New Neighbors

How I knew they were not like most of our other neighbors:
#1. Moving van. NO ONE around here uses a moving van. Usually, the new people pull up in a pick-up or borrowed van and the entire elders' quorum shows up to unload. I can't even remember seeing a moving van in the neighborhood.

#2. When we went to meet them in their home, the first things I saw were: 4 poodles yapping/barking, climbing all over me. And, a 1/2 empty bottle of Jack Daniels on the kitchen counter. In most of the homes, it would be 4 children yelling/screaming, climbing all over, and a 1/2 empty bottle of caffeine-free coke on the kitchen counter.

#3. The air was permeated with smoke. The smoke that we are more used to in this neighborhood is barbecue smoke from steaks/burgers on the grill.

BUT, from the moment we met B & B, we liked them - a lot.

Both are small; stature and physique. Both drove for Disney for many years...Bill as a cross-country truck driver, Barbara as a sort of chauffeur, needing to be ready at a minute's notice.

Barbara is spunky, fiesty, opinonated.
Bill is hard-working, gets things done.

And, they are great, great neighbors. Last night they brought over home-made enchiladas...oh, so good. Two weeks ago, it was home-made split-pea soup. They don't eat sweets at all, so at Christmas when someone sent them a package of chocolates, candies, etc., they gave it to us. And, after I had this blog posted, Bill brought over home-made lasagna to share....

They aren't like a lot of the people in the neighborhood, it's true, but oh, how great to know Bill and Barbara!

The Kid with the Musical Ears

"Hey," Martha said as we sat around in her living room. We were all being entertained by Jeremy as he swayed and stamped to the music at age 18 months. "Did you know that Jeremy has musical ears."

(She had taken one of those classes where you read people's faces and can tell about their personalities.)

She got that right...he does indeed, have musical ears.

I just came across a letter I wrote to my parents when Jeremy was in junior high -

I was quoting the band teacher who said, "In all my years of teaching, I've never had

a saxophone player who was as natural as Jeremy."

Ah, he's musical and cute too!

"Hello myself," I heard him talking on the phone one day....then, "How are you myself?"

One day, as I heard Jeremy mowing the back lawn, I looked outside the upstairs window,

and he had mowed,

"I Love Mom"

in the lawn.

Where's the camera when you need it?

When he was in the 7th grade, he and Jim Taylor leaned across the aisle and whispered to each other,

"When we grow up, let's be doctors."

Today- both of them are doctors.

Jeremy is a Navy Doctor/Anesthesiologist

currently serving at an Army base in Farah, Afghanistan

So, today, Happy, happy Birthday.

We are, indeed, proud of you!

And, thanks for this service to our country, dear son, Jeremy!

Birth Order Conundrum

Let me just say right out: I believe in birth order - generally speaking.

I have 4 oldest grandchildren....3 of them have the characteristics of typical first children;

follow the rules, feel responsible over younger siblings (even if it is to beat them up occasionally), in general do what adults ask them to.

2nd children tend to not follow the rules as much, be more independent, rebellious.

How does this happen? Why does this happen? Is it true in all cultures? (Ha! That's funny because in lots of cultures, they only have one child, so who would know about birth order in those societies?!)

Last night, J said about his 2 boys; "They are just SO very different, could it be birth order?"

Who knows? We just all come so different with different personalities; it's hard to tell what causes this difference.

But, I believe that birth order does account for some of it.

So, how about you...what do you think?!?!

The Weather Person

"We'd like to introduce you to the newest member of our weather family here in St. George.....

"LGH is our new weather person. The thing that is interesting about LGH is that she has not had any formal training in weather. In fact, she said she thought the JET STREAM referred to the white stuff forming out the tail end of a jet flying in the sky.

"But, we hired her because she is ALMOST FLAWLESS in predicting R*A*I*N. She gets it right almost 100 per cent of the time. Our other weather persons were never that accurate.

"So, LGH, tell us, without even going to weather school, how is it that you can get it right so often?"

LGH: It's quite easy, really. I just wash my windows! I can't predict if it will be a hard, terrible rain, or a light rain, but whenever I wash my windows, within a few hours or days, it rains....sometimes a light rain, just enough to spot and ruin the newly-cleaned windows. Sometimes a downpour, which really gets those windows filthy.

I can wash my windows in a perfect, cloudless sky, or when the weatherman says no rain is coming for months, and poof, once those windows are sparkling clean, HERE COMES DE RAIN!

I don't mean to brag, but I've been good at this for several years now. And, sometimes, I have the dirty windows to prove it!

"It's great to have you on board, LGH. We'll look forward to many years of you letting us know when we can expect the R*A*I*N."

Why I Love Wednesdays

I get up early; exercise if time....

get dressed in a dress;
(a person doesn't have to wear a dress to the family history center; in fact, I'm the only one who ever wears a dress, but I like wearing dresses, and I have no pants that currently fit - thank you very much. Today, I wore a funky new black and white skirt with elastic waistband that cut off the circulation to my lower body. I thought I might be rushed to emergency, but I made it through the morning.)

head out to the family history center to be there by 8:40.

And, just enjoy the rest of the morning.

It's so fun to help the patrons. Some very skilled at computers, some with little or no keyboard experience, but all wanting to gather their family history. It's truly beautiful and inspiring to me.

Today, I was working with a lady - about 75 - who was so impatient when the computer wouldn't respond instantaneously or before. It just made me chuckle because here's a lady who grew up without anything remotely like a computer, but she wanted the information NOW, NOW, NOW!

I also took a class on GOOGLE. Awesome, helpful, and it included things that Jordan had shown me before, and encouraged me to use, but I forgot!



I love the missionaries, the volunteers, the patrons, and just the general atmosphere.



So, now you know why I love Wednesdays!

In Love - with TIVO

"Are you watching Oprah?" she asked when I called her on the telephone.
"No, I never watch it."
"Wanda Barzee's children are on."

Now, my curiousity was piqued. Wanda Barzee, in case you live on a planet far away, was the kidnapper of Elizabeth Smart...and if you don't know who that is, I can't help you - you definitely are from another galaxy.

But, I had a special interest in Wanda Barzee's children because for two and a half years Wanda's niece lived across the street from me. I loved AL; beautiful, extremely talented, and a great neighbor.

So, I wanted to meet - via Oprah - AL's cousins.

It was 3:45. I could get 15 minutes of the interview...oh, so wrong...here's what happened.

Commercial was on when I turned on the tv. I waited - more, more, more commercials.

Finally, Oprah herself appeared, "Have you forgiven your mother yet? .....We'll find out what they have to say after this commercial break."

More, more, more commercials.

Then again Oprah: "Just before the commercial, we were asking if you had forgiven your mother?"

Oldest daughter: "Healing is a....."

Oprah: "We'll continue that thought after this break."

More, more ,more commercials.

Anyway, you get the picture. 15 minutes of the show left on the clock; but, in actuality, maybe five minutes of show - 10 minutes of commercials.

So, that is why I love TIVO, because we do not have to sit through those interminable commercials. Even though we don't watch a lot of tv, thank you TIVO, for rescuing RAH and MOI from those long, long, long, long commercial breaks.

And, another thing; thanks to Jordan enlightening us, we now can watch Netflix movies/tv shows through our tv/TIVO. Oh, it is slick.

RAH said, "When our friends come over tonite, can you get us a good movie?"

I look on the Netflix list on the computer, click the blue ADD button, and presto, the movie or tv show is instantly on our tv. Granted, there is not a huge variety of newer stuff available for instant viewing, and we'll still order movies that arrive in our mailbox, but this is pretty slick indeed.

Thanks for the heads-up, Jordan!

Speaking of Jordan, he introduced us to my newest favorite extinct tv show; it's British; it's snarky; and it's called DOC MARTIN....fun, fun, fun.

She Finally Looks Like the Rest of Us!

Happy Growing Older, Barbie!