Fourth of July Weekend of Yesteryear - 1975

The tags on these photos identify them as 1973 but I noticed that on the back of one of them is written "Trial Lake - 4th of July 1975" so I guess we can figure it was 1975.

We went with Richard and Julie - I think they had just gotten married. (And of course you all know that I played Cupid with those two - one success and I've trying to duplicate it ever since with no apparent success!)

But lest any of you think I have never gone fishing, now you know that I have! And the other shots are self-evident - Bonny, Harry, Dad, Richard, Julie.

We are looking forward this 4th of July weekend to seeing Matt and Eliza - and hitting the Malibu scene on Tuesday - after we enjoy the traditional Boy Scout Pancake Breakfast.

"Some reflections on Eliza's and Matt's news . . ."

I asked Eliza if she wanted some baby pics to use in her "announcment" post. But she just said she would like me to send some to her if I had them scanned.

So I scanned a few and here they are: Shots of me pregnant with Eliza, Eliza with a 5 year old Phoebe, Eliza with me and with Dad just after she was born and Eliza as a 4 day old at Leslie's wedding reception - the other baby in Leslie's arms is Hester, who was 3 months old. The others in the picture are Bonny, Betsy, Phoebe, Kelli, Traci and Jamie.

My thought upon seeing these pictures? I look so young!! (And I actually was an "old" mom at 38!)

#1

Check my blog for some news you can use.

a peek into the life of mary clayton

a couple of weeks ago ella presented her ancestor report. we were lucky to have grandma attend. it was a hot day, but we enjoyed being together. later donna came out and we all had dinner and a little visit. 

"My grandma has a pool in her back yard!"

Talk about an old summer shot! Here are Bonny and Harry - circa 1975 or 6 - getting ready for splashdown at Grandma Clayton's.

We often went to CA for 3 weeks in the summer - in the old days when we lived in Utah. And we'd drive down with Dad and he'd fly back to Utah to work and then fly back to CA to drive home with us.

Ah, those were the days!

Historic note: My old fotos are fading fast - need to get them archived - this will motivate me perhaps?!

Update #2

Thank you for your concern and prayers for Phil. He came out of his 3-hour surgery earlier this afternoon. They removed his prostate and found no cancer in his lymph nodes, and he was pretty coherent and in good spirits afterward. It looks like he's going to be fine.

Now he'll spend a few days in the hospital and then lots and lots of days at home confined to his bed. It doesn't sound fun but it's much better than contemplating chemotherapy at the same time. Thanks again for your comments and e-mails and phone calls and everything!

Old summer shots

These are June shots from yesteryear - 1968 and 1969. The one of me alone is standing in front of Lake Tahoe. Your dad and I drove there on our way to Joan and Fred's wedding in 1968. We parked the Fiat in a vacant lot and slept on the ground next to it. Then your dad dove in and out of the water so fast, his trunks didn't even get wet! I wisely stayed out of the water.

The next shot is of Judy Montalvo, Grandma Terrill and yours truly. It was summer of 1969. And I made my dress - I was getting bold and doing set in sleeves! (My mom gave me a sewing machine for a wedding gift and I taught myself to sew - by much trial and error.)

Don't your love Grandma's glasses?!

Update from the Selanders

Several weeks ago, Matt's dad Phil's doctor found some cancerous cells in Phil's prostate. This Monday morning, the 26th, he'll undergo surgery to remove the prostate and/or see whether the cancer has spread to his lymph nodes.

He'll be at the hospital for a few days, then at home recovering for several weeks as well as finding out what treatment he might be facing in the future. We'd love for you to keep him--and his doctors, and his wife, Lynnette--in your thoughts and prayers tomorrow as he prepares for the surgery and in the coming days as he undergoes surgery and starts recovery. We are very hopeful that this will be a routine surgery, they'll get all the cancer, and he'll be well on his way back to normal life and enjoying retirement.

Blogging has been a good forum for us to share lots of information, in particular to keep up on the happy as well as not-so-happy things that go on in everyone's lives. Thank you for being there!

"Oh, oh, oh. Look! Look! Look! See Spot run!"

Since the Dick and Jane days, reading has been my mainstay. I can't even remember what it feels like not to be able to read - which is why I find it so frustrating when the print is too tiny or too light and I can't read something!

I work with kids who can't read well - interestingly enough the new programs and the 20 to 1 ratio in K through 3 has yielded some good results and most of my kids can read and I don't see many non-readers anymore - but they don't like to read. And that is very understandable, which is why I use books on tape so much.

An older, veteran teaching got me on to the practice by pointing out to me that most of the struggling students had never had a good experience with a book. Following the printed text with a book on tape was the first good experience many of them had ever had with the printed word. My SSR (Sustained Silent Reading) period each day is inspiring - I love looking up from my own book (all adults read too!) and seeing 15 kids totally engaged in their books.

And so when Hannah was asking on her blog what everyone's plans were, I first and foremost thought of tackling my stack of books to read!!

As a child, I spent many a summer day reading in a tree house - either the one across the street in the eucalyptus tree or the one in the lemon tree outside Mom and Dad's bathroom window. I have memories of being up there and ignoring Mom's calls for me to come in!

I have probably told this story already, but Alice and I would head to the 76 gas station on Chatsworth every other week with our wagonload of 24 books to turn in to the traveling library- we could each check out 12 - and excitedly look for 24 more to read and share.

I wonder if they still have traveling libraries. I love libraries - we recently visited the new Seattle Public Library and it was wonderful - but there is something about a traveling library. I used to think that driving around in the bookmobile would be the career to have!

I just finished two Anne Tyler books - I had no idea she was such a great writer. I am tackling The Accidental Tourist next since I vaguely remember the movie. I need to read The Kite Runner for my book group - and Teacher Man for my other book group. And I want to read several adolescent books I ordered last spring and haven't gotten to yet. I have read Hoot and Heat and recommend both of them. (I'm referring here to Heat by Mike Lupica - not the one about a chef.)

And speaking of movies - which we really weren't - summer is also a good time to watch all the movies you've been piling up from Netflix. And I highly recommend The World's Fastest Indian and Akelah and the Bee and New York Doll.

That certainly ought to keep everyone busy - in case they weren't!

"Summertime and the livin' is easy, fish are jumpin' and the cotton is high . . "

Today is almost over and I was going to do this post yesterday - but I will do it anyway.

Yesterday was the Summer Solstice - and in honor of said occasion, I was posting the quintessential summer shot - Phoebe as lifeguard. Her persona does have a way of saying "Summer!" now doesn't it??

Some of you may remember the hospital hutch that used to be in our bedroom - and the T.V. too - hence Noah in the background looking like he's staring at the T.V. - because he is! You may remember the bedspread too - it came from India when Alice was there.

But quintessential summer in SoCal really ought to say "beach" also - so here's a shot of Dad enjoying the beach in 1997 - and I'm not real sure of the occasion. And the month was July.

And it really doesn't seem like the days are getting shorter - but if yesterday was the longest day of the year, then they are getting shorter as they head for the shortest day of the year in December.

Much of science and it's precepts can be mind boggling like that - maybe not to you though. Or more likely you don't ever think about it.

But I think all the days fly by at a very rapid rate - before and after either Solstice!

More Seattle News

I was scrolling through the pictures and noted that I had not posted all the shots from Seattle. Hannah showed me how to post more than 5 at a time - I'm pretty literal so when Blogger stopped letting me do it after 5 photos, I just stopped instead of clicking the icon one more time for 5 more! I have been hanging around my students too long - I am picking up their bad habits!! (For example, I see so many misspelled words, I start thinking they are spelled right!)

We didn't do a whole lot in Seattle, but we certainly had a good time. Here are shots on the Sound, at Snoqualamie Falls (I may have misspelled that!) And Eliza showed us around her beautiful campus and I didn't take a single shot!! We ate at a great Italian restaurant in North Bend - in the historic McGrath building - the history was efficiently printed on the back of the menu.

The falls were quite lovely - we hiked (?) to the base - about a quarter mile trail. There were others who ignored the signs and went off the trail -but we weren't among them. (We weren't dressed for wading!)

We also went to Tacoma and Dad and I stayed with my old roommate MarDel and her husband Zeno - they had a lovely big home and fed us a great meal and we went to the YA Ward of which Zeno is the bishop. That was fun! And I also forgot to take pictures!

Our early (6 a.m.) flight necessitated arising at 4 to get to the airport at 5 to leave at 6 - I was tired all day. But it was hard to go to be any earlier than we did - it was light at 9 p.m. - and light at 4 a.m. when we arose.

MarDel and Zeno also drove us to the scenic spots on the Sound - I can see why people love Washington.

I'm ready for another trip!!

All the Way to the Biznack

Okay, since I didn't hear any dissenters, I've taken the liberty of arranging the following. I used a very complex algorithm to come up with this pattern--I won't bore you with the details.

Christmas 2006
Bonny gives to Harry
Harry gives to Phoebe
Phoebe gives to Eliza
Eliza gives to Hannah
Hannah gives to Noah
Noah gives to Bonny

Hopefully it's obvious that, for simplicity's sake, I just used each sibling's name to represent him or her along with his or her spouse and/or children and/or pets and/or . . .

Next year we can rotate the second column downward, I guess. I (or someone) can post again then as a reminder, but it'll be easy to remember: just take whoever you got a gift for last year, and move down one by age, skipping yourself (which we'll only need to do every 6 years). When you get to Noah, start over with Bonny the following year.

I think that will work.

All in favor please manifest. Any opposed by the same sign.

Happy Father's Day!

In honor of Father's Day - in addition to the fine meal Dawn and I produced (with help from Dad, who manned the grill) I thought I would post some random shots of Dad with each of the kids - there is no theme - it mostly depended on which shot I found first!!

Hannah and Noah celebrating Dad!!




















Dad and Bonny at the Stake Debutante Ball in 1988.














Dad and Harry at Phoebe and David's wedding - on the LA Temple grounds.
















Dad and Phoebe at the beach in 1978 - when Phoebe discovered SAND! (we lived in Utah at the time and didn't get to the Great Salt Lake all that often!)














One of my favorite shots of Eliza and Dad - just because it's so goofy it's cute.




















Hannah's blessing day - and one of my favorite shots of Dad - he's so cute - and so is Hannah!!




















Ah, the Elvis Duo - Roadshow Days personified!!

Sleepy in Monrovia

Welcome home Hannah! Our internet was down for 2 days, so we are majorly behind in our posting efforts - and I had such grand plans for a Father's Day Extravaganza!!

Oh well, you know what they say about those best laid plans!

Anyway, we picked Hannah up at LAX on Friday night - and she came, like the Greeks, bearing gifts - I really scored in the birthday and Mother's Day department - I will have to wear my finery and do some posts soon. Other gifts were of the consumable variety - biscuits in many flavors.

And I love my Macbeth eraser that says "Out, damned spot!"

It has been very HOT today, and Hannah was busy writing her last paper. And washing load after load of laundry.

One of the pictures is not of her when she got home - but it's one from many years ago - I think she's 3 or 4 in this one. It's one of my all time favorites of her- and when I came across it Thursday night, I thought, I can call this "Sleepy in Monrovia" and do a post about Hannah coming home! It is a shot I took of her right after she got up one morning - and it was typical of how she would come in and sit on those church pews we used to use in the kitchen - and sort of lay her head down on the table and smile her good morning to me!

The other two shots are of her as she was waiting for her luggage - that's where she was when we pulled up. Our timing was impeccable.

She has been regaling us with tales and stories and adventures - expanding on her rather excellent posts. She will be heading off to Malibu to stay with Bonny and Bruce and work for Bruce. Eve will certainly miss her - she has been shadowing her all day - told me that "Hannah is fun."

We will miss her again too - but will enjoy having her relatively close - closer than London anyway!

Moving on . . .

Tonight is - or more accurately - was - graduation at MHS. We usually hear the band but had the house fan going, so we didn't hear much of anything.

And I thought of all the graduations that have gone on in this household - so I searched out photos to commemorate the occasions over the years.

I have Hannah's high school, Bonny's college, Noah, Phoebe and Harry's middle school pictures. These are pretty random - I sort of went with the first photo I found!! Blogger would only let me post 5 pix - so I guess we will count Eliza as having been covered in the previous blog celebrating her recent graduation and degree

And I'm trying to psych myself up for Clifton Promotion tomorrow - since I'm required to work at it - I have foyer duty - directing irate folks to the balcony when the main floor is filled - which it does quickly. Let's pray for no pepper spray incidents. (For the uninformed, one year at promotion, some irate relative sprayed pepper spray at someone who asked them nicely to sit down so they could see their own child!)

I'm not a fan of middle school promotion - and have actively promoted its demise - but to no avail! (Research shows that school districts that have eliminated middle school promotion exercises have lower dropout rates in high school.)

Semper fi! (It has nothing to do with graduation - but it is Latin and has a dignified ring to it!)

Happy, Happy Birthday Baby!!

If I were Eliza, and wanted all my post titles to come from songs, this would be one - it's an old 50's number - I can sing it, but don't remember the the title or artist.

At any rate, Phoebe mentioned that she thought it would be fun to look at the pictures from her 5th birthday party - and I finally got around to finding them.

This would have been October of 1982 - and I was pregnant with Eliza - and still feeling somewhat rocky. Amy was there - and you can see little Harry in some of the shots too.

Phoebe is surrounded by many little friends - including the two little boys from across the street whose names I don't remember. And Jill. And Jenny. And Celeste. And Chad. And others.

It was a pretty standard issue party - cupcakes, balloons, Pin the Tail on the Donkey - and Phoebe wore a dress - a dress she still owns by the way! (And a personal fave of mine - I made it from a Vogue pattern.)

As I have said before, Phoebe loves a party - always has - and probably always will. This might have been her first birthday party - or not!

The Real Sleepy in Seattle

I had planned this title for this picture - not the other picture it ended up getting posted on- but say, it wouldn't be blogging if it was perfect - it would be publishing!!

Oh well, we had a great time in Seattle with Matt and Eliza. On Saturday night, we couldn't find a happening place to accommodate the four of us - and couldn't find a drug store open to buy a Scrabble game, so we found a souvenir shop open and got a deck of cards. And then we had a happening night in our great little hotel room playing Hearts!!

We stayed at the Hotel Seattle - in downtown Seattle - a cool old hotel - not too shabby - but just shabby enough - I loved it!

I was even winning at Hearts for a while - good thing I'm not very competitive - I don't even remember who won - Eliza I think.