Happy Belated Greetings to Baby Harry - who isn't a baby anymore - he's two for heaven's sake!!

It's been a busy weekend - and we didn't even travel this year. But somehow I managed to miss noting a very important birthday that occurred Friday the 28th!!

Can you believe that this little guy is now

this little guy??

I found out that my good friend Pam was in town, so I called and went over to "give her a hug" and stayed for 3 hours - and there were few pauses in our conversation.

That certainly threw my schedule off - and the day before I had asked Dawn if they were doing anything on Harry's actual b-day and she said no, the party is next week - but we will be gone - so I had thought that I would do something - but didn't remember until 8:30 that night!!

So I called Little Harry - not to be confused with his shorter dad - Big Harry - or his young son - Baby Harry - and suggested that I could get the birthday boy a day late and take him somewhere for a Grandma's Outing, if not a sleepover - he is still young for one of those.

So we headed off to the Arboretum - which is always fun for everyone -

and there we ran into our good friends the Cards!!

We had a fine time feeding the ducks, and then

the Cards told us about the blue heron who catches fish - and they showed us how to get him to do it - and he did!! It was pretty fun - you throw the bread way out to get the other ducks out of the way - and then throw bread and wait for a little fish to come for it - and then the blue heron snags the fish!! They say he's always in the same place and they never see any other herons - so they think it's just one bird.

Grandpa joined us at McDonalds - where we enjoyed some munching and goofing around. Grandpa is trying to teach Harry to "pop" out his cheek with his index finger. Smart Harry does the motion - and then laughs and says "POP!!"

We wound up the weekend with a surprise visit from our old friend Greg - who is always fun to have a visit with. He is enjoying Colorado - and not really missing SoCal - except for family and friends.

Happy 2nd Birthday Harry William - we will miss the party - but hope someone takes pics and posts them!!

Turkey Day Wrap up!!

We started the day out right - by sleeping in!! And then I cooked breakfast for Harry and me - like the breakfasts I used to cook many years ago - back when it was just the two of us - like it is these days!!

We took a walk over to Harry and Dawn's to make some deliveries - and to whet our appetites for the day ahead of us! Noah, Susanne and Grandma Terrill - among several others - joined Harry and Dawn for their feast.

In the afternoon we headed out to Malibu - originally for Thanksgiving at the beach, but the rains made that not such a good idea - so we feasted indoors. Karl had been in town for a wedding, so he joined us.

Bruce is getting ready for a race on Saturday, and Ara has an "all-star" type soccer game on deck for tomorrow. The game and the race are in Ojai.

Then we headed out to GH to see the various family members who were in town. Here's Grandma with David, Diane, Kylie, Sarah and Maddy - it was good to see the college kids from Idaho.

These are Grandma's new windows - to take the place of the sliding doors - now that is a change!! But they look great - there is more to be done - bookcases under the side windows for one thing. We will keep you posted.

And of course, the "group shot" for your viewing pleasure: Rick, Rachel and their three kids, Steven, Kim and baby Gavin, Debbie, Angela, Alyssa, Bill, Sarah, Maddy, Karl, Harry, Donna and yours truly sitting by Grandma Mary.

We are certainly grateful for wonderful, fun, family members - we don't see one another very often - but when we do, we seem to have a fine time!!

And I'm especially grateful that once again I wasn't the one cooking!! (I did make a pumpkin pie though!)

Champions

Ara's team won the finals on Sunday. She didn't play Sunday's game, but she was awesome at Saturday's playoffs scoring a goal in each game! And she scored in each penalty kick off. They were both very exciting games. Especially because her team was in last place most of the season. :-)

Click here for more info.

kennedy kennedy kennedy

I thought I'd post this video in light of the recent anniversary of Kennedy's assassination. They just don't make 'em like they used to. (Campaign commercials, not presidents. Or both.)

A quarter of a century

Next month will mark 25 years since we moved to Primrose Avenue. I am fond of pointing out, year after year, that if we'd planted a tree when we moved in, we'd have a 20 or 21 or 22 year old tree in our front yard - and shade for the living room!

Well, if we'd done it then, we'd have a 25 year old tree. I wonder how long I'm going to say that before I do something about it??

This photo isn't 25 years old - but it's close to it. And it always brings back lots of memories for me. Fond memories. It seems to truly capture a time and place.

What are your memories of the move to Primrose??

Happy Birthday

Donna!

Hope you had a great day!

Anniversaries of Note

When we are away for the weekend, I get behind in many arenas - including blogging! For starters, I wanted to remind everyone that this is the 45th anniversary of the assassination of John Kennedy. Every year, there seem to be fewer and fewer people who can answer the question, "What important historical event happened on this day?" Those who can answer, can usually tell you exactly what they were doing when they heard the news. I was in the BYU library. Sadly, the concept of violence and its aftermath is one that people are all too familiar with these days. I guess we were familiar with violence then, but it didn't seem to surround us like it does today.
And of course, November 22nd is also the anniversary of Donna's birth! Here she is with David probably circa 1965 or so. The old homestead really hasn't changed much, has it?

And we also went for our bi-monthly temple outing. This is the view from the temple apartments. It's not the Ritz, but it's certainly a nice place to stay! And it doesn't have much to do with anniversaries, but the photo needed a caption!

Later on Saturday, we journeyed to El Monte for the 50th Anniversary celebration of the dedication of the El Monte Ward Building. A little historical note here too - Uncle Paul was the architect who designed this building.

There was a program in the chapel - many past bishops spoke - a little walk down Memory Lane - and even though I didn't grow up there, I enjoyed the remarks. After a tasty dinner, there was a musical program. A very nice touch was a "reunion" of past choir members and their choir director - they all gathered in the chapel and sang "Rejoice, the Lord is King."

Finally, this is Elder Bolander with his companion Elder Lopes. He is Bruce's cousin - and he is serving in the Arcadia Mission. He looks like a Bolander I think - I told him he'd make the blog!! (This doesn't have anything to do with anniversaries either, but I couldn't not note that we met Elder B.!)

christmas

I don't know about you but this picture makes me excited for the holidays.

Happy Day to Matt!

The Christmas Eve before their wedding, Matt and Eliza were with us - and we were excited - at least I was excited - for them to open the "pajamas" for that year - we had custom tees that had a picture of a house with a welcome mat that said, "Welcome Matt!"

And we've been glad ever since that he joined our family!!

Have a great day - and remind Eliza to unearth the gift I left for you when I was there in October!!

And check out Eliza's blog for a vintage shot of Matt!

"That song keeps running through my head . . ."

Dad, Noah and I went to the opera tonight - at the Dorothy Chandler - saw Bizet's Carmen.

It was tragic - seems like most operas are - but well sung - by names I'd never heard of, so I won't list them. The dancing was great too. Sets and costumes were pretty snazzy also.

A nice evening - started it out at Cafe Merengue here in town - Cuban food - good stuff. The chocolate eclairs are very good - and I am an expert in that arena, so you can take my word for it. Ran into Kaylene Petersen and family - they sat by our table and we had some good conversation.

I should have had Noah take a picture in front of the big Carmen poster outside the Pavilion.

Instead if you look read hard you can see City Hall.

A real "night on the town!!"

Sam came to visit

Sam came to visit on Monday night.


It was very fun to see him and he loved holding Ida.

Too bad he fell victim to some really gross cookies I made (unintentionally gross...) but the lasagna Matt made was really quite tasty.

Don't you want to come visit now? I promise I'll put baking soda in the cookies.

Message for Grandma Mary

One season ends

and another never seems to end. (I'm referring to fire season.)

Esme' had her last game of the season last Saturday. She was VERY excited to get her trophy. Sometimes I think that is the sole reason behind her desire to play soccer. Ara was supposed to have her playoffs today. They were canceled due to very poor air quality. So we are feasting on watermelon, cheese, juice and cookies as I was in charge of snack for Ara's game.

"Girls' Night Out!!"

There was a special fireside in our stake featuring Anita Stansfield, a popular Mormon author, who was commissioned by the Joseph and Emma Hale Smith Historical Foundation to write a book about Emma.

The book is called Emma: Woman of Faith.

Dad was busy with a Sunday School activity with his class, so I invited Mom, Donna and Mary to join me for dinner and the fireside.

It was fun to be together and visit and catch up. And the fireside was very informative. One thought she shared certainly made an impact. First she shared that the descendants of Joseph and Emma fall into 3 groups - know nothing about the church, are members of churches that are off-shoots of the Reorganized Church, or are LDS - the last group is the smallest.

Also, one of Joseph and Emma's grandsons immigrated to Australia, and there is a large group of descendants there now.

Sister Stansfield talked about a meeting with some women, all direct descendants , who were members of other faiths. And they were arguing about the merits of their respective beliefs.

Her comment, "How ironic to see the descendants of Joseph Smith arguing points of doctrine - the very situation that led Joseph to go to the grove in the first place."

It was a good way to spend the evening.

"Step right up . . ."

So Harry is into G-Chat - came over and set it up on my computer - then "called" up and we chatted with the kids . It was pretty fun.

Harry F. says he's not too up on Skype and understands this better - thinks everyone should get a webcam for Christmas so we can G-Chat all the time.

Of course, now you will all be able to see my grapefruit remains and I won't want to "chat" in my p.j.'s - or maybe I will.

I often do email either early a.m. or late p.m. when I don't look my best.

And I will have to keep the laundry/computer/sewing room tidy too.

(Dad took his glasses off since they have a glare on them.)

One day Facebook, next day G-Chat.

This from the woman who initially resisted word processing!!

(There's a moral here - but I'm not sure what it is!!)

Look here!!

It's been awhile since Donna posted - but check her out here for a fun post!

Another Successful Grandma's Sleepover

I actually had not done a Grandma's Sleepover with any grandsons, so this was a new one. I thought, what will take the place of getting a manicure?

Grandpa to the rescue - he let Hootie help him clean out the fireplace, bring in firewood and start a fire! Porter was delighted!

He was cautious too - he sort of "threw" the wood onto the grate. But it worked!

Uncle Noah joined us - and Hootie was happy to have him hold the roasters while we fixed our roasted hot dogs for dinner!

We had toasted marshmallows too - and Dad made s'mores while Hootie was in the tub.

He enjoyed the tub - and the new "motorboat" I'd added to the pile of tub toys.

If you can believe it, Grandpa had never played Connect Four! Nor had Porter - but they both learned - and both had fun!

I was up for Hi Ho Cheer i o! Do I look tired? I think I was - and Porter looks a bit skeptical here - we had forgotten the rules and couldn't find them - so we made them up as we went along.

Bedtime was smooth - Porter drifted off to the accompaniment of Scripture Scouts - I'm getting a lot of mileage out of those tapes! I need to tell Shirley - she introduced me to them. He also enjoyed the "glow in the dark" stars that Hannah or Eliza put on the ceiling years ago!

The next morning, after strawberries and waffles - Porter preferred strawberries and Cheerios - he and I headed off to the mall - and the carousel. He was enthralled by the very large Christmas tree they had there.

And the light saber in a store window!

I have been having a toothache - so went to the dentist - turns out I need a root canal - Susanne and Grandma T. were there - so they watched him while I consulted with the dentist. And Dad watched him while I went to the specialist in Pasadena.

They went to Home Depot for a hammer - Burminco was not open today, so we will go get our geodes later in the week. The guys seemed to have a fine time.

A sleepover with Porter is lots of fun. And now we know what to do for the grandsons - build fires, roast edibles and cruise around Home Depot!

Veteran's Day

Some school districts took today off too - but not ours. Which is okay with me - we get the Wednesday before Thanksgiving off instead - but I have been explaining Veteran's Day and why we celebrate it on the exact day - for weeks now. And the kids still don't get it.

Which is maybe why the veterans wanted us to focus on the day itself and not just the idea of a holiday.

Here's to all those who have made the ultimate sacrifice.

And to the possibility of seeing an end to war.

Wage peace!

Quince

More pix here.

The costume lives on

30 years later.

Battery ran out!!

I was thinking that I should charge my camera battery - and didn't!

So we went to Isela's Quincinera last night - and Bonny has the photos - she said she will post them - it was fun - I'd never been to one.

Isela is so grown up!!

How does this happen?

It's been a busy weekend - we worked at the temple, had a Stake Temple Day too. And the fiesta!

And I spoke in Sacrament meeting today. It went well, and I felt good about it.

And I have a stake R.S. meeting tonight with the ward presidencies.

Tomorrow Porter comes for his Grandma's Sleepover - and the battery is charged!

She smiles!

Happy Birthday Grandpa Clayton

I'm pretty sure I show the same photo and tell the same story every year for my dad's birthday.
But how fitting!! (for the uninitiated - my dad was famous for repeating stories!! But that is why we loved him!!)

He was born the day that Woodrow Wilson was elected President of the United States. And Harry F. was first in line to choose his president for the President report for Mr. Dagne. And he rushed home to say that he got Wilford Woodruff!!

But he started his report thusly, "Two important things happened on November 7, 1916. Woodrow Wilson was elected President and my Grandpa Robert Clayton was born."

Happy Day Dad!!

Let me be the first to say . . .

I was proud to be an American tonight.

John McCain gave a very gracious and conciliatory concession speech. I having nothing but admiration for a man who can swallow defeat and urge his supporters to do the same. I hope his supporters will follow his lead.

And I hope everyone will get behind our new leaders and unite for the good of us all.

Dad often says, "There is no candidate who believes exactly as I do on every issue. So I go with the one who seems to be with me on most of the important issues." I think it's good advice.

I am favorably impressed with President-elect Obama - and with him want to say, "God bless the United States of America."

And I'll be going to bed before we know about Prop. 8 - but we will hold out hope.

P.S. Boony posted a great Langston Hughes poem here. Very fitting.

VOTE!!

I was thinking that with the last election I was not a blogger of any sort - didn't read them - probably didn't really know what they were.

So I am interested to see how the blog world sees the election.

Meanwhile, I'm getting up early to vote - just in case there is a line.

Unlike Karl, I do think votes count - everyone of them!!

(Gore lost by some 600+ votes in Florida!)

Just in case you were wondering what Agnes looked like last Sunday.