Yes, it was a very busy, but wonderful weekend. Saturday was my 84th birthday and we celebrated it by going to Riverside (about an hour and a half from our house) to be with our great friends, Cherie and Stan, who just happen to be Heather's parents. To all of you who may not remember off hand who Heather is, she just happens to be the Mom to three of my greatest great grandchilren (Sue's grandchildren) and one of the best photographers I know.
Cherie was here, one day during the children's spring break with Heather and the kids. They came for dinner after spending a difficult day here in Palm Desert. They had taken the kids to the Living Desert and it was cold and extremely windy. Actually, the wind was the worst we have seen in 22 years of living here. Unfortunately, it was so bad that many of the animals had sought refuge in their habitat so they couldn't even see many of them. I think they were happy to get over here out of it all. They were a little unhappy though that they weren't allowed to go in the pool. We would never have been able to take the cover off the or it would have just blown away. At any rate when Cheri found out it was my birthday Saturday, she invited us to celebrate an early Easter dinner with them. It was a family affair with lots of her relatives and a few neighbors attending. We arrived there at 2:00 in the afternoon a whole hour early due to a misconception on my part. It was fun though to have an hour with just them and an hour later they started to arrive. Stan had fixed both ham and turkey and after a little time just visiting, we all went to the park, which was just around the corner from them. A great time was had by all. There were five children and 21 in all and there were many activities going on, kite flying, various balls being tossed about, skate boarding and of course, the egg hunt. Then we went back to the house and had a tremendously good feast! Everyone had brought side dishes so we had lots of salads, vegetables, fruit and desserts. I made and brought my own birthday cake. It was still in the 9X13 baking pan it was baked in. They put candles on it for me to blow out and Heather, our professional photographer , took a picture. If she posts it, I will put it on here later so you can see.
While I was there, Nikki, my third daughter, called me from Boston where she had gone to be with her husband, Perry, who is a production designer and was there filming a movie. All of her family was there with the exception of her daughter Kristin's husband. It was so neat to talk to everyone, but really hard to hear because I was on the cell phone and with 5 children and 16 adults there, you can imagine what the noise level was.
It was so nice of Cherie to invite us and we certainly did enjoy the day. She also presented me with my favorite house plant. Can't think of the name of it but it has longish broad leaves and has white lily like blossoms on it. Maybe one of you can enlighten me with the actual name. Also Heather gave me a darling picture of the kids in a very cute frame.
We left about 7:00 and were home at a decent hour. I hate to drive late on Saturday night with all the crazies on the road. After I got home, I got calls from all the rest of the kids, so it was a very nice birthday. I then worked on my talk for a short while........mostly trying to time it because I didn't want to run over my alloted 10 minutes.
The next morning I was a bit upset trying to find something in my closet that would fit me comfortably so I could have all the breath I needed to force my vocal chords to perform. Both Dick and I gained 10 pounds over the holiday and haven't been able to loose it. Every Monday we start on our "Healthy Eating Plan" which really does work. But something during the week has us going off on a regular basis. It can be going out to dinner, having someone in for dinner, leftover sweets that NEED to be eaten, right? So many excuses. So today we are starting over one more time.
I did find an outfit that looked and felt okay so off I went to church. When I read how long the program was, I was a bit concerned. They had three of us women speak (I was the first) and three musical numbers. I was thinking we never would have been able to quit on time and when we don't it takes time away from Sunday School Our Bishop is pretty good about stopping at 10:05a.m. (We have my most hated schedule, 9 to 12. I am just NOT a morning person.) I did well on my talk and so did the other two, in fact they were great, so the program was a big success, with musical numbers by our primary, one soloist and the choir. I did receive a lot of compliments and comments on my talk, mostly about how they absolutely loved Sue's poem and could they get the book in the bookstore. I think I have talked Sue into sending it in to Deseret Books to get it published so that a lot of people could have access to it. She just published three copies of it, for her, me and the grandchildren for whom it was written. The best compliment of all though was one I received just as we was going out the door. A little girl, around 6 or7 whom I didn't know, came up to me and said, "I really enjoyed your story." That just made me want to cry. What a great tribute. At any rate, it was a great ending to a very enjoyable weekend and there you have it!
Monday, April 25, 2011
Wednesday, April 20, 2011
I'm Back
Yes, for what it is worth I am back. It hasn't been quite a month since my last post and I would like to tell you that indeed I am well rested. Sorry, I have been so very busy, especially the last week and a half. I wouldn't have had it otherwise though because I have been baking up a storm and have had wonderful company. Well let me see now:
It all started last Friday. Dick and I had planned to go Visiting and Home Teaching Saturday. In fact I had made all our appointments. We visit four lovely ladies and when we go, I always bake or make a special treat for them. It is fun for me and I can assure you, everyone loves to get their "treat". I started my baking in the afternoon and Dick was happy to help me. Good thing because the day before I fell in the bathroom and hit my left hip a good one on our tile floor. Needless to say, I was pretty sore, but thank heavens, no broken bones. Just one good sore one. I couldn't stand very long so I was happy to have Dick's help. He is very good in the kitchen. I had found a recipe that I thought might be different and every once in a while I like to take something different. I found this recipe in our newspaper on Wednesday when they do a special Food Section. It was for butterscotch brownies and it said they were salty and sweet. Dick did the liquids and I did the solids, so even though we doubled the recipe we were able to get it in the oven pretty quickly. Good think too, because he had to go to a meeting. When it cooled I took a little taste and was so upset. It was so salty that I couldn't believe they had even put it in our paper. I only put about half of the salt it called for and I simply can't imagine what it would have tasted like had I put the whole two spoons in for only l l/2 cups of flour. Ugh.....I fretted about it for a couple of hours and at 7:00 in the evening I just knew I had to bake something else. I had just started my absolutely delicious, never fail frosted brownies when Dick came home. He helped me with this double batch too, and we got it into the oven in record time. By the time I made the icing and iced the brownies, I was one tired cookie. The next morning though, we were up and ready to go for our first appointment at 10:00a.m. We had a wonderful morning visiting and teaching and got home early afternoon.
I hadn't been home for long before I got a call from my grandson Tyler. I had sorta been expecting him to call because he usually has gigs in Palm Springs during our Coachella Valley Music Festival. It is held at the Polo Grounds and over the three days, there are just under 100,000 attendees. The tickets had been sold out in just days. He asked me if he and a couple of friends could spend the night. I had been hoping he would be in town and was thrilled at the chance to see him as it had been some time since we had. He tours all over the world with his music group called Classixx. Anyway, I told him I would have three beds made up and we would probably go to bed before they arrived. Good thing we did because they didn't get here until 2.30a.m. I stayed home from church to make them Swedish Pancakes and Dick only went to Bishopric meeting and Sacrament because he wanted to help me with breakfast should I need it. When Dick came out to have breakfast and read the newspaper, he found somebody sleeping on the living room couch, so instead of fixing his breakfast, he went out. This was at 5:00 a.m. as their meetings start at 6:00a.m. (we are on that 9 to 12 schedule which I hate as I am not a morning person. It was after 11:00 when I had the one guy that WAS up wake up the rest of the gang, and they just kept coming. Instead of the three I expected, there were six of them. Good thing Dick was here because he fixed them a wonderful breakfast and they all had such a good time and were so appreciative. They left at 1:30 p.m. as they had a pool party they had to be to in Palm Springs. It was such fun to have them. We always enjoy having young people around us. We were a bit tired though.
I had every intention of starting this blog on Monday morning. I wanted to help Dick as much as I could with the laundry. (since we had them sleeping all over the house, there were a lot of sheets to do) and we had to be ready to go to an early dinner with some very good friends who were helping me to celebrate an early birthday dinner. Yesterday, I was too tired to do anything but prepare my talk for Easter Sunday. I am doing one of Sue's poems as part of my talk. It is the poem she wrote for her grandchildren, which I think she is going to share with all of you . It is a lovely poem, which all hers are, as you know. I just hope I can talk that early in the morning. My vocal chords are partially paralyzed and sometimes they don't work at all if it is too early. I just pray I can talk for ten minutes. I am the first speaker. Wish me luck.
This day has been a bit hectic too. We went to an early dinner and lecture on peripheral neuropathy, which I have, to see if we could learn anything new. I have it from rheumatoid arthritis, not diabetes. I do have a couple of new questions for my doctor, so I guess it was worth it.
I am almost afraid to go back and edit this. Maybe I just won't. It is so long, I know it, but then, I have never been known to do real short ones, or even medium length ones. Sorry............ Thanks all of you for being my blogging friends and for staying with me . I appreciate all of you.
Love love love from me
It all started last Friday. Dick and I had planned to go Visiting and Home Teaching Saturday. In fact I had made all our appointments. We visit four lovely ladies and when we go, I always bake or make a special treat for them. It is fun for me and I can assure you, everyone loves to get their "treat". I started my baking in the afternoon and Dick was happy to help me. Good thing because the day before I fell in the bathroom and hit my left hip a good one on our tile floor. Needless to say, I was pretty sore, but thank heavens, no broken bones. Just one good sore one. I couldn't stand very long so I was happy to have Dick's help. He is very good in the kitchen. I had found a recipe that I thought might be different and every once in a while I like to take something different. I found this recipe in our newspaper on Wednesday when they do a special Food Section. It was for butterscotch brownies and it said they were salty and sweet. Dick did the liquids and I did the solids, so even though we doubled the recipe we were able to get it in the oven pretty quickly. Good think too, because he had to go to a meeting. When it cooled I took a little taste and was so upset. It was so salty that I couldn't believe they had even put it in our paper. I only put about half of the salt it called for and I simply can't imagine what it would have tasted like had I put the whole two spoons in for only l l/2 cups of flour. Ugh.....I fretted about it for a couple of hours and at 7:00 in the evening I just knew I had to bake something else. I had just started my absolutely delicious, never fail frosted brownies when Dick came home. He helped me with this double batch too, and we got it into the oven in record time. By the time I made the icing and iced the brownies, I was one tired cookie. The next morning though, we were up and ready to go for our first appointment at 10:00a.m. We had a wonderful morning visiting and teaching and got home early afternoon.
I hadn't been home for long before I got a call from my grandson Tyler. I had sorta been expecting him to call because he usually has gigs in Palm Springs during our Coachella Valley Music Festival. It is held at the Polo Grounds and over the three days, there are just under 100,000 attendees. The tickets had been sold out in just days. He asked me if he and a couple of friends could spend the night. I had been hoping he would be in town and was thrilled at the chance to see him as it had been some time since we had. He tours all over the world with his music group called Classixx. Anyway, I told him I would have three beds made up and we would probably go to bed before they arrived. Good thing we did because they didn't get here until 2.30a.m. I stayed home from church to make them Swedish Pancakes and Dick only went to Bishopric meeting and Sacrament because he wanted to help me with breakfast should I need it. When Dick came out to have breakfast and read the newspaper, he found somebody sleeping on the living room couch, so instead of fixing his breakfast, he went out. This was at 5:00 a.m. as their meetings start at 6:00a.m. (we are on that 9 to 12 schedule which I hate as I am not a morning person. It was after 11:00 when I had the one guy that WAS up wake up the rest of the gang, and they just kept coming. Instead of the three I expected, there were six of them. Good thing Dick was here because he fixed them a wonderful breakfast and they all had such a good time and were so appreciative. They left at 1:30 p.m. as they had a pool party they had to be to in Palm Springs. It was such fun to have them. We always enjoy having young people around us. We were a bit tired though.
I had every intention of starting this blog on Monday morning. I wanted to help Dick as much as I could with the laundry. (since we had them sleeping all over the house, there were a lot of sheets to do) and we had to be ready to go to an early dinner with some very good friends who were helping me to celebrate an early birthday dinner. Yesterday, I was too tired to do anything but prepare my talk for Easter Sunday. I am doing one of Sue's poems as part of my talk. It is the poem she wrote for her grandchildren, which I think she is going to share with all of you . It is a lovely poem, which all hers are, as you know. I just hope I can talk that early in the morning. My vocal chords are partially paralyzed and sometimes they don't work at all if it is too early. I just pray I can talk for ten minutes. I am the first speaker. Wish me luck.
This day has been a bit hectic too. We went to an early dinner and lecture on peripheral neuropathy, which I have, to see if we could learn anything new. I have it from rheumatoid arthritis, not diabetes. I do have a couple of new questions for my doctor, so I guess it was worth it.
I am almost afraid to go back and edit this. Maybe I just won't. It is so long, I know it, but then, I have never been known to do real short ones, or even medium length ones. Sorry............ Thanks all of you for being my blogging friends and for staying with me . I appreciate all of you.
Love love love from me
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