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!!

Another Question Thingey

Another Question Thingy

What were you doing 10 years ago?
Ten years ago - I would have been working for John Wilcox as an administrative assistant - John built custom homes and at first I thought - boy it will make me want to sell my house and get a new one but his homes were so far out of my reach it just made it a dream job. I got to help with Blaser's home in Bountiful that won Home of the year for the northern Utah Homebuilders Association. When Ed wins the lottery I want a house just like this!!

5 things on my "to-do" list today :
1-Go grocery shopping
2- Get my nails done
3- Go for my daily 2 1/2 mile walk
4- Go see Jill.
5- Go up to HAFB to pick up my meds - didn't get that one done!! I'll do it tomorrow.

5 Snacks that I enjoy:
1- PEPSI
2- a mini bag of popcorn with extra sprays of butter flavoring
3- brown licorice (I can have 3 licorice sticks a day!)
4- mini three musketeers bars
5- banana smoothie with frozen strawberries and flax seed

3 bad habits:
1- Spending way too much time reading.
2- Procrastinating.
3- Being too hard on myself.

Places I've lived:
1-Ft Monroe, VA
2-Roy, UT
3-Kaysville, UT
4- Cedar City, UT
5-Beaver, UT
6-Columbia Missouri
7-Texas
8-Layton, UT

5 Jobs I've had:
1- Clearfield Job Corps
2- Administrative Asst at a furnace repair shop and at Wilcox Construction
3-Bangerter Trucking
4-Grocery Store Clerk
5-Telephone Operator

5 Things people don't know about me:
1- I loved my drama classes that I took in college from Fred Adams who created the Shakespearean Festival in Cedar City. Because of that love of acting, I was both ward and stake drama directors in Missouri, Vernal and SLC.

2- I am actually a very shy person - once people get to know me they can't shut me up, but until then I am very quiet. I was the quiet one in the family growing up!! Then I married a guy that doesn't talk much at all and so I talk my head off when I find someone who will listen!
3- I had a wonderful senior year of high school - I was president of the AFS Club at Davis High, I was Seminary Student Body Secretary, I was on the debate squad, and I was in Pro Schola (the marching team).
4- I love my husband, my kids, my kids in law and my grandkids. They make life so wonderful. I am very blessed (But I think you all know that) but like Jamie -my life is boring too, but I wouldn't trade it for the world.
5- I had my first stomach surgery at age 4 weeks and my last on six weeks ago!

Tag to those of you who haven't done this yet! :)

Our Soldier is now at Ft Lewis Washington

Well - he has gone - on a big plane in the sky. Actually we left as he was still walking up to the plane with about 150 soldiers ahead of him as they slowly loaded for the flight since Boo needed a diaper change and had been as patient as an 18 month old could be. He was ready to be out of there. Dirk had thought they would be traveling in one of the big green C140's but they had a commercial plane parked out in front of the hanger that we didn't see until they opened the huge doors of the hanger.

Dirk and Da did really well - I think they both have primed themselves for this day and stayed in good spirits knowing that breaking down would only hurt each other. They have so much love for each other and I started to cry a little when Dirk was giving Benji this huge hug before he headed out the to tarmac. Of course Benji didn't have any idea as to why he was being squoze (is that a word?) to death but his daddy is going to miss him so very much.




They had all 319 soldiers plus their families in a huge hanger - thank heavens they had the doors closed and it was actually warm! Da said that when they got there at 7:30 the place was still cold but when we got there about 8:15 it was warm enough to take off the coats. Benji had a great time running around in a corner of the hanger where there weren't many people. He had found some moveable steps when Grandma Porter was chasing him and when he headed back 15 minutes later a couple were sitting on them...he gave them the strangest look - like "what are you doing sitting on my toy?"
There was a little girl about 3 years old all dressed in desert cammo's like her daddy, right down to the boots!! She had a cuddly teddy bear that Boo thought should be his...finally he decided he would be happy with his fish. As you can see in this picture there were lots and lots of people there.

Dirk and Da and Benji were there of course. I rode down with Da's parents, Marilyn and Orson. We stopped at the Fairgrounds on 10th West and picked up Da's brother Mike. Kelly was going to come but couldn't make it. I felt bad later when I realized we went to Denny's after we left the airport and I bet Kelly could have met us by then. Of course, Dirk was not with us by then. Da's sister Michelle and her husband Mike came with their three kids to be family for Mike's cousin Kidsy who has been living with them for several months. She was flying out with the 3pm group so they all came to lunch with us and her mom and two sisters joined us at Denny's.

There was a huge gorgeous flag hanging in the hanger - with a podium in front for several speakers - they all kept their remarks short. The Commander of the 319th was there and talked about how thankful he was for our MI Battalion when his soldiers were sent to Iraq and Bosnia. It was the MI battalions job to make life safer for his soldiers and he just wanted to say thanks. The governor even showed up and talked about how special these soldiers were and what a great job thing they were doing. He said that he had been in Washington DC yesterday and had talked to the Admiral in charge of all our troops over there and told him what a special bunch we were sending to them and that he wanted to make sure that their leaders would be watchful of them and make sure they appreciated the caliber of men and women we were sending. The dignitaries all went out to the plane so that they could shake hands with each soldier as he departed. That makes two governors that Dirk has shook hands with as a soldier.

Marilyn called me abut 6:15 and said that they had just seen Dirk on channel two. I guess they were interviewing the chaplain and his family and then scanned the group and got a good pic of Dirk. I am anxious to see if it is on the ten o'clock news.

To end on a happy note - while the dignitaries were talking they called a female soldier up out of the crowd and had her stand next to her CO. Then they called another soldier up and after he saluted the CO he knelt down in front of the female soldier and proposed - ring and all - let me tell you, the TV cameras came running fast and so they will probably highlight that bit of happiness on each of the channels tonight. It was fun and it gave us a chance to have a giggle when we most needed it. She said YES!

To Dirk I want to say I LOVE YOU. I will miss you and I am so very proud of you. I know that grandma Nielson is the one that taught you to love the flag, and your dad is the one that set the example for military service, but hopefully there is a little bit of me in there saying Do your best, do your duty (maybe that is the scoutmaster speaking there!) and COME HOME SAFE AND SOUND TO US ALL! You are a special man, with a special spirit. Be proud of who you are. You have a terrific little family that loves you very much - we will help make the year go by more easily for them.