Spring is here

A few photos from my yard, and of the Young Men and their leaders in my neighborhood who came last night to dig grass out of my flower beds. Yahoo! They were awesome!


What a neglected mess this front step area is. All my flower beds were like that.


A wine barrel full of tulips that I planted last year. I sure am loving the "container garden" concept where I don't have to bend over to weed them.


Yellow tulips beside the front aspen trees


Whitney crab apple tree blossums in the front yard


Ross Maxfield and Young Men at work


Yikes! Look how big that tree root is that was pulled up from around the corner of the house.


The totally awesome Young Mens' crew

Next part of the project is to get my vegetable garden grow boxes built, and haul in a pickup load of good topsoil.

Wisdom for our day

Monday, 20 April 2009

Every time he opens his mouth, wisdom rolls forth… Zen, maybe you remember how much we enjoyed learning in his Sunday School class when you lived here? He always had something thought provoking to say and to remember about how the Savior would have us live. Yesterday was no exception as President David Richards (formerly a stake pres., a missionary with his wife Maryl to the Lamanites a couple of years ago, a temple worker now) spoke about Provident Living in Sacrament meeting.

There are more kinds of addictions than drugs and pornography. Like food, sports, computer time, etc. that take us away from the things that matter most. He spoke of acting on the difference between wanting and needing “things” in our lives. Do we own things or do thy own us? If we go into debt for them; then we are in bondage. Even if we can afford the payments, can we afford the adddiction?

No child should leave our home without knowing how to balance a checkbook. They should have the experience of having a job, even if it is just a paper route, and know how to handle their own money.

Five actions to guide us : 1] pay tithing, 2] spend less than you earn, 3] learn to save, 4] honor financial obligations, and 5] teach your children by your example. “Use it up, wear it out, make it do, do without.” Bishop Sharp remarked that Pres. Richards “is wise beyond his years” . We chuckled, as Pres. Richards is in his 70’s .

Freaky April Weather

What happened to the weather man last night? Must have been trying to get his taxes in on time and then stopped at the local pub.

View out the front door this morning


View out the Heritage Room window


That ol' pony and play house look mighty cold in my back yard


Here comes the sun over the moutains in Alpine... view out my kitchen window


I bet those tomato plants I bought earlier this week are happy I brought them into the living room yesterday. And to think I had a tiny bit of foresight on Monday and gave my yard a GI harcut to start the spring off right. Spring? What was I thinking?? That is Utah weather for you.....

Feeding the baby animals

In response to Sue's blog "Fair spring, where art thou?" I have spent a good part of the day hunting for and scanning some photos to put on my blog, I guess most of what I have of your granddad taking care of animals are in my own memory banks. But I'll keep looking around. I did find this cute one of Jane and I feeding two bum lambs when we lived at the D Ranch, 40 miles north of Moorcroft in northeastern Wyoming, another 12 miles north of Oshoto. (probably 1948-50?) Oshoto is still on a Wyoming map.



The story behind this goes something like this. There was a sheep rancher that lived a little ways from us, maybe 15-20 miles. In the spring, ewes often had twins and not every one was accepted by their mothers, thus the bum lambs. When it appeared that a lamb would need to be fed by a human, he'd call up my dad (yes, we had a phone - of sorts - out there) So my dad would go over and pick up those lambs and as a family - it was probably mostly him - feed them through the summer, and when fall came, would sell them.

Time Flys...

My, how time flys 

Christmas/New Year’s letter still aren’t sent and it’s already March with the Easter bunny on the way…. In Feb., my neighbor Carol Bramwell and I visited the new Draper Temple, then into March - attended the BYU’s Family History Technology workshop, walked a couple of miles in Salt Lake City's St. Patrick’s Day parade, my sister Jane packed up and moved to Denver to accept a regional position with the Veteran’s Administration system, me gone 6 days to see my granddaughter Aimee in Washington DC, where I also helped conduct some business for the American Clan Gregor Society. And here I was wondering if I was a mostly a slacker… maybe not?

Now it is girls’ weekend to supposedly get some scrapbooking and journaling done. I have to keep reminding myself that we are sort of on vacation and if we don’t jump right to the task at hand, but watch TV and snack a lot instead, it’s OK . Becky has already blogged a bunch about the girls’ weekend so I don’t need to get into that. See http://randomlyoddbits.blogspot.com/

Smarter Than a Two Year Old?

So, what'cha gonna do? You have loaned your favorite bracelets to your two year old granddaughter so she can amuse herself while she visits you, tries on the costume jewelry necklaces, and fills a couple of fingers with CTR rings, then dances around the living room, with three visiting neighbor kids. Later, when it is time for her to return to Wyoming, only one bracelet is to be found - the Austrian glass trade beads from Jamestown, Virginia trip with my sister Jane. But not the ropes of silver strands one. So you ask the two year old, and her 7 year old sister, and they smile, but that's not the right answer....

So after the kids leave, and you are cleaning up, shaking out the bedclothes to wash sheets, and looking under the beds, giving those corners of the playroom a dose of your eagle eye, you think - oh relax, it is only a bracelet.... Yes, but it was a favorite. I don’t even remember how long I have had it - maybe purchased in Sheridan, Wyoming at Kraft's Jewelers when I bought some other Indian jewelry a long time ago. Buck up, just go get another one. But (in a whiney voice) it has been fun to wear it every day, reminding me that I am retired and no longer have the "no jewelry" restriction of working at the hospital and wearing scrubs.

Well, tomorrow is Sunday and I should vacuum one more time down here where the kids were playing and eating potato chips. Becky said something about Connor hiding his baby sister Emma's binky clip in one of his toys. You know how it is when you have to move toys to get the crud out from under them - surely not, but let's look in the trunk of the riding car. Glory Be! What is that shiny thing sticking out of the pencil case?? Halleluiah! It is my bracelet! LOL! I just had to take a photo :-)







Bracelets reunited :-) the third one with the magnets clasp is one Jane gave to me last fall on our way to join all those MacGregors in Georgia and Tennessee. The stone is buttermilk amber, traditionally from the Black Sea in Europe, and the silver is from spoon handles, made by Jane's friend Karen.



This is almost as good a mystery solved as the binky found hidden deep under the rigging in the Don Cox saddle, not to mention the plastic cell phone in the saddle bag.

Maybe if my brain was wired like a two year old, I'd get a lot more fun out of life! LOL

My Retirement is official

I worked my last shift at Orem Community Hospital on Monday, 26 Jan 2009. I know, I said I was going to RETIRE the last of December only enough to begin collecting retirement pay, then work at the hospital once in a while to keep up the skills and make a little extra money. A girl can change her mind (GBG). Here are some things that helped me make the decision last Sat. to totally pull the plug:

Inspiration sometimes takes a little while to come forth. Take that last question – shall I keep a Monday morning shift at Orem Community Hospital, or just be done, and why am I so ambivalent about making this decision? After a good 8 hours of uninterrupted sleep last Friday night, as I began to continue the “balance my Microsoft Money” project for 2008, the thought came along that I had not retired before and I did not have a road map for that… But I have moved plenty, and packed up my household and my life and moved on. That is not a new phenomenon in my life. Catching up on my email at IHC last Saturday pointed out that they sure have a lot of procedural details & online in-service training to keep track of and that keep changing; and on top of that, the Neonatal Resuscitation Procedures class for me changed from February to October (my card expires in Feb). And all that just to get to work once in a while?? So I think that is the signal that I am done there. It is time to hone some new skills and rejuvinate some old ones, and welcome a new season of my life.

There was the feeling of closure last week on Tuesday evening when 11 of my co-workers met me at McGraff’s Fish House for a little retirement dinner.


Retirement supper at McGraff's Fish House


My good nursing and genealogy buddy Darlene Nelson figured I'd need a big pair of sunglasses for all my free time in the future. LOL!



Last Thursday, the first IHC retirement check showed up in my bank account, so I am assured that they know where I am and who my banker is. I did not sleep well Sunday night, thinking of all the things I might need to do at the hospital the next day, hoping I would take good care of my patients.

Our stake had a Women’s Conference last Saturday, and one of the speakers focused on the passages in Doctrine&Covenants Section 25, about revelations given to Emma Smith and how they relate to women in the church today in their role in the Restoration of the Gospel. You can read those for yourself, and see which ones might apply to you. At the BYU Burn’s Supper that Saturday night, I was reminded of the really good friends that I have in that group as well as at church, and although the camaraderie at OCH is excellent and unmatched because of all the situations in healthcare we have shared together, I do have good friends in other settings.

You’d never guess I was a list person, would ya?

Two of my retirement gifts were Willow Tree angels – Happiness and Good Health. I am fortunate indeed to have friends who would wish such a future for me. I only have a few of those figurines, so I did get one more - Tenderness, to remind me about the next season of my life.

I’ll let you now how it goes with this new focus. I may start traveling occasionally to see those grandkids I talk about. I’m thinking for sure that “Relly” Amelia and Lily need a visit (see Sue’s blog at http://www.suerichardson.blogspot.com and Becky’s at http://randomlyoddbits.blogspot.com )




Happiness – “FREE to sing, laugh, dance …. Create!”



Good Health – “An abundance of health and happiness”


Tenderness – “Treasuring a rare, quiet and tender moment of motherhood” (and grandmotherhood; maybe even remembering those ancestors).