks. If he didn't like it or it didn't help he could give it back to me. BUT, if it did help him he could keep it and I would order me another one!! He took it on Saturday, tried it on Sunday and called me Monday night as he was driving to work to tell me how great it worked!! He was sold on it in 24 hours. I am going to buy me another one and let him have his!!

Mauri says that she just sniffs salt water - I would be interested to know how she does that. It is so fantastic to find a solution to health problems that doesn't involve drugs!!!

Easter Holiday

By the way Kecia - you look fantastic with your new haircut!!



This has been a nice weekend - Saturday we got together with my brother Kelly and his sweet Terrie and four of their five kids plus all of my kids except for Dirk and all of the grandkids and Grandpa Merritt and Jill and Ed and I. We had the party at Shawn and Kris's house because I didn't think there would be room at dads house for everyone we invited. It turned out to be a nicer day though still cool. Amee came too - with a cute boy in tow. Chase of course wasn't there as he is now in the mission field as Elder Nielson. Dirk of course is at Ft Lewis Washington.


We let the whole family search for presents and candy all over Kristanne's back yard. Then we ate and visited and visited and ate ...lots and lots of good food!

Da and Benji came as Dad and Jill were leaving and Jamie and Kelly came as Da and Benji were leaving!!

I simply enjoyed the whole day with my family. I love them all so very much.

Sunday morning Kecia and Glenn and Emma Lynn came to Layton to go to church with Grandpa Ed and I. She was still dressed in her cute bunny jamma's but it didn't take long for momma Kecia to get her all gussied up in her adorable pink fluffy dress














Of course, Emma wow'd everyone at church - she is such a happy baby. It was so fun to have Glenn and Kecia there and fantastic to enjoy Emma for those three hours!! After church we headed back to our house -I invited grandpa Merritt to come have dinner with Ed and I and Kecia and Glenn. I fixed a nummy Easter dinner and even got to use my china!! WOW!! Glenn and Kecia headed back home during the afternoon since they had another party to go to. Ed and I went home teaching at 5 pm and Shawn and Kris showed up shortly after we got back home - they were bringing back Ed's truck home after borrowing it the day before to get a mattress.

All in all, it was a nice weekend. I love you all

Pink ruffles and lace!

Ha Ha Ha Grandma ....you waited TWELVE years for a new granddaughter so you could dress her in pink and lace and ribbons and ruffles....and mommie has naked baby pictures taken!!!

Almost as fat as Emma!

I just found this picture of me - Emma's grandma - taken when I was four months old at a park in Virginia ...I definitely don't have as much hair as Emma does but the grin shows I was a happy kid just like her

Snowmen pickles and evil grandma's!

Wednesday of last week I was in Ogden and ran over to visit with Mauri for a bit. I had managed my day so that I wouldn't wake her up as she sleeps while the boys are at school but come to find out they don't have school on Wednesday and she had been up for almost twelve hours already ...so we visited for just a minute and then I grabbed all three boys (Jerod's early out day is Wednesday) and headed to McDonalds while Mauri headed to bed.

We ordered happy meals with cheeseburgers and fries and choc milk for all three and the boys took off to play.

When I showed up with dinner they headed over to eat. Evidently neither Josh or Jerod like pickles because the first thing they did was open up their burger and remove the pickle. And Josh squealed ..."Look!!! It's a snowman pickle and sure enough it was, it had a body and a head. We laughed and giggled over the weird things we find in cheeseburgers and green snowmen.

So I whipped out my cell phone and took a picture of it. That tickled the guys even more. I thought then Ed is gonna tease me about the 25 cents it costs to email a picture to myself but I'm gonna do it anyway.

As I looked at the snowman laying quietly on the napkin an evil thought came into my mind! I grabbed that pickle and told the boys I was gonna bite its head off!! And so I did!

I thought I was going to have to do resuscitation on all three boys they were laughing so hard!

Another memory with a dangerous grandma!

You Are Cilantro

The bad news is that there are some people who can't stand you. The good news is that most people love you more than anything else in the world. You are distinct, unusual, fresh, and very controversial. And you wouldn't have it any other way.

What Spice Are You?

My earliest memories

This picture was taken in 1948 - it looks like it was probably in our backyard in the Roy Arsenal Villa. I was born in Virgina where my dad was stationed during and after WWII. We moved back to Utah when I was six months old. I don't remember that plane ride but my folks always said that mama and Merrilee (who is 18 months older than me) were green and sick all the way, while I laid on my daddy's tummy laughing the whole trip!

You will be able to tell from the pictures attached to this blog that my mom loved being able to sew matching outfits for her two girls! We lived in Roy until I was six years old.

I remember going to the doctor with my mom - but that memory is mixed up with appendicitis and mashed finger. There were probably two doctor visits in there, but I remember it as one. There is a small child sized ironing board in that memory somewhere - it probably mashed my finger and made it bleed. And then, I had my appendix removed at age 5 and my folks always told the story of them bringing me back home after a week or ten days in the hospital and I jumped out of the car and whipped my dress up over my head to show all my friends the huge bandage on my stomach. I don't remember that. But I do remember bits and pieces of the hospital stay. I remember them asking me if I wanted a wood shot or ether (interesting memory, they probably asked if I would like a shot - I chose ether because I hated shot needles! Another memory is playing on the wheelchairs up and down the halls! I mean how else do you entertain five year olds who are sick and tired of being sick and tired. I remember the ward I was in full of other sick kids probably 8 or 10 kids. There was a BIG boy (he was probably at least 12! who was the biggest baby and would cry whenever he had to get a shot!) I remember the boy in the bed next to me - he had broken his leg and was in traction and had been in the hospital for several weeks... Someone brought me a box of chocolates that I couldn't eat because I was recovering from appendicitus. He had lots and lots comic books and so we made a deal. One chocolate for each comic book. I can remember him asking/telling my dad "But she isn't going to KEEP them is she?" And I always blamed the appendicitus attack on root beer floats. We must have had Root Beer floats just before I got sick and in my mind that is what caused the attack!

I remember the coal bins in front of each house in the villa. They were made of cinderblocks and I remember the neighbor boys daring me to go 'pee' inside of one. I made them promise NOT TO TELL ANYONE....and as soon as I came back outside and proudly said "I did it" they took off 90 miles an hour to go tell my mom!! I should have learned then not to trust those dumb boys!

I remember the layout of our house. They were duplexes...you walked in the front door and you were in the kitchen, which opened out into a livingroom area. I remember watching a tv show there one afternoon (it is daylight in my memory) and the show was about a flying horse - must have been Pegasus! That was in 1952 or 1953 - tvs hadn't become a household fixture for very long before that. You turned right into the bathroom and two bedrooms.

Another partial memory - probably my earliest memory because I was about 3 1/2 years old- was playing house with Merrilee and a neighbor girl. Merrilee was 'mom' and she sent the two of us looking for 'food'. The only part of this memory I really can picture was when we found a can that rattled in the garbage can down at another neighbors house. The rest of the memory is probably retold stories in my head. We were so excited to bring this back to 'mom' and she dished us each up a few kernals of DRANO! We each ate our pretend meal - and started screaming in pain. Merrilee got to mom first and she saw the can of Drano and read the label and gave her vinegar. The neighbor girl ran all the way home to her house and then back with her mom before they got the vinegar into her. I ran into the bathroom and stood on the stool and started splashing water into my mouth to make the burning go away. Some drano hit both my cheek and next to my eye. That is where I got my facial scar from. I don't know if I stopped the pain or if mom had to dose me with vinegar too. The poor neighbor girl had the worst of it all - she couldn't eat any solid food for a full month because her mouth was so badly burned.

I remember kindergarten (the summer I turned six), I remember riding on a schoolbus to go to church (mom and dad were not active but we went to a Mormon sunday school meeting on a big old schoolbus!

Thats about it for really early memories. We moved to Kaysville to our new house in December of 1953, right before Christmas. Merrilee and I and Bruce shared a bedroom - I don't remember Jill sharing it with us so there must have been a crib in Mom and Dad's room for her - she was born in February of 1954 and she would have come home from the hospital in March of 54. I think it was several years before Merrilee and I moved downstairs to a bedroom down there.

redneck mansions

Thanks Mauri for the lead on this one!! Hey guys - these are our new condos that Ed and I just bought in Texas...they are on a crick...we are very proud of our new swimming hole in the front yard...might raise some catfish...we are closing on them soon and will be moving pretty soon - probably about the time Shawn and Kris move to Idaho and Mauri and Ira move wherever...we can't wait! Maybe we will talk Mauri and Ira into moving down here with us but then Ira, being from Montana and all, probably wouldn't like the heat in Texas...DANG!! There's enuff room for the rest of the family though and maybe some cuzzins! We are naming our new community The Redneck Riviera. Look out Hogbody's BBQ

love, mom and dad
ps - yeah, I'm guilty of plagerism...boy and I cain't spell wurth a darn neither!

60 years ago

Kecia gave me permission to blog old old memories. Since I am the only one who can go back with 55 years of memories I think I will try that.. This is all part of my journal anyway. I'll take a few weeks to write it all out so you are bored totally out of your gourd (that has got to be a saying from the 60's!)

I think I will start with my earliest memories and go forward...gee maybe in 30 years my great great grandkids can chuckle over the OLD DAYS!!