The Hardys are Here!!

James called early Sunday the 21 and said they were in Yuba City and would be coming straight to church and how to get there.  They had sent some pictures from their trip up the coast earlier.

He had a meeting in San Jose on Saturday and talked about coming late.  I told Camber it was a very dark road and there had been a lot of deer hit and they should wait till morning but they stayed at a little motel on  the way.


Anyway they got there just as the first song was started and we left after Sacrament Meeting and talking to a Jean, Ann, Maryanne and Ron.  I put chicken enchiladas in the oven and the vacation began.

 

Jimmy got in a lot of computer time while he was here.  This is how we saw him most of the time except when gone or playing games.

They rented a boat a couple of days

 

Jacob fixed one of the skateboards and got a few runs in down the street.

Lea liked listening to her music and watching movies in her room part of the time and the hammock is always fun.

It was so fun having them here.  They boated twice, played golf, and played a lot of monopoly, chinese checkers and cards.

Even Lea and Kelsi played golf.

James was getting up early every morning and doing business calls on the hammock.  One day he accidently broke one of the supports.  Without missing a moment on the phone he finds a board and tools in the garage and fixes it still talking on the phone.  How does he do that?

Jacob did some cutting of weeds and Lea collected a lot of the branches in the wagon.

And here is where Jimmy was a good part of the time!

 James had a meeting Thursday night in San Jose so they left in the morning and headed to visit friends in Reno and then on to San Jose.  So glad they could come after nine years!!  The children all wrote in my book about the good food and fun they had had!

Father of the Year

Here the Daddy bird is relieving the Mom for a bit but usually he sits on the runline all day watching for birds to chase away or critters to nip at until they leave.  He is so dedicated, what a great job he does.  He should get the Father of the Year Award!!!!

A minute ago I saw a big deer staring at me outside my window.  I yelled at him and Sadie, who was napping, instantly is on alert and runs with me to the patio door.  She immediately chases him (or her) away.

There are a couple of lilies almost ready to bloom and they are a delicacy for the deer.  I hope they don't get chomped when I am not looking, usually it happens in the early morning hours before I am even awake.  Of course, they usually wait until they are fully in bloom!!

Camber's Birthday

Camber's birthday today.  I have no idea how old she is but she will be forever young I believe.  So beautiful.  James will turn 49 on the 27th!!!  Wow, how can that be, time is going faster and faster, for me anyway.

Camber and James were coming up this weekend, now they say it will be next weekend!!

I always appreciate that Camber sends me pictures of the children and keeps me posted as to what is happening in their lives and tries to get them to talk to me occasionally.  She has always been good at that.   With all the driving she has to do for them she leads a very busy life.  She is so good at talking to their teachers and coaches and making sure all her kids are fully involved.  What a great Mom...and what a  big job in today's world!!  Thanks Camber...

The Triplets and then Twins

I forgot to tell the story about Carl Jonsson!!  We could not find his parents but Cathie's genealogist did.

He was four years old when his mother had triplets.  She died a month later and one by one the triplets died, November, December, January. Very sad.  But it is interesting to know we have had twins and triplets in the family, so it is possible.   You can just imagine how hard it must have been for a midwife to deal with that back in 1818.  (We can also see that bald heads are popular in the family.  Chris F says his brother Dave has hair just like this!!)

Carl's father (my g, g, g grandfather Anders Longvist Jonasson) must have been the prolific one.  His wife dies from the triplet birth November 27, 1818.  The following June he marries a second wife (who he must have impregnated soon after his wife died) and the second wife had twins August 27, 1819 (who both died also).   This was often the case in Sweden.  They married after they had children or at least not until they knew they were pregnant.  Carl's parents had another child (who lived) a few years later so Carl was not an only child.  Oh, the stories that can be told from looking at the records.

In fact, I have heard that the marriageable daughter would often have her bed on the extended porch of the house so she could get pregnant and snag a husband.

Rain, Birds, Pills and Family History

It has continued to rain almost every afternoon!!!  I must say I like it. I haven't had to water for over a week.  And everything looks so clean.

The bird drama goes on, though I wondered if a couple of the little birds have left the nest already.  I saw one little bird sitting on the run line and the father bird was taking short bursts of flight upward, fluttering his wings a lot as if trying to show the bird how to fly away, I wonder?  Meanwhile I am wondering if that other female I saw was really one of their little birds and he was shooshing it to fly away??.  Both of those birds sat on the wire a little differently than the parents.  They held their head down more as if unsure of themselves.  They are tree swallows definitely.  I described them to Karen and she said that is what they are and I looked it up and sure enough, she is right.  You would think I had nothing more important to do.

I have stopped taking all supplements and only take one prescription.  I am thinking like Mitch that all those things are not good for my system.  Just use healthy foods.  I am also walking more and not feeling any pain, just harder to walk uphill.  Sadie loves the extra walking.  It is so funny how she listens for the dog across the back yard or watches the house for him to come out.  She then races over and is gone for awhile.  When they go in the house, she comes back home.

I am enjoying the yogurt frozen desserts I am making so much I decided I need to start making my own yogurt.  The dessert is only a fruit, yogurt and a dash of honey to sweeten and then made in the ice cream maker.  I put them in little 1/2 cup plastic cups and then in a freezer bag so I can have a half cup anytime.  It works well.  So far I have made banana, peach, and "Cherry Garcia" imitation with real cherries!!!

Some lady who is a descendant of Grandfather Martin's sister Alfreda has been paying a genealogist in Sweden.  She has extended his line a lot!!!  Cathie and I have been communicating and she has extended certain names for me to do.  Linda prints them off and hands them off to the Hardys and herself.  It is working well and makes the Temple work more meaningful.  The system is working very well though I continually need to learn more about Family Search.  I got Erica's family all straightened out and I am happy about that. Linda will do the work for Dora!

Steven has been putting audios on Family Search and I was listening to part of Stan's funeral.  He was certainly well loved and did have an amazing sense of humor.  Steve has also put Mom's funeral in there, too, and that is enjoyable to hear the stories about her.  I wish more people in the family had time to investigate Family Search and become involved.  It is very interesting and enjoyable and the best system they have had.  You can communicate with others and reserve names etc all within the system so it is very fast,  And when the baptisms are done the dates show up on the same day!!!  I spoke about it in Church Sunday and two men came up after and wanted to talk about it.  It does take a little reading to understand!

Me and My Books

It has been a very productive week--I got rid of my last three scrapbooks.

The first was the scrapbook of cards received after the death of Richard.  Instead of a scrapbook I put them into one of my collaged boxes.  Easier to save, easier to use.  I really enjoyed reading all the cards again.  His dear Aunt Zella, who claims to have a memory problem, had sent four.  But each one had such good information about family, encouragement and inspiration.  Most of us have difficulty writing one condolence letter and she writes four different ones!  Anyway this was an enjoyable task.

The second scrapbook I scrapped was my Guam book.  It was so hard to handle and was falling apart. I reput all the pix, articles and cards in one of my other SBA memory books.  Here again I really enjoyed living through the many experiences I had there. I was in such great health then, walking at least an hour every day and able to handle the heavy workload.  It was also a fun time of enjoying friendships with several SBA friends.

The last book was "Best of Scandinavia" scrapbook which was falling apart as well.  I was able to transfer everything to one of my larger notebooks.  That was such a fabulous trip and I am so glad I kept good notes and have all that information with pictures in there.  Very educational too as I had printed off many articles about Sweden and where my relatives lived before I went on the trip.

I know some people could think I was crazy with all my Memory Books and what is anyone going to do with them when I die.  But the point is, they are for me, now, and I really enjoy reliving a lot of wonderful events and trips and relationships as I go through my books.  It is very lonely living alone but I am not going to change that as in many ways it is a good thing.  Especially I can have the music as loud as I want!!! Ha.

What is left to finish?  The years from 1981 to 2005.  When that is done I hope to be able to throw away most of what is in my 10 four inch notebooks!!!!!!  I will then organize the left over pictures a little better with labels of who they belong to...Then I will be done with documenting my life.  I won't even count the books right now.  There are waaaay too many.

There is such interesting drama going on with the birds and their bird house.  Yesterday I saw the daddy bird swoop down and nitpick at a small critter who was drinking the water.  There were two small critters (smaller than squirrels and can't remember their name) around yesterday and she surely watched them and finally just chased them away. 

Today the mama bird made about three attempts to get a large feather in the bird house hole.  She would swoop around and aim for the door till finally it appeared it was in but was it?  Next thing the daddy bird swooped over and went in the house as she was already out and then I saw the feather fall to the ground and they were both out.  I listened to something on my phone and walked away for about 10 minutes and then walked out to look at the feather and lo it was gone.  They must have gotten it in there.  Wonder what it was for, warmth for the babies??? 

Lots of Rain and Other Good Stuff

We have had these afternoon rainstorms which makes everything just beautiful.  The thunder was so booming two days ago though that the clock fell off the wall and straight down and pushed the plug out of the TV.  We even had a lot of lightening and hail.  What is going on?

 

 

Two of these for $19 and change, can't beat that deal.  They replace the IKEA rag rugs I have had for years at the back door, etc.  I put one at the front door, too, hope to filter the dirt and sand a little.

 

 

Here I was worried about the deer eating my columbine and then I break the whole thing with my hose...but it makes a lovely inside flower, just feel so badly as it looked so beautiful outside.

 

 

The saga of the bird house goes on.  Momma and Papa bird are sitting in the left upper corner on Sadie's "run line".  Momma was inside for quite awhile but now they each go in and out and generally stay watch.  I can't hear anything in the birdhouse and I thought they had left for good when I did not see them for a couple days.  They chatter a lot and yesterday a third bird showed up and the Papa chased it away.  It was a grey color like the Momma so I figured it was an extra lady after the Papa, hmmm???  Supposedly  a bird sits on the nest for 14 days and then the birds mature for 14 days before leaving the nest, but they are surely quiet, if they are in there...wait and see.  Maybe it is just a summer love nest for the two and nothing more???

 

So I have been on the Special Carbohydrate Diet for about six weeks and I have to tell you, it is working!!!  I feel great--no grains, milk, ice cream, starchy carbs, sugar etc, but it is not hard at all.  Love the casseroles which substitute veggies for pasta and love the date or raison loaf and blueberry muffins and made a delicious banana yogurt in the ice cream machine.  I truly have more energy and have been so productive.  I just move from one project to the other and no depression...must be eliminating all those different kinds of sugar.  And no cravings, that is the best part!!!

 

I was worried for awhile when I was still having diarrhea, less but looser and I could not figure out what it was.  Then I researched and found magnesium supplements can cause it.  And lo and behold I found out when I had bought a new bottle it was a higher dose to be taken once a day and I was still taking it three times a day, no wonder I was having problems--Stop taking it and diarrhea gone!!!

 

Summertime!

It is really enjoyable to sit out on my deck and enjoy the peace and quiet, plus we have had lots of rain so everything is looking very green and happy.

 

Maryanne and I went to Martin's Nursery (a Mennonite group) and got the must lush plants I have every seen.  After three years without geraniums, this is a gorgeous geranium year and they were 5 for $20!!! I love them.

 

I now have a special Granny's Corner where I can glide into old age.  I love it.  It was a nightmare putting the glider together but I did it all myself!!!

 

I did have to call for help from my neighbor when I put the umbrella on the picnic table, though.  I do not have enough muscle and I got it half way and dangerously not completed.  He did it quite easily, though I hated to ask him, what can I do when there is no muscle around?

 

 

The geraniums on the front deck are red and they are peach on the back deck though it is hard to tell by these pictures.

 

An amazing thing to see is my giant Columbine in the front planter--usually nothing will grow there and it is strutting it's stuff.  Unfortunately the deer love them and I wake every morning with fear it has been gobbled up.

 

 

Ah, summertime, I love it.  I strained my back weeding though so have decided to "rest" and watch some of the Classics on Hula Plus.  I saw 'Becket' yesterday and today 'Taming of the Shrew'.  I have never really gotten Shakespeare but it is about time I tried again.  I didn't mean to order Hula Plus but guess I will try and watch all the Classics I want to see before canceling it.

Mitch Surprises Me

Mitch surprised me in early May, I knew he was coming but I did not know when.  He looked so good and he is tall!!!!.  He traveled from Asheville, N C up to Michigan and stayed with his grandparents for a bit and then traveled on through the northern part of the U S, even went through Glendive. 

He was driving a truck he bought for $500 and his Dad helped him fix it up and they put a camper roof on top!!  Really works well.

 

One of the first things I told him was that I was on this special diet to heal my digestive system and he said great, he was having too much heartburn anyway.

 

So he was my judge of what tasted good and he liked it all and said he didn't have any heartburn while he was here.  He said he would do any of the work I needed.  Wow, that was music to my ears.

 

So while he was here, he did an amazing job.  There were about 90 bags of trash and he decided to undo his truck, load it all in and haul it to Waste Management.  I was happy to pay the cost to get rid of it all.

 

There was a huge stack of branches from the winter storm and he chopped all that up and tucked it into my bins.  He worked on the watering system, changed burned out light bulbs.  Always lots of tasks around here for tall, strong guys.

 

And he finished bagging some waste I hadn't finished.  The yard looked super by the time he was done.  In the meantime he would go back and forth visiting his friends in Susanville and even drove down to see his girlfriend and haul a friend back and forth from Sacramento.

 

It was delightful and extremely helpful to have Mitch here!!

 

Later I captured a pix of Mitch and his girlfriend when they went to San Diego to visit Maria and Johnny and Matt and Destiny.  He started work for the Forest Service where he was last summer on May 18th...hope he can save that money to finish college!!!

"Ever Learning, Never Able to Come to a Knowledge of the Truth"

I am talking about what causes diarrhea or nearly so.  I have been plagued by sudden bursts of such for longer than I care to remember and it has gotten worse in my old age.

Over the years I have been treated for IBS, tested for Celiac Disease, and determined I cannot have Gluten in my life as well as sucrose, lactose, fructose, high fructose corn syrup, licorice, etc etc... but it seems there is always a new culprit I did not suspect.

This week I found a new website "End the Vicious Cycle" and learned that all those Gluten Free flours and mixes and pastas etc  are part of the problem, a big part of the problem!!!  Lactaid milk has other stuff in it that is a problem even though no lactose.  Potatoes, rice, corn, all flours etc have a certain kind of starch that the large intestines cannot handle.  It goes on and on.  I learned about the gluten, the fodmaps and now it is the starch and immune system...

So a new month of experimenting and I hope we finally can know all the culprits that plague my life!!!

I had to visit Dr Tonya again yesterday because after several bouts of diarrhea, a UTI follows and she wants to get to the bottom of that.  I hope this book has the answers, it made sense to her.  She is also testing me for Ecoli this time, too.  Hmmm.

I have given up so many foods and ice cream and gelato are just two but yesterday I made the Paleo Strawberry ice cream that Maria sent and it is quite good.  I tried the Pineapple Whip earlier and that is good, too.  So now it is a lot of new recipes but what will be the substitute for flour.

Last week I made Grandma's Oven Pancake with Pamela's GF Bread Mix flour and I had just made Swedish Pancakes with Pamela's GF Bread Mix flour and Almond Milk and both were really good and worked so well but now...I find that flour may be a big part of the problem.  And I will have to donate all those boxes of Quinoa Pasta to the Food Bank I guess.

 

I had also just made some cupcakes from the GF Cake mix and I suppose I will have to throw those out, too??

Cancer in the Family

Mitch called and will be on his way here after roundabout visiting of friends and stay here until he goes back down to Fresno area and the job place he was last year.  He will have his truck with him so we plan to get lots of cleaning up of the bags of trash and  of the garage done!!  Yea!!

 

I have always wondered if there was cancer in the family, seems like that is what Erica had possibly but today I found breast cancer which I had not heard of before.  My grandfather's sister Annette Sophie died of carcinoma of the right breast.  She was 56.  Her sister Alfreda Charlotte died at 39 of pneumonia.  However, in reading Alfreda's history in Family Search I found she had had a history of a heart condition.  I was surprised she was so young when she died but in reading her history she appeared to be an amazingly accomplished person.

 

I also read an additional note today.  Parley Williams, the brother that missed out when all the switching occurred with Freda, Mary Jane and the three Williams brothers ended up living about 25 years longer than his two married brothers Ezra and Joseph.  Joseph was married to Alreda and Ezra was married to Carl's younger sister Hilda. (Carl is the father of Alfreda and Annette).  Parley was reportedly in love with Alfreda and never married.  He is the one that was traded off to Mary Jane and then Mary Jane married Martin (my grandfather and brother of Annette and Alfreda). 

 

The story of how the Williams brothers did so well is also told in the history of Alfreda in Family Search.

Alfreda Charlotte:

 

 

Annette Sophie--called Nettie

 

In another history I read that Nettie married Warren Lindsay after breaking it off with another suiter.  Warren was a widower with six children.  The children of Alfreda reported that Nettie was so helpful after Alfreda died and she invited them over a lot for dinner as well as came to the home to help them.

 

 

This is the wedding picture of Joseph Williams and Alfreda Charlotte recently put on Family Search by Elisabeth Hovey.  It was reported the three brothers all shared one suit until Hilda who married Ezra said he needed a suit of his own and made him a fine one.

 

Wedding picture of Martin and Mary Jane.  Looks like he has his own suit.

 

 

A Good Day--I Get My Hair Cut

Another beautiful morning in Lake Almanor.  I am anxiously awaiting the blossoming of the blooms on the crab apple tree.  It is so skinny, not enough sun, not good earth, but the few blossoms are a gorgeous hue.  I see about six bloomed, should be fully out by tomorrow.

Had another wonderfully restful night on my new mattress.  So love it.  Just as I was settling in for a night of TV, Deloris, a friend from high school called.  She lives in Salinas and her husband died a couple? years ago.  It was so fun to have someone to chat with.  We talked for about an hour.  I do miss having friends to talk with.  She was telling me about Betty B's home on the coast of Washington.  Her husband has a crow's nest as his office as they are right on the ocean.  Evidently it is a really lovely home but too large to keep up in old age.  It is funny how high school and high school friends seem so " just yesterday".  Pictured below is Deloris, her sister Audrey, and Deloris's husband George (passed away).  In dated picture Deloris is third from right.  Called 'Sieve'.

Matt called to say he may be coming up and bring the chain saw.  It would be so good to get rid of my large pile of huge branches.

Had a couple calls with Kristi this week.  She is doing Family Search with the family and then she had Brynn call and say thank you for the birthday card.  Love keeping up on the pix of her family.  She is the only one I got pix from Frenchie's funeral and a very nice report.  I will post some of them as a memory.  She gave a beautiful message of love.

Better get dressed, today I get my hair cut, amazing how quickly the month goes by and I look really shaggy.

The Good, The Not So Good

Since I am working on my computer I can see whatever is happening in my backyard--today it was deer, about 15 at different times throughout the day.  I yell, "Sadie", and we run out the door and she chases them all away.  There was one today, though, who did not want to budge so I ran further out... I am not sure whether she would have butted Sadie or not, but I was not taking any chances.

Before I do more catch ups...I am just going to comment on what is going on with me.  For one I am sleeping so well and taking naps and I feel 100% better in that arena.   Who knew a mattress could make such a difference in your life.  Sadie and I both love our bed now.

Why do old people spend so much time talking about how they feel?  Because it is a big deal, you can't take your body, mind and soul for granted anymore.  They are either working right or they are not.

Walking, I need to do more, but it hurts, so I do less, and then I get further out of shape, it is so frustrating, and dancing, I try for a few minutes, but cannot last long--at least I keep up the yard work, a little at a time.

Today I had one of the worst "get rid of everything in her body" days I have had in a while.  So what did I eat I shouldn't, all was going well  for about four days, eating pretty much the same thing until I introduced red beets and lemonade with high fructose corn syrup...is that what did it, one of those, come to think of it I had had the lemonade for 3 days with no problem so was it the beets????  Or was it "you have had too many peanut butter cookies over the last week?" or or was it one too many egg salad sandwiches or too much popcorn???

Two times in the last year I have had a perfectly happy stomach.  The first time was when I got rid of the seven no nos, according to the Virgin Diet.  No sugar, soy, eggs, peanuts, corn, dairy, gluten.  I felt great and then added back the eggs, dairy and eventually occasional peanuts and a little corn.

Then I got rid of all most all carbs and definitely all sugar for six weeks and I definitely felt great on that...no indigestion problems.  The problem is, it was boring and I wanted sandwiches and occasional pancakes and over Easter...sugar  oh, and I added back popcorn because I found that great popcorn popper...

So, the popper goes back out into the garage, no drinks with high fructose corn syrup, none of the strange sugars in processed foods, and I can forget the peanut butter, too.  And maybe I had better relook at which vegetables are really scary for me...and all ice cream products are definitely off the table.

I know everyone has something but this something sure keeps me homebound...luckily I like my home, even if I do get lonely...

I watched the movie "The Way" with Martin Sheen and Emelio Estevez--"El Camino de Santiago" A Pilgrimage hike, reminded me of John, dying so young, hiking across the country, it was dedicated to their Grandfather.

Brynn Turns Four!

I was so happy to get better acquainted with Brynn when I was in San Diego in January and she was at her Grandma Linda's house.

She can talk about everything and likes to play games with you.

Such a happy, fun child, I love little Brynn.