The Many Faces of Maria

Beautiful Baby

Early Walker and Speedy Stair Crawler

 Little Sister

Mischief Maker and Classy Dresser

Middle Child and  Big Sister

Can Fix a Great Breakfast

Charming Smile

Food Lover

Fun Auntie

Terrific Mom

Fun Traveler and Sister

Loving Girlfriend and Adventurer

Appreciates Nature

                                                     Fun to Be With and Wonderful Friend!

Caring Daughter

And no picture-- but a very successful career lady in a very intricate and difficult career--and a writer we all love to read...Happy Birthday Maria, you've come a long way, Babe.

Love One Another

Tonight I received a beautiful note of appreciation and friendship from a ward member.  It was so unexpected and yet so needed.  We are all in need of validation and support from others and yet how often we forget to express our thoughts of admiration and appreciation.

I immediately thought of two other women in 7th Ward who would write a nice note whenever they thought you had said or done something well.  What a kind thing we can do for others. 

Richard was good about that.  Even silly little things like, "I love how you have Christmas in our house from October to January."  or "Let's count how many dolls and stuffed animals Janet has in the house."  He could have made fun of my collections and traditions but he never did.  In fact, I remember so well when he insisted on buying the blue velvet bunny I had admired at the Craft Fair. I still love it.

I have probably said this before but if anyone would want to know how to show love to their partner, they should read the book about David and Emma McKay written by a son.  Their expressive love was legend and many couples learned from their example.

Through the Years with Mitch!

Mitch with his little cousin Jimmy.

Mitch with his Mom.

Mitch with his cousins.

    

Mitch in college and now he is 20!!!

Mitch, you are a sweetheart, and I like those curls.

My Sister Carole has a Birthday.

Today my sister Carole is turning 72 (I think). She is such a special person, I just want to pay tribute to her (again possibly.

She was always the sparkler of the family, the one everyone always enjoyed being with, listening to, or being heard by. She is a great Mom, teacher, speaker, and just a wonderful human being.

One of Carole’s best qualities is her ability to listen. She is not only a good listener but then she always has something positive to say. She Is a nurturer, one who cares, I don’t think she likes to let anyone feel badly. When I need a kind and sympathetic ear, I always call Carole.

She can also be very wise and speak up when a sane voice needs to be heard.

Carole always had lots of friends, like Marilyn, she acquires friends easily.

I can’t remember a time when Carole hasn’t been there for me. During high school, she was a lot younger so I mostly remember her as being cute and funny and always having a pet that she loved. She was always tender to the animals.

I can’t remember why we were at college one time together. Maybe it was the summer before I went to teach in San Diego. Anyway I just remember coming home too late to get in the dorm and her hand was waving out the window to let me know she would let me in.  No scolding, just being there.

When I had my first baby, she was teaching in San Diego, and was always there for me as a baby sitter, companion, listener, helper.

Carole also likes to decorate and move things around to make them more interesting. I tend to get things one way and leave it there forever. A funny story is when they were staying with us for awhile in the 1980’s. Richard and I had gone out and when we came back she had rearranged all the living room furniture, and that was not easy. It was a big room with lots of heavy furniture. Richard was incredulous, that she would have the nerve to do that. I didn’t think too much about it, just glad she was interested in making it better.

She was always the creative one, the one who could do things with flowers and such, talent I never inherited.

Of course, she was not for paper work. How well I remember when she worked a day in our loan office for one day and as she sat there there and looked at the paperwork, she looked at me and just said, “I can’t do this, I’ll go crazy.” Or something like that.

Oh, yes, she and I are very different, very different in deed. But I am so glad she has always been there for me, to make me feel loved and capable, and share in my grief and joy. 

She and Len are at Lolo, Mt with son Hunter and his new bride Toni.

Carole, a wonderful sister. How blessed to have sisters in my life.

Easter Dresses

I told Maria we always had new dresses for Easter. This is Mom, my sister-in-law Mary, me, Marilyn and Carole one Easter. I know I made my dress, not sure about the others. Everybody liked new dresses for Easter, and often hats...

Fun

Fun? Yesterday in the video Maria had on Facebook, it said to have Fun. So I have been thinking about what is Fun for me? Not going back to the Montana years but just from my adult years in San Diego, what has been fun for me?

I know what it is not—not fishing, not golf, not hiking, not clubs.

When I was a young, single, school teacher in San Diego it was going to the beach or bay every Saturday, just being lazy in the sun and chatting, body surfing, walking, eating, any kind of beach activity, day or night. That was fun.

Also when I was single the years of sailing every weekend. That was fun, really fun, I loved it. Never could get into the motor boating and water skiing but I loved the sailing. That was fun.

Though I wasn’t young, I loved the walking on the beach in Guam in 2002, 2003. You could go for about a mile in back of all the hotels. It was after work but still warm and light. There were so many interesting people to watch, music streaming from the hotels, beautiful sunset. I was sometimes with a friend and talking, but most often alone. The air was intoxicating, the view breathtaking. And then sitting on a chaise for awhile when the stars came out. That was fun. Really fun.

Also as a single, the dancing, the stake dances and then the officer clubs and hotels. After I married, same thing, stake dances, hotels. Richard was a great dancer and I always loved topping off a date night with dancing.

Of course, eating out is always fun, no matter what age...

The music, after Richard died, the music became such an important ‘me’ time…over 200 cds and 100 vcrs and dvds later I still love to turn off the tv and just hear the music, all my favorites, over and over…and if I have a really great book to escape into, yes, that is fun for me.

Also after Richard died, beach and bay biking with Nadine, yes, that was fun.
You can bike from the bay to the beach and it is all flat.
Very nice. 
When the children were little, here again, I think the beach and bay trips were always the must fun for me. I liked it much more than camping.

And then the skiing, loved the skiing years, that was very, very fun. The whole scene. Especially a sunny day and a rhythmic ski with family or friends and the eating in the lodge at the bottom. Yes, loved the skiing years. That was fun.

But all those years in the sun were not good for my fair skin—and I don’t have the body anymore that does well lolling on the beach. I also don’t have a friend with a sail boat and no skiing anymore so except for casual walks on the beach  or beach family gatherings when I am in San Diego—

So where is my fun now? Still enjoy a great book, still enjoy my music, I dance alone, not quite the same. I love the solitude and beauty of the mountains.  When I am in San Diego I enjoy the grandchildren, the family get-togethers, the eating out. That is fun.

But I am alone here…really not much opportunity for the kind of fun I once enjoyed…and no, I don't enjoy the golfing though I live in a Country Club with great golfing facilities and  I don't enjoy clubbing at the clubhouse.

Yes, I need to find new fun besides walking, blogging, family history, organizing my life, and yard work...

"I'll think about it tomorrow!"

Cute Great Grandchildren...

Halloween Fun!

 

Kristi has such cute pix of the darling great granchildren Kate and Ryan it is hard to choose, but I must have some for my annual book even though there are lots on her blog.

Kate turns 4!!!  So hard to believe.  And she gets a bicycle...

She is really a big girl now--with her auntie Sarah.

Happiness is a new bicycle with all the trimmings...

What a cutie amoungst the pumpkins--Ryan, Just turning 2 this week.

Kate can choose her own...

Double birthday party, double the fun, double dipper Birthday Cake...

Kristi, your children are living the life all children should have...

Meanwhile...

It has not been above 30 degrees all day and last week it was hot!  And the snow is sticking to the ground.  Should be a winter wonderland by morning, So glad I am cozy in here by the fire.





"There's a Horse in the House"

I have in my bedside table a speech that has been there since 1992.  It was given at a Women's Conference in the same year it was published in BYU TODAY, an alumnus magazine.  The Ph.D speaking was Maren M. Mouritsen and the story is one that resonates with me so strongly I like to read and reread it.

It is called "There's a Horse in the House".  And the whole story is delightful but the meat of the story is when the pony that she had been anticipating being born is finally born and then in a terrible accident the mother mare rolled over on the pony and the pony stopped breathing.

The father says to her, "It's over, sweetheart--it's over.  I'll care for the mare. I'll give you a few more minutes.  We'll have another foal." 

She says, "I was used to the ebb and flow of life on the ranch, but I don't remember a time when I've ever been sadder because this was to have been my pony.  As I held that little thing in my arms, those little childhood phrases were echoing in my mind".  "If you have faith, anything can happen.  if you just ask, you can receive."  " I probably didn't do it consciously, but with the simple faith that only a chld can have, I thought, "It's time to try.  I've got to try."  With every ounce of my being, I prayed that it wasn't so.  It just couldn't be so." 

Then suddenly those little eyes, with the longest eyelashes i had ever seen, fluttered and opened.  There was tension in the body, there was warmth.  The next thing I knew it was standing.  When my father came  back, he was amazed.  I  was amazed.  My pony was standing, my pony was alive and he was mine...

That night, I slept in a little tiny nook by the mare and my pony.  As my father lifted me into the manger, he whispered in my ear, "When you are good, and you have done all you can do, and you have faith, and you ask for help, then miracles can happen."  And this had been, for me, a miracle.

This is my testimony, too, I have memorized the above phrase, I believe it totally as I have seen it in my own life.  But every once in awhile when I become gloomy and sad and sorry for myself, I get out this beautiful story and read again of the miracle in a little girl's life, a little girl who grew to be an Assistant Vice President and Dean of Student Life at BYU and I am sure a great influence on all the students and others whose lives she touched.

Fall Colors

This is my contribution to the fall colors. It is a crab apple tree which has beautiful pink blossoms in the spring and these colors in the fall.

Driving into Chester this week was a real delight. There are so many tall trees all arrayed in gold and many shorter but fuller trees of different hues of red.

This is a really beautiful time in the Lake Almanor area--and we actually had snow on Sunday and Mt Lassen is fully covered--so beautiful.

Even my entrance up the hill to my home had snow frosted tall pines all the way--just the way I first saw it when I knew this is where I wanted to be.

A Surpassing Gift? What is it? How do we obtain it?

Yesterday I was having one of my really gloomy days.  This time of year especially I tend to reflect on my losses as well as my blessings.  Richard passed away at Thanksgiving time in 1996 and real Christmas for Richard was gathering the family together at Park City and enjoying family within the confines of two rooms plus lots of skiing, and sharing snacks and chili together on the decks at the bottom of the hills. Then playing games and just having fun being together--no work, no leaving, just family for a whole week.  So I tend to just want to zoom to the New Year and bypass Thanksgiving and Christmas and get past the sadness of being alone now.

So as I was feeling sorry for myself I happened to read an article about the plight of Afghan women and I really grieved for them, the sadness of their plight just consumed me.  Their plight in life is so devastating that one by one they continually try to burn themselves to death, to escape their miserable life.  I, who never cry, just can't stop crying as I think about them.  I swear to myself I will never feel sorry for myself again. 

It reminded me of an interesting article I read this past week.  It is called A Surpassing Gift.  
I quote from the Editorial page of the Church News, October 23, 2010 (my wedding anniversary, actually)

"Though it costs nothing, it will save us money.

It will add to our friendships and perhaps retrieve lost friends and family members.

It will lower our anxiety levels and allow us to concentrate more fully.

With it, we become more teachable, more easily entreated, more open to change and improvement.

It helps us forgive those who have wronged us, intentionally or accidentally. 

It makes us more Godlike, for why should we remember to our detriment things we have forgiven?

It will strengthen us immeasurably.

We will seek to overcome our own flesh instead of dwelling on the weaknesses of those around us.

It will allow us to seek excellence with more dedication as we compete against ourselves instead of others.

In the broadest sense, it flattens our horizons; we see a broader view of reality that we will "know the truth, and the truth shall make you free" (John 8:32)

With all these attributes, this most valuable fare is available in such huge servings that it might be hard to swallow.

So what is it we speak of? 

 It is humility, a surpassing gift of God.  Sometimes called "humble pie," it is a diet without calories that can be eaten for spiritual nutrition at breakfast, lunch and dinner.  A decision to be more humble takes but an instant but opens a new lifetime path.

We can, as Alma 7:23 suggests; "be humble, and be submissive and gentle; easy to be entreated; full of patience and long-suffering; being diligent in keeping the commandments of God at all times; asking for whatsoever things ye stand in need, both spiritual and temporal; always returning thanks unto God for whatsoever things ye do receive."

And then the article goes into all the unpleasantness that the opposite of humility, pride, brings into out life.  When I am feeling sorry for myself, I am being full of pride and selfishness.  I am not reflecting on my many blessings and feeling gratitude.  No wonder I bring sadness to my life with such thoughts.

"Pride fills the crevices of the heart, dividing husbands and wives, families, neighbors, countries, states and nations.  It creates glass ceilings that prevent spiritual and emotional maturity and nurses revenge and addiction.  Pride can recruit those who have more to believe they are better.  It taints some who have less to feel resentment; sometimes the poor are more prideful than the rich.  Pride nurses the roots of racism and class and counterfeits self-esteem to our hurt...It seeks attention and recognition...Humility includes others; pride excludes others.  In its ultimate manifestations, pride leads to slavery while humility leads to added confidence and freedom.

 The conclusion of the article is:

Shall we not anticipate the Judgment Day by humbling ourselves now?  During our morning prayers, let us indeed discipline our diet by swallowing our daily pride.  Let us guard all day against letting it lurk into the silent fractures of our hearts, which should rather be filled by the healing love of our Savior, Jesus Christ. 

The Twins First Halloween

Scenes from Raina (in pink) and Sage (in yellow) having the Halloween Experience.  Auntie Stephie took lots of picture of them with  Mom, Dad and another Auntie.

Chef Michael and Assistant Matt

Mike picked up Matt from Tahoe on Friday night and this is Saturday's bake project. Chef Michael is making another cheesecake and Barbeque Chicken Pizza from scratch. Matt is assisting with the cooking of the pizza toppings. I really enjoyed having the boys here.

Another plus--with Bruce the dog here Bandido did not bark!!!

He seemed contented to just have Bruce to hang out with. And the pizza and cheesecake were very delicious.

Sunshine and Drugs

Today as the sun poured in my dining room window I thought how happy I am that somebody built a house next door.  The trees were so high and so thick that not only did the sun not come in, they couldn't even get satellite coverage.  Need my daily dose of sun.

I really enjoyed watching the MLB video about Josh Hamilton today.  He is on the Texas Rangers team and doing well now but almost died from his addictions.  It was very sad to see what a hold his addictions had on him.  It appears he knows he can never relax, the addiction is always there but he has been clean for 5 years.  He was such a remarkable player as a child he couldn't play with the boys his own age but his dream of the majors all came crashing down when he was injured, got into tattoos, drugs and everything else bad for you.  It was almost an impossible road back.  His book is called "Beyond Belief".  I do want to read it.

Makes me think of Whitney Houston and how she keeps going back to drugs.  So sad, so very sad. 

Last night I had one of those terrible nightmares.  I was wandering with some family members (not sure who) looking for a place to live.  We finally ended sleeping in a vacant lot.  I awoke very sad but what was that all about?

Mike made some fabulous fajitas again last night, so delicious.

Mike and Cheesecake

Mike loves cheesecake and each one gets better. (I swear I will not eat more than the one piece I already had and it is very good, our family recipe.) However, since he is so into cooking I will find a recipe that will produce the kind of cheesecake I had in Maryland. It was the Original New York cheesecake--very dense and will use about twice the cheesecake for the same size tin. He has four weeks to perfect it for Thanksgiving!

Sisters Sharing Medical Advice?

I felt so lousy and tired yesterday, I had decided I needed to go back to my Doctor.  But then I talked to my sister Carole and realized we both had the same complaint about our swallowing problem.  She had recently been to the doctor and was following his advice.  It was the advice I had been given  before but was somehow neglecting to do.  And I still had the pills advised in my cupboard.

So I will follow her Doctor's advice, save myself a trip, and in the meantime, use up the pills I have.  We will see if I feel better by next week.  Surely sisters are a lot alike, right?

Scorpios in The Family

I have always enjoyed reading about our SIGNS and seeing how an individual matches up to his sign.  After reading about Kristi's children's antics I had to remind myself of the Scorpio sign again, those born from October 24 to November 22.  According to those who know, these are some of the more interesting and exciting people in our life.

In our family, that would be Kate and Ryan, little Jimmy, college age Mitch, my daughter, Maria and my sister Carole.  Supposedly the Scorpio are the most passionate, who can go from one extreme to the other,  and who always will keep your life interesting.