Rancho Bernardo Fire

Last night I saw President Bush visiting the neighborhood where I lived in Rancho Bernardo. It was such a charming neighborhood with all English country names and tile roofs. I loved that home. It is where we were living when Richard passed away. It was to be our retirement home. The fire struck just one day before our 48th wedding anniversary--we were only in the home eight years and this is a picture of our first or second Christmas there I believe.

It looked like a war zone with just a few houses left standing. It showed the house number of the home they were filming and it was just a couple streets beyond my street. It also showed the hill we looked out on from our home. So far no houses on Camberwell Lane have been listed as destroyed (there were only about 5 on that Lane). But every street around Camberwell Lane had most of the homes listed as burned. It is so sad.

James called though, and after being evacuated since Monday from their home in Rancho Santa Fe, he said everything looks fine. It appears the fire went around them and the ashes drifted over them to Fairbanks Ranch. He hasn't looked at the new house being built yet, but from what he has been told, it appears that one has come through unscathed also. So thankful!

My Love for Sweatshirts!

A few years ago, when I began traveling so much with the government, I starting buying a sweat shirt at places I visited. Then, family members also began buying me sweatshirts at places they visited and I can now wear a different sweatshirt each day of the month and still not wear them all. I love sweatshirts and though a good many are red or blue I really like my yellow one, my two coral ones, my Bear Hug beige, Hawaiian beige, four white ones, three black ones, purple etc. as well. Since I live in sweat shirt country most of the year and also need beach sweat shirts when traveling south to San Diego they all get lots of use.

Some of the places represented in my collection are Billy-Bobs, Fort Worth, TX; Galveston Island, TX; Coronado, Ca; San Diego, Ca; San Diego Zoo; Lake Tahoe, CA; Lake Almanor, CA (2); Maui; Old Navy (San Diego); Oxford; Yale; Lassen College; BYU; BYU Alumni; Makoshika, Glendive, MT; Silvergate, MT; Yellowstone; Rain Forest Cafe, Denver, CO; Annapolis, MD; Crossing the Chesapeake, MD; Virgin Islands; Los Cabos; New York City; Park City, UT; Okika, HA; Charleston, West VA; Venice, Italy; Vince Buzz (John's trademark); Harrods, London; and UC Davis. Also T Shirts from Guam, Dawson County High School, Greece, Silversea Cruise Line, Parrot Cafe and Pulsifer Ortho which I use at the Gym in the summer.

When Richard passed away each of the grandchildren were given at least one thing from him. However, he was not a collector so there was not a lot to go around besides his ski paraphernalia and his books. With all my collections of Dolls, Paper Dolls, CDs, Videos, DVDs, Sweatshirts, Memory Books, Family Portraits, Scrapbooks and Quilts I am sure a lot of my things will end up in the dump. Ce La Vie!

Carla

My friend Carla whom I had written about from my childhood sent this picture today. She is sitting with her son Ken on her last birthday. She still looks like a young gal and he is very handsome. Thank you, Carla, it is so fun to see friends in our old age who we knew as children.

Unfulfilled Wishes

I think, as adults, we try to fulfill those wishes we had as children that never came true. Which is why Baby John ended up with a red ranch wagon at the age of 3 (Richard's unfulfilled wish) and why I ended up with 7 Shirley Temple dolls in my 50's. It was 1939 and I wanted a Shirley Temple doll with all my heart. My mother knew that and had purchased one (though they were hard to come by). She had hidden it, along with all the other special Christmas presents for the six of us, at the store my dad managed downtown. Just before Christmas, a customer had pleaded with my Dad to sell him a doll and Dad, thinking the doll could be easily replaced, sold it to the man. Mother was furious, so I am told, because not one could be found at that late date. Thus my doll for Christmas was a substitute, building three things into my young mind. 1--You do not get what you wish for 2--Christmas can be very disappointing, so don't get your hopes up 3--If you really want something, you have to get it for yourself. Those three impressions stayed with me the rest of my life.

Mother had a friend named Bertha and she and her husband Bud had never been able to have children. We loved Bertha but her husband was a little gruff and frankly, he scared me. Bertha knew my desire and told me if I would just come to live with her for awhile she would see that I got my Shirley Temple doll. I don't remember discussing this with my mother but I am sure I did. I do remember packing a little suitcase and my brother Dick carrying it for me as we walked about a block to Bertha's house. It was getting dark so it must have been after supper. As we stopped in front of the house and looked up the stairs, there, lighted in the window, was Bud! I can still see him as if it were yesterday. He was sitting in his chair reading his paper. I was frozen. I could not go up those steps. Dick tried to encourage me but I would not move. Finally, with sadness in my heart, but no tears (no one would ever see me cry)I turned and slowly walked back home and I never got my Shirley Temple doll.

Many, many years later after the children were raised, and I was earning money, I told no one, but I starting buying my Shirley Temple doll(s) one by one.

"I'm Going To Buy A Paper Doll"

Was a favorite song in the 50's but I have taken it literally and have collected over 50 books of paper dolls. My favorite is "Gone With the Wind" reprinted for the 50th Anniversary of the movie. Meagan's mother Jennifer bought them for me. The reason I like them so well is they are an exact replica of the kind we played with in my early grade school years.

My first set of dolls was when I was about 5. I remember because we were in the white house on the South Side of Glendive and all my brothers and sisters were in school. It was a large Snow White and all the Seven Dwarfs. I would play school with them all over the living room. You can't find a set like that anymore. Nor can you find the Bride and Groom set we had with all the attendants, flower girls, ring bearer, plus mother and father of the bride.

I probably did not have many of my own, but my friend Donna had many sets and they were all kept neatly in boxes in her closet. She and her sister Pat had a huge double bedroom with beds to the side of the room so we had a lot of room to spread them out. Donna and I would play for hours, she was a year younger, but we had lived next door to each other on the South Side and we followed them to the Heights. Our parents fished together among other things so we were together quite a bit.

Her mother always had homemade vanilla ice cream and Hershey's topping and often home made cookies. It was a nice place to be. Sometimes I would stay till after dark and because I was afraid to walk on the sidewalk by all the bushes and hedges, I would walk for a block in the middle of the street and sing "He Walks With Me", a hymn I had learned at the Methodist Church, and then I would run up the dark hill to our house as fast as I could go.

BYU and FIZZIX

When I attended BYU, there were 5000 students and probably 1/4th the buildings. Now, among other things, BYU is seventh in the world for turning research into products for the marketplace, based on licensing income relative to research expenditures. This is the latest!

BYU food science professor Lynn Ogden invented the “zing” in General Mills' new carbonated yogurt product by experimenting with dry ice and yogurt. His patented tingle is now available in stores all over the country. It has taken 20 years to get from his first idea to actual manufacturing.

"Brigham Young University was a great partner for us," said Lisa Schroeder, R&D Vice President, Yoplait division, General Mills. "The launch of Fizzix(TM) carbonated yogurt is an example of successfully bringing together two parties with complementary capabilities and resources to introduce a novel product to consumers."

Besides this The Wall Street Journal ranked Brigham Young University’s Master of Business Administration program first among regional schools in the paper’s 2007 report of top business programs, up from third in 2006 and sixth in 2005. The Marriott School was also ranked number two among the best schools for hiring graduates with strong ethical standards behind Dartmouth College.

It's A Small World

When Lea was born about 7 1/2 years ago Camber chose the name of her mother Mary's best friend from college days in Utah, Leah (but spelled it differently). She had said she really admired Leah and loved the name. I had mentioned at the time that my first baby sitter with Baby John in Pacific Beach was a Leah and she was a really special girl, beautiful and smart.

This last year when Camber was looking for a cleaning lady her mother Mary suggested she talk to Leah's brother Tracy in San Marcos as he knew some ladies who hired out. In their conversation Camber mentioned her mother-in-law and Tracy was incredulous. "Janet is your husband's mother? You are married to that Jimmy. I know Janet, we lived near them in Pacific Beach. I even babysat Jimmy!" She gave Tracy my phone number and he immediately called me and we talked over the 60's, when we lived in Pacific Beach, and where we had been since that time.

Thus we found that the Leah from college days of Grandma Mary and the Leah from babysitting days of Grandma Janet was one and the same person! It is a very small world, indeed, and Lea has a beautiful name, named after a very beautiful lady.