The weekend wrap-up - just in time for mid-week!

The weekend was not so hectic but did seem to fly by. And I did have Monday off and truly had a day off from just about everything except the couch!

Sunday night was dinner at Harry and Dawn's -Eve took this picture. All those grandkids are ace camera people.

Among the dessert choices were the remains of the strawberry shortcake on Eve's plate.

Dawn whipped up a great feast - and Harry F. cooked the chicken - it was mighty tasty.


Some men just have to clown for the camera!

Andy Jones and his wife and daughters joined us - a fine time was had by all.

Saturday night featured a Gospel Essentials class potluck - including alumni - at the Heslops. Lots of good food and good company. Even got a mention at F&T meeting.

And Saturday was a Stake R.S. Day at the temple. A lovely experience. Here's a shot looking at where the Security shack used to stand. There's some construction going on - maybe the next time you come it will all be done.

I'm thinking this post will be trumped by a really great April Fool's joke.

FYI

We had our school fundraiser this past weekend. Bruce and I opted out. It sounded fun, but we had about 47 other things going that day and night and couldn't summon the energy to plunk down $125 per ticket to go and see the Gipsy Kings perform at the Jewish Center.

But, all is not lost. They had a successful auction at the party, and have continued the joy here.

You can bid on things like a signed Twilight poster, a signed Jonas Brothers Camp Rock poster or VIP tix to Dancing with the Stars.


And all proceeds go to enriching the education of my children. ;)

Cub Scout Memories

All this talk about Cub Scouts on Phoebe's blog got me going down Memory Lane - quite a ways in some cases!

Harry F. as a new Cub in the backyard on Lime.

Harry and Damond as new Cubs proudly showing off their stuff!

Pinewood Derby circa 1996 - Noah is in the middle - and that's a young Sarah Cornwall on the floor!

Noah is on the front row on your right facing the photo - I'm in the middle of the back row with Tom Shea and Connie - we were a team!

Off to Cub Day Camp - actually a lot of fun.

Back in the day, Cubs wore their uniforms to school - I don't know if they still do or not.

See what you have to look forward to Phoebe??

Some "food for thought" - if you are "hungry" that way!

In case you are not in the habit of reading the book blog, check out my latest review.

(I'm not sure what I am going to do when I don't have an excuse to stay off my feet anymore - and on that cheery note, I have received my authorization for surgery - and I see the doctor on Tuesday. Watch for more good news!!)

Some felicitations are in order today!

Today is my good friend Sharon Swenson's birthday!! We met at the U of U when Dad was there. Bonny has the distinction of riding home in their car from the hospital when she was born - we didn't have a car! And Sharon owned Elizabeth, our wonderful cat who died of cat leukemia when we lived in Centerville. They had to get rid of one of their cats - the landlord had said halt to the number they could have - so that's how we acquired our beloved Elizabeth. And I had my one and only ride on a horse at Sharon's parent's house in Cedar City - and that too was many years ago - as in Bonny was our only child at the time!! Sharon and I don't see each other often, but when we do, it's as if we pick up where we last left off - it is seamless - the mark of true friendship. She was also on Hannah's Study Abroad in London - I was jealous when Hannah recounted long train rides home full of conversation with Sharon!! Harry F. got to know her in the film department at BYU too.

Have a happy day Sharon!!

And I'm always using this pic because I don't have many of my nephew Chris - he's the tall boy in the middle - but it is his birthday today too. We don't have a lot of contact with their family, but we wish him well all the same!!

Enjoy the day!!

And Now, 500,000 Arcana Bonus Points for....

Some scholars have said that Wm. Shakespeare and Ben Jonson were rivals, and in the spirit of Elizabethan times would ridicule one another when given the chance. Win your arcana bonus points by completing the following outburst attributed to Shakespeare as he saw Jonson across a public road (your guess may be as good as the original!):

"You're a scholar Ben, ____ ____ __ __?"

Question of the Day

The apostle Paul is famous for his oratory and had studied the law under Gamaliel, one of the most influential lawyers of his time. But he also had another vocation. What was it?

Let's get the party started right!

When we lived in the Bay Area we were fortunate enough to live in a fabulous ward. They were fabulous is many different areas, but the one part that they really shone was the music and talent department. Our ward parties are unrivaled. We have yet to be in another ward that can even come remotely close to the kind of quality entertainment that we enjoyed while there. Not only was every party performance based, usually the "Ward Band" comprised of many members, including the Bishop and his wife, a percussionist. They actually rocked out on a regular basis. My dear friend, Janelle, just posted about the most recent ward activity.
So if you are the current Ward Activities Chair or feel that you might one day be one, definitely head over there and check it out.
I am tempted to start flying down for ward parties at least once a quarter.

http://janelles.wordpress.com/2009/03/23/to-every-thing-there-is-a-season/

Question of the Day

Grandma Terrill was Ara's age when this
(one of my sentimental favorites) was built. Where is it?

Florida recap

So I'm finally reporting on our most recent family trip.

I think this is the first vacation we've been on since having kids that didn't involve visiting family. As much as I, of course, LOVE visiting family, it is also fun to go on an adventure to a new place! We had some free flights to use up this spring and decided on South Florida.

The pics aren't in order because I always forget that Blogger loads them backwards.

How do I feel about Atlantic Ocean beaches? I am torn. On the one hand they are fabulous--warm water! (at least south of NJ/DE or so) and on the other hand they are not fabulous--no big waves and you must wade way, way out before the water goes above your waist. In some instances that is fabulous, such as in the instance that a two-year-old wants to explore the waves. Theo did great and as you can see even went under water.


An attempt to take a binky-less picture right after naps was unsuccessful. Here Theo is trying to grab his binky back.


Ida was a great companion and a happy traveler. She slept in her carseat and Theo slept on the pull-out couch. We weren't sure if we would have a suite but we did! Score!


Theo, also generally pretty great, especially if he had a binky, blanket, and sunglasses within arm's reach. We tried out a red Dodge Charger and made a game out of counting them on the roads. I think we got up to 15 or so. Our guess was that they were all rentals too.

No, that's not the sunrise. We explored one evening and found a small harbor somewhere between Ft. Lauderdale and Miami. Theo liked the boats.

Our hotel was right across the street from the beach. Every morning and after naps Theo raced to the window to see the "osha."

This is from our first day there--clearly we were all still in "winter" mode and straight from the airport since we all had long sleeves on. That changed quickly. The speck you see in the background is a cruise ship--we watched many a Caribbean-bound ship take off from the port just a few miles south of our hotel. Bahamas, anyone?

There were lots of little places to eat along the boardwalk. After a couple of days of that, however, we found a Sweet Tomatoes, which, while not so romantic, was a little easier on the old wallet. DC doesn't have a Sweet Tomatoes, so I personally was in heaven! And you can imagine how Theo liked it. All the pasta and bread and muffins you can handle? And ice cream? Yes, he was a fan. And the people-watching was great. Pretty much what you might imagine a Sweet Tomatoes in Hollywood, Florida looks like at about 5 p.m.


Anyway, it's definitely a "family" trip when you consider some of the highlights to be Sweet Tomatoes and the pull-out couch in the hotel room. But it was very fun, a much-needed break for all of us--we were gone for four days--and I definitely want to go back next year!

Long ago in Malibu

Gotcha with the title right??

Go here for Bonny's report on this year's Websterville Project at Webster Elementary School.

I was happy to be a part in it - I knew there was a good reason to save all those Pioneer Day costumes!

And the funny story about Mennonites reminds me of the baby cap I crocheted for baby niece Jennifer many, many years ago - like we lived in Centerville! And Rose Ann wrote in the thank you note, "It reminds me of all the Mennonite babies we see around here!" (They lived in Montana at the time.)

And the photo is just to pique your interest - and to show that Bonny has always looked good in pioneer wear!

Brush with Awesomeness

Hey all -

Nebeker's son, Israel has an awesome band, Blind Pilot.

I love this song, in particular.




They are getting a quite a bit of press which is cool. They are at SXSW this week. Links here, and here.

They were also on Carson Daly.

They also have a MySpace page and a Facebook page and all manner of pages I would think. Anyway - pretty cool.

"Theater in the Round" - Ides of March style!!

The usual pizza, fruit and Cesar's Salad dinner - heavily laden with good conversation and camraderie - was followed by the usual choral performance of "Because I Have Been Given Much" - and thank heavens that Jeff Combe plays the piano or we would have had to sing A Capella - and then we got down to business with casting the parts!

Once again Dad - our master producer/director - assigned roles that allowed everyone to shine!

Jeff added a nice touch by interspersing musical "comments" to go with some of the action in the play.

The famous death scene - Andy did a great job as Mark Antony. Cameron Combe was Cesar. And once again Grandma T. stole the show as the Soothsayer. Marcie says she comes just for that!!

The de rigeur "group shot" - we sorely missed Jenny D. and Allen - he was ill - I had extolled his virtuosity to all - we will just have to wait until next year, I suppose.

Unless we have another night of drama. Do you think anyone would come?

Informal poll

Do we have an updated picture that we can put in the blog header? Just wondering.

Beware the Ides of March!!

This was the first Ides of March Party - in 1970 - or maybe later - but we were in SLC.

This was last year's party I think.

Bonny, really getting into her part.

Maybe this is 3 years ago. It was a small group - the one and only time we didn't do it on a Monday night - this was a Saturday night. Monday seems to get a better turnout!

Watch for an upcoming post after tonight's gala affair!!

So, the weekend winds down . . .

I usually forget to get someone to take a picture of me - not that you need one - but here's Eve's rendition of Dad and me!! I especially like the perky bows!

After dinner I tried to get everyone excited about Quiddler - I only converted Dawn - although Dad will play it with me. We ended up doing Mormon Poker - the old standby from Youth Conference days.

Eve - like most of the grandkids - enjoys the white board.

Dawn can always be found helping in the kitchen.

The men were at the computer checking out the stats on Harry's Baker to Vegas run yesterday - his department got a mug - which means they placed.

Harry and Porter were digging for treasure and worms - Porter found a very old penny - felt vindicated for his efforts.

Our talks went well - it was just good going through the exercise of preparing them - usually the best part about being asked to speak. Then I roasted a chicken - and Dawn did the salad and potatoes. Dad is getting good at following my instructions for the other details -I've been hitting the couch a lot - to relieve the "ouch" in my knees!!

So it's back to Monday - seems to roll around with regularity!!

A busy week - even with the weekend!!

The week has been a busy one - at home, at school, at church!! But it's been a lot of fun too. In the midst of the busyness, it was great to get an email from Betsy saying that they were in SoCal - at Disneyland of course - and could they come Thursday night!! It's always great to have our standing invite taken up!

One of the busy events was the 8th grade field trip to see "Shakespeare Live" at the Glendale Centre Theater - I got to go along, but that meant leaving lesson plans for my 6th and 7th graders. Leaving sub plans always makes the week longer!!

The actors meet the kids afterwards in the lobby. It's a fun show and it's great to see so many gets start to get a good feeling about Shakespeare.

Nate, Betsy and kids showed up around 7:30 on Thursday - and when Dawn got home from Enrichment (I left early), she and Harry and the kids came over. For not having known each other before, the kids got along great. (Nate and Harry served in the same mission in Bulgaria - at the same time too.)

The Marble works were a big hit - I'm so glad I remembered that I had them - I found them at Christmas time - I was grumbling around accusing Harry of having tossed them until I finally found where I had put them when I changed the spot they had resided in for several years - something I keep telling myself not to do. Even if it's not a really good place for them, if something has been there for forever, it's best to just leave it there! (I don't care what the organizing gurus say!)


I have often said that Baby Harry really thinks he's one of the big kids - when he couldn't reach the top of the marble works structure, we got a stool for him to stand on - it was pretty fun to watch him go up and down on the stool - picking up one marble at a time!! The kids got them going in big batches and it was fun to watch - I'd forgotten how much fun it was! The marbles were clickety-clacking like gangbusters!!

The wooden puzzle was a hit too. The Brunner kids are a nice bunch - we'd love to see more of them! Hopefully Disneyland will remain a family fave!

I would have taken Friday off, but it was "Pink Friday" and we "leafletted" around the perimeter of the campus Friday a.m. before school started so I had to be there very early. It was also our validation day for the renewal of our California Distinguished School status. The principal had pretty much said no one could be absent - and I had to attend the session where they questioned the Instructional Leadership Team - of which I am a member. And they visited my classroom twice during the day. We passed with flying colors too - the whole school, that is.

Harry and Dawn took off for Las Vegas around noon on Friday - Harry started the babysitting honors. The Brunners headed for the beach and the Bolanders. They spent Friday night at Grandma Clayton's - at least that was the plan. Haven't seen any blog posts to the contrary. We promised the kids s'mores, so you can see that we are good for our word - and that Eve enjoys the gooey, sticky treat that is a s'more!

Harry's a fan too!

Porter ate his share, but he's a fan of the fireplace and roasting marshmellows with Grandpa!

Dawn got back today and Harry returns to tomorrow - we ended up at the Scout Fundraiser - Potluck and a Secret Auction - I had donated 4 aprons and I think they got a few dollars for them. I'm always happy to help the Scouts!

And it's always great to share some conversation with our good friend Hal Card - what a fine man he is!! (He's Noah's landlord too!)

Dad and I are companion speakers for Larry Daines tomorrow in the Arcadia Ward, so we spent the afternoon planning our remarks.

I'd better go finish planning!