You know you're in Wyoming....

or some other cattle country town when you take your grandkids to the town park to play in the big sandbox area, and when a few other other girls show up with their dog, the dog's name is Chasey. Yep, she's a cowdog :-). And she is constantly at attention, watching kids move around; maybe thinking she is herding them?. And guess what she is willing to chase? Hand fulls of sand that the girls throw with their new shovels from the sand toys Grammie just brought as a surprise. I laughed and laughed :-). Chasey would even do back-flips...

three Richardson kids try out the new sand toys

Raspberries are............. yellow?

They can be.... and taste just like the red ones

and hollyhocks are... white? well, they are in my garden. I bought them color unknown.

And how about those blossums on the pumpkins and squash? Nice...

I sure am liking my gardens beds and would like to put in a couple moer on the west side of the yard - it gets lots of sun now that the one big tree is no longer there.  The squash got put into pots this year, because last year they ran free all over everything else.  Most of the tomato plants have little tomatoes started. Go baby, Go! Salsa in the fall :-)

The Inch Report

Both of my daughters, as well as my sister Jane have been making progress this spring and summer, to lose some weight. When I sent this to Becky and Sue today, Becky insisted I blog about it !
So here it is - the Inch Report from Curves' Ladies Gym - as in inches lost

Here is how it looked since 2/19/2010: and measurments taken at Curves on Tuesday 6 July


Bust - down 1.25"
Waist down 3.5"
ABS down 3"
hips down 4.25"
thighs down .5" - the slow learner...
arms up .5" - fabulous :-)
wt down 24.25


My Total Health and Fitness coach  Dan Wilcox says he can see weight loss in my face (and he has been saying that for a while), and where I have noticed it especially is in my feet. I can see those veins now - no more puffy ankles or edema on my chin bones. My weigh in with him yesterday shows 27# lost and almost all of it fat. Yippie!
 
You will have to wait for family reunion the end of this month for the swim suit view. Living alone, who would take the photo?   LOL

Ballons...

One of my very favorite things to do this time of year, around the Fourth of July, is go to the grassy field, just east of Utah Valley Regional Medical Center and watch the hot air balloons launch. The crowd - big kids, little kids, the grand parents, everybody are invited out on the field, up close and personal to watch and photograph the balloons and their crews.
This morning - I left the house about 0545 - and got there just as the Bank of American Fork was beginning to fill. Miss Pink Piggy is so cute.

A new balloon on the field - at least I had not seen it before - was a bottle of Coca Cola. It was sooo tall! I think they said over 180 feet? For those of you who have not - or even if you have - been there before, the crews  lay out the "envelopes" of the balloons on the ground first

then a fan is used to fill the envelope with cool air next. At least a couple of people hold the "door" open to let the air in

The lady in the white shirt and blowing blond hair was in charge of the Coke bottle balloon and her husband in the red hat and red Coca Cola jacket kept telling the crowd " I never know when she goes inside (the Balloon) if I will ever see her again"

When the balloon is fluffy enough,  the hot air is "shot" up into the inside of the balloon, encouraging it to raise off the ground.

The wind currents were not just right for the balloons to launch off the ground this morning, but they stayed on the ground and let the crowds wander through  and visit them for a while. In fact, there was hardly any air moving at all.

You will probably remember that Gram loved them too and we'd take her Handicapped parking tag and get into the hospital parking area. Am when the balloons had lifted off, we go have pancakes, yoghurt, juice, etc with the Kiwanis group right there on the field.  I am expecting a nurse to come draw some blood for a new life insurance policy this morning, so I was fasting. I hope she hurries up :-)

Remembering our Soldiers

Gram used to send out an email at this time of year, listing the soldiers in our family. Here are the ones I remember and ask that you reflect on their service and sacrifices. Don Cox, Herb, Dick and Ken Garlitz;  Jim Montmeny, Jane Montmeny, Bob Ouimet, Marlin Cox. Gram's brothers Alfred and Don Sneath. Aunt Isobel 's husband Bob Phillips. Joshua Pilch. I seem to remember that Gram could list 14 - but I don't have quite that many, so let me go back further in time...

Job Allen born 1840 fought in the Civil War and was a prisoner of war for a time, Lt. David Cox and his brother John who fought in the Revolutionary War from Grayson County, Virginia. There was a Job Allen, Sr. and Jr. in the Revolutionary War too.

Now for their photos...

Donald Cox, 115th Cavalry, Wyoming National Guard

William Alfred Sneath, Gram's brother. He was a pilot with the Royal Canadian Air Force and the only one of our soldies who did not come home after the war. His plane was shot down over Muelheim, Germany on 23 June 1943. A couple of his crew survived, but Alfred is buried just south of Brussels, Belgium. Here are my notes...

Uncle Alfred Sneath was a pilot in Canadian Air Force and while flying a mission over Germany the night of 23 June 1943, his plane was shot down, over Muelheim.

There is an old Readers' Digest condensed book (I have a copy) that includes the story" Bomber" , a novel by Len Deighton, telling about a night in Germany, the 23 June 1943, and telling the story from several different persons' perspective- the English bomber crew, the Germans defending their country, and the townspeople caught in the middle.
His sister (my mother Jeanette Cox) has a box full of his memorabilia.
The CEMETARY: Heverlee War Cemetary, near Louvain, Belgium, from headstone: Pilot Officer, W.A. Sneath, Pilot, Royal Canadian Air Force, 23rd June 1943 Age 30, (a cross), "They are not dead, Life's flag is not furled."
Lois Ann visited this cemetary 3 times while living in Germany: 1) in 1977 with her mother Jeanette Cox, after visiting England & Scotland, 2) in 1987 with Kenn & Liz Pilch 3) in 1989 with Isobel Phillips & Jeanette Cox, his sisters, and with Lois Ann's daughter Rebecca who graduated from high school that May in Heidelberg.

Donald McGregor Sneath 1918-1977, Alfred's brother. He served in North Africa in WWII.

the brothers - Dick and Ken Garlitz in Vietnam 1969-1970

Herbert L. Garlitz, their father, who served in WWII in France (I think)

Our Civil War ancestor Job Allen, born 1840 in Wabash County, Indiana and died 1915 in Oak, Nebraska. He was the father of my grandmother, Anna Allen who was married to Sam Cox.  During the Civil War, Job was a prisoner of war for over a year at Andersonville prison.

Hopefully I can find a couple more photos - but if you have one of the ones you don't see here, email them to me and I will put them up too. Same deal with a story or more details about one of them that you want to share.

Sharing a birthday - February 25

Today is thoughts of Roots and Branches both. My grandmother and my granddaughter share a birthday.

Lily Jeanette Richardson is eight years old today and getting baptised this weekend. Here are a couple of photos when she was a newborn.



Grammie went to visit her when she got home from the hospital.


Her cousins Dani and Rachel

Now about my grandmother, Anna Cox...
In 1879, in a tiny community in south central Nebraska called Oak, my grandmother Anna Allen (later married Sam Cox) was born. I seem to remember that one of her siblings, Minnie I think, was the third white child born in that county - I'll have to look that up. Her father Job Allen fougnt in the Civil War for the North, being from Illinois, and for a time was a prisoner of war at Andersonville, a hell-hole prison. After he got home from the war, Job Allen married Mary Kenney Chenoweth about 1868. They traveled from Illinois to Nebraska in March of 1871 by covered wagon. It was like a "little house on the prairie" time in their lives. Their first 3 of 9 children were born in Illinois, the rest in Nebraska.

When Anna was 22 years old she married a neighbor man Sam Cox. To get married in 1901, they traveled for a day long journey by team and wagon to Lincoln, Nebraska, the state capitol. Their first baby, Thelma, died of pneumonia when she was less that two years old. No antibiotics in those days.

When they moved to Sheridan, Wyoming, they went by what was then called an immigrant train - household goods and livestock in separate cars, and then the family up front.

(I'll add more of ther history later but want to get these pictures up for Lily)



This picture was taken at a Cox Christmas party. Lois Ann was about five years old and Jane, the frowny one, was about three years old.



Her family called her "Granno" and she lived to be 88 years old. This is a photo of her at her 80th birthday party with her 3 children - Don, Helen, and Cliff. I think I baked her cake.

the new looking furnace room

I now have a new companion for my new furnace - a new hot water heater :-) The date of manufacture on the old one was 1989. So it had lived a long, useful life. My plumber says that some new ones only last 10 years, but he highly recommends these Bradford-White brand ones - the same as he took out. Should get more showers out of it at one time, now too - that is when company is here.




The old one, rusty water, shouldn't be draining this much...

The new one, same brand, and although the floor is stil rusty, the heater itself is shiny with new intake flexible coil lines.
Supposed to be warm enough for a long shower in about 45 minutes this first time.



And many thanks to the Laurels who thought about the single sisters in our ward and brought us each plenty of sugar, pink of course... LOL