I Got Lost.

I have always been very intimidated by computers and today I was reminded why. I tried to set up a new blog and I thought I followed all the instructions to do so but I have no idea where that blog is and in trying to find it I got lost.
This blog I have, my husband help me set it up last year and today for some reason it isn't orange anymore it is blue. I don't know how I did it so it is a good job I like the color. Everything is now on the left and I find that awkward as I am right handed, oh well, maybe my left handed friends will feel at home. I pressed a few other buttons and ended viewing other blogs and I don't know who they were. Someone starting a new life in Hong Kong and another was from Wyoming.
Thank goodness for those forward and backward buttons that got me safely home.

Remember the book that was very popular a few years ago called "Don"t Eat the Cheese"? or was it "Don't forget the Cheese" I think that is the title, I remind myself of the mouse in the story who was afraid to see what was out there in the world which is hard to believe because as a young girl I was extremely adventurous although not compared with todays standards and the reason why I live here in the USA.
With the internet I am terrified I end up in somewhere I shouldn"t be and the FBI or Sercret Service are knocking at my door. Words that were very innocent years ago have all new meaning, e.g. Thongs were flip-flops, gay meant being happy and now it doesn't and that makes me sad.
Well, I'm going to try to find out where my new blog is, maybe I'll find me.

SIMPLE WORDS OF ENCOURAGEMENT.

Today, I have spent the time on the computer, which is not like me at all. For me,computers are very intimidating, a pain, I always get lost in that vast space and it crashes and burns. I press "send" and it does but to who? I love the old way of communicating like writing letters and picking up the phone to talk.
I love paper and pencils and stamps to mail my letters.
Besides that, I'm still trying to decide what I want to be when I grow up and I'm not twenty anymore, so today I used the time to write and that has always been one of my dreams as a little girl.
Where did this dream come from? A teacher, my elementary school teacher.
Simple.
We were asked to write an essay, it had to be at least two pages on anything we wanted, a story of some kind, so I did. It was a fairytale that I don't recall anything about. All I remember was he loved it he was impressed enough to tell me that I should become a writer when I grow up.
Over the years I have wondered about that and deep inside desired to write children's' books. Just a simple little comment and it has stuck with me for all this time.
It has been a day where I have enjoyed the fact that I'm a work in process myself after all these years. I have enjoyed and thrived today because I took the time to expand my horizons. I will always remember and appreciate Mr. Jones for encouraging me a long time ago.

SATURDAY

Saturday was a rather busy day for all of us.
I was a nurse, a taxis driver, ATM(insufficient funds),cook and head bottle washer and laundry queen and if I sit here any longer I will be able to add more to my list.
Colin was home sick, sore throat, coughing, sniffling yuckiness sick feeling stuff.
Stuart had his "acting up" class and then decided to hang out with some friends.
My husband was busy with getting ready for a business trip he is taking this week and he had scouting stuff to do and then he left for a few hours to do some "spying".

Spying? you might ask? You don't have to force it out of me, I hate pain so I'll just tell you...he went to spy on a high school freshman game. Clip board, camera in hand and off he went, my big guy to watch how the enemy, high school rivals are doing before his guys meet them on the field, when? soon!

By 11:30pm I was sitting relaxed on my new couch that I just love. I stepped out of my box on the color. Tomato Red.
Tyler was working away in his office and I knew he hadn't realized the time when I decided to text him. What a 'spy' thing to do I thought.
"Your wife loves you", I wrote, laid the phone down and within a moment I could hear him climb the stairs wearing a BIG grin on his face. It just was cute to see. A happy contented man with a dvd in his hand ready to show me what he had done all day in the world of "Bond, James Bond". So we sat there and watched.......freshman football.
I love our neighbourhood, everyone has kids and a dog, we wave to each other when we see each other, share our garden treasures we have grown this summer, the gatherings at the end of the street or sitting on the front porch. It is just so nice.

Saying that I have neighbours who I don't know on the next street, their backyard and our backyard join with an old fence separating us. We can't see each other as there are a lot of mature trees but they are annoying to say the least and who knows maybe they are nice.
They have a dog who barks and barks all the day long.
Every day, all day.
That dog is lonely, he wants to play,someone to talk to, but he is left to himself, bored out of his tiny little mind. I'm not sure what kind of a dog he is but he barks and barks and barks. Sometimes he barks at night. All night. Nobody comes to check on him, nobody, they just allow him to bark and bark.

Saturday night I had trouble getting to sleep, it was hot and I was actually in some pain so I took some pain medication and often it can help me sleep, but that didn't last too long. About 2 o'clock in the morning this dog started to bark and bark and bark. There had been silence until then no one sneaking around in the night, just the little crickets making their song as they like to do during the hot summer nights.
As I laid there listening to that poor dog barking and barking and barking, I couldn't take it any longer. I checked the time it was 3 o'clock .
Then finally I snapped. My window was wide open, I got out of bed and yelled and I yelled loud, "be quiet, stop barking and go lay down". So I obeyed, went back to bed and went right to sleep and so did the dog.

oouch!!!

At the end of July, the young men in our ward went on a "High adventure" trip down to Beaver, Utah. My sixteen year old was excited about the weekend. They left early on the Thursday morning, with SUV's and trailers packed with kids,mountain bikes and camping gear.
The plan was to get to their destination, the drive was about two hours away unload and do the mountain bike adventure, get back to base and then they would go water rafting the following day. Seems like a fun filled weekend. They are a really great group of kids and I was really excited for them all.

The weather was beautiful and Tyler and I were enjoying spending time on our front porch with a few of our neighbours, when we got a call from one of the leaders telling us basically that Stuart had biffed it a couple of hours in to the mountain biking. He was pretty cut up but no broken bones and he was on his way home.

Of course I was thinking the worst, like any Mom would and preparing myself to having to take him to the ER to be stitched up then having to get a plastic surgeon to fix any thing that needed to be fixed after the 500 stitches I figured he would be needing.
I so don't do well with blood and needles, people throwing up or loose teeth, I have to usually sit down as the room starts to spin.
It seemed like a long time until Stuart pulled into the drive way with Brother Cox.
My heart jumped to see him sitting in the front seat, I kept telling myself not to faint, be brave and to definitely not to embarrass the boy or he would never speak to me again. I did hug him, very gently and took a deep breath and surveyed the damage. It was difficult to tell with all the blood and lots of gravel. I wasn't sure if I was happy he wasn't as bad as I had led myself to believe or that I was impressed I was still horizontal and keeping what I had eaten earlier in my stomach.
He was really afraid as to how this was going to play out, he hates needles too and the thought of how his wounds were going to get cleaned had been praying heavily on his mind all the way home.
We got the blood cleaned up so we could see what it was really like and how best take care of Stuart and his wounds, when Stuart asks "I'm I going to have a scar?" "Unanimously both Tyler and I said,"Oh yes". I'm thinking how is he going to react when his next question was "will it be a bigger scar if you take care of it or if I go to the Dr'?"
In my mind there was no doubt he would be OK if we took care of it but I was certain the scar would be bigger when out loud he yells "alright that is cool, how big do you think it will be"

Your not my Husband!

Last weekend my husband and I along with our youngest son and my wonderful mother inlaw went on a short trip to Jackson Hole in Wyoming and then on to Rexburg Idaho to visit our former bishop and his family. His son was leaving for a two year mission for the church we belong to,(the church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints).
The weather was perfect and it had been a while since I had been any where, so it was a very welcomed break.
I love it when I get to sleep in a hotel, I feel like I'm truly on vacation. After spending a great day in the beautiful cowboy town of Jackson Hole where you really feel you have stepped back in time we drove to the small college town of Rexburg Idaho. It had been over 20 years since I had visited Rexburg and there have been some changes. They have a beautiful new Temple up by Brigham Young University, Idaho. The hotel was the Best Western and it was nice for being a small town hotel. Our room was on the bottom floor and the large french window lead to the indoor swimming pool. You could also get to the front desk that way too and they had placed some tables and chairs for the complimentary breakfasts they served each morning.
The first morning we were there happened to be on a Sunday. Church started at 9am and Colin and I had just started eating when I thought I would go to the room via the french window as it was just a few steps away from where we were sitting to let Mom and Tyler know it was more than just a muffin and a glass of milk.
I saw that the curtain hadn't been pulled all the way closed and the window was either stuck or locked when I pulled on it so I knocked several times to get someones attention. No one answered and I knew that my husband was by this time out of the shower and dressed but there was no life to been had.......until I cupped my hands against the glass and peered at a naked man tip-toe toward the door of the room as if he had been caught doing something he shouldn't. I thought that is strange "isn't Tyler not dressed yet",until I realized that the naked man had a tattooed cross on his back between his shoulder blades. My mouth dropped to the floor,open like the mouth of the Grand Canyon, I was frozen for a brief moment suddenly feeling hot and flushed I realized that isn't my room, that isn't my husband. Running quickly in my yellow high heels I ran to sit at the table where I had left my french toast and orange juice and as if I had never left. I don't think anyone noticed my fast moves. As I slowly glanced over to the scene of the crime, most likely titled "peeping Tammy" I caught a glimpse of the occupant looking out of his window wondering who had been knocking on his window. I took a quick breath and quickly looked away and rose to get a bowl of coco puffs, fitting I thought.

Make A Wish

As I was walking the dogs early one morning I passed a small grey Ford Ranger truck that was parked by the roadside. This little truck had been well used, the paint well worn but the memories of a wonderful Irish Granny came flooding back when I saw what was stacked high in the bed of that truck. There were bales of fresh hay, maybe eight or ten in all. Such a simple picture that said a thousand words.

I can’t be sure exactly when it was but I do know I wasn’t more than 15 years old I was in the car with my parents and grandparents heading to the next big town (compared to where we lived) called Galashiels to do some shopping.

I was in the middle of the back seat with Granny and Papa on each side of me. I enjoyed the 30 minute drive, I loved to look out of the window and see the sheep in the fields, the horses grazing. On occasion we would recognize a neighbor’s car that had been to where we were bound. I always enjoyed listening to the conversations between my parents and Grandparents. I loved to be in the company of Granny and Papa. Granny was born in Northern Ireland; she was a wonderful person, someone who was pure and good in every way. She had character, innocent, funny and very superstitious.

This one particular Saturday afternoon as I was watching the road ahead, I thought I heard spitting. I didn’t pay too much attention to it until a few moments later I heard the sound again. My eyes quickly glanced toward my Mom who was in the front passenger seat, nothing to indicate the sound and then I heard it again for the third time and as I turned toward granny I caught her. She did it again, three short spits on her right tall finger, you know the one people use to make a rude suggestion to the driver who cuts you off. Spit, spit, spit, real fast.

I wasn’t quite sure if I had seen what I saw. I sat very quiet like for a little while until granny did it again. I could not stand it anymore I just had to ask as it didn’t make sense to me. It was no big deal to her it was just second nature to spit three times fast on the tallest finger.

“Granny, why do you do that?” I asked. Her simple answer was “I saw a lorry with hay on it”. I turned my head around to look out of the back window of the car to see what she meant and she was right there was a lorry that was hauling bales of hay. Still not clear to what she meant she proceeded to explain that every time she sees a lorry that is moving with bales of hay she spits three times fast on that famous finger and makes a wish.

CHOCOLATE ECLAIRS? WHAT CHOCOLATE ECLAIRS?

I have been told that I should put on weight, that I'm too thin. I weigh about 100lbs. I thought about that last week as I happened to be picking a few things up at the little grocery store in my neighbourhood.



One of my favourite deserts to eat are chocolate eclairs. I love them, I really do. I even had to have them during my last two pregnancies.

As I was walking around the little store, I ventured into the bakery department which it very good by the way and there in clear view were several boxes of chocolate eclairs. Not just one but six in a box for $3.99. How could I refuse such an offer? I couldn't and I didn't. I checked out and got to my car. Now the big mistake that I made was that I had only bought a few things so I found no real need to put the bags in the trunk,instead I put them right beside me on the seat on the passenger side.



Out of the blue I heard a voice within me saying "you should try one, you really should." Well I live about two minutes away, infact I could walk to the store or at least bike it, so I thought "you're right,if I ate one now, there's still enough for everyone after dinner".

Before I was out of the parking lot I had the first one in my hand. That first bite was heaven. The combination of that shu'pastry,chocolate and the custard,cream filling.....oooohhhh, aaahh! The filling oozing out the sides and on to my hands, I was glad to have been the only one on the road, so I carefully stuffed the last part in my mouth so I could have my hands free to drive. As I looked down at the box of eclairs, I did what any good GPS would do, I recalculated my math and saw that there were five left and there are only four of us. Well there might be an argument over who had that fifth one and I couldn't have that, so I decided to eat that one too.

Didn't take long to finish that one either. It was so good good, even better than the first one.

"Wow ! is it that time already?" I said seeing the yellow school lights flashing. I was going rather slow anyways so I could finish that second eclair. Thankfully the children hadn't come out of school but I thought well if I see my son, Colin I 'd have to give him a ride home and he would see the eclairs and would want to eat his now and not wait until dinner. He might wish he hadn't eaten his when he sees us eating ours, so I ate his, really really fast.

Three eclairs in that box and I knew I couldn't and wouldn't feel good about eating what was going to be mine after dinner, so I ate that one too.

As I drove by the school there were still no children out yet. I stopped at the fourway stop, turned left and headed on my way home.

Two eclaires left out of six..how is that going to work when there are four of us? By the time I got home which is less than half a city block my cheeks resembled that of a chip monk. I parked my car in the driveway, got out of the car and placed the evidence in the trashcan which sits behind the house. I decided that this was a good time to do some tire inspection while I enjoyed the last of the eclairs bought less than five minutes earlier.

Nothing better than a chocolate eclair and watching my best friend Oprah.

I was still 100lbs at the end of the day. Sorry to all those who can't look at food without putting on a pound or two I do have a good reason and one which you wouldn't want...ever!