Happy Thanksgiving

I hope you all had a delicious Thanksgiving.

Here are some shots of decorations around my house.

The one below has a very significant story:

On December 10, 1999, I went to a Christmas bazaar at the Indian Walk-in Center in downtown Salt Lake. I was thrilled to find that one booth was selling Kachina dolls--something I had always wanted but could never afford when I was living in Tucson. The Native American lady who was selling the Kachinas was anxious to get back to her home in New Mexico before it snowed, so she was selling two dolls for the price of one.

Her price was too good to pass up. Unfortunately, she had about 8 different dolls, making it very difficult for me to decide which ones I wanted. Kachina dolls are considered to be sacred by the Pueblo Indians and each doll represents a different ancestral spirit who will bless one's life in various ways. The Hopi believe that the Kachina is a bridge between the spiritual world and mortals.

"Which one is your favorite?" I asked the woman who had made them. 

I was surprised when she pointed to the ugliest doll on the table and said, "I like Morning Singer because if you have him, you will hear the voice of God. We believe that God speaks to man in the morning."

"Now isn't this interesting," I replied.  "A prophet in my church has said the very same thing. President Harold B. Lee said that we should 'go to bed early and get up early.  If you do, your body and mind will become rested and then in the quiet of those early morning hours, you will receive more flashes of insight and inspiration than at any other time of day.' Isn't that great?  Truth is truth. Your religion and my religion teach the same thing." ( I was thinking that Morning Singer could be symbolic of this great principle that President Lee had taught.)

"I need to hear the voice of God, but what does his costume represent?" I asked.

"The Peregrine Falcon," she answered.

Although I really felt like I needed to hear the voice of God, I really didn't like the doll because he only had one or two scrawny feathers on his head and an unrecognizable bird's beak, so I moved on, spying an interesting doll that looked like he had a drum for his face. He had a round flat skin stretched in front of his face and there was a yellow and brown design painted on it.  

"I quite like this one," I said. "What is his name and how would he bless my life?"

"Oh, that is Sun Face, and if you have him, he will bless your family."

"My daughter and the rest of my family certainly need to be blessed," I replied. I had almost decided to get Sun Face, but then another doll really caught my eye. It had an amazing headdress that had a very unique design. On each side, it had something that looked like 3 stairsteps going up. 

"This one is beautiful; who is he?" I asked hopefully.

"Oh, that is Rain Dancer."

"Utah's dry, so obviously, he would help us get more rain. . . . but I really need to hear the voice of God and have my family blessed," I reasoned, but I was in quandary. "Meaning--beauty, meaning or beauty? Which should I get?" I moaned  aloud.

Then I saw the most magnificent doll of all. He was totally covered with a white animal skin.  His whole headdress was also entirely covered with white fur and two small horns were  on each side of his head.

"Now THIS one is my favorite," I said picking him up.

"Oh, that's Buffalo Hunter and if you buy him, you will be successful in the hunt."

I silently thought about one part of my Patriarchal blessing where it said that if I kept the commandments, the necessities of life would always be provided. Thinking that this doll could be symbolic of that promise, I inquired, "So since I don't hunt, would this mean that I would somehow always have food on my table?"

"Oh, it could mean that, but if you are hunting for a man, you will be successful in your hunt," she smiled.

"That's it! I am buying Buffalo Hunter and Rain Dancer." I couldn't believe the words that came out of my mouth.  

I had given up on men.  When I first got divorced, I had gone out with over 30 different guys up in  Montana.  Most of them were very nice, but only a few were Mormons.  I got my heart broken a few times. Then, after I moved to Salt Lake, I decided that there wasn't a normal single guy in my age bracket in the Salt Lake valley. When I went to the Singles' dances, I had to excuse myself and then hide out in the bathroom to get away from all the creeps.  I finally just refused to go out with any guys for several years.  Just one week earlier, I had announced to all of my neighbors, that I most certainly was NEVER going to get remarried, and if God wanted me to do so, He would have to drop the guy out of a helicopter on my front lawn.

 . . . and that is just about what Rich Holdaway arranged--except Randy arrived in a blue Chevy truck instead of a helicopter.  

My first date with Randy was just 8 days after I bought the two Kachina dolls pictured above. 

December 18, 1999, was the day I first dated, Randy Sorenson, whom I affectionately called my "dream-come-true" guy, and we were married on July 15, 2000.

* * * * * * * * * *

(Randy gave me the statue with the 3 turkeys, which is by the two Kachinas, for the second Christmas we were married.)

 

I hope we are thankful for all the bounties of life

 that we have.

All of  you are the greatest blessings

 I have in my life. 

This Mayflower is very special to me because

it is one of the last things that

Randy gave to me last year.

I have to take time to thank God

for blessing my life

by bringing 

Randy and me together

even though the time was so terribly brief.

Randy, you are always in my heart.

This turkey is made out of cornhusks.

What is your favorite Thanksgiving treat?

Mine are fresh cranberry relish and pumpkin pie--

(not eaten together, though, just one at a time)

As you all know, I have a bird feeder 

and part of  Thanksgiving

 is making sure the outdoor birds have plenty to eat.

There were over 50 birds eating under the catalpa tree 

all at one time today.

I hope you all ate plenty of turkey and pumpkin pie.

Vote for your Favorite Beagle Pup

To set the proper snowflake mood for viewing the pretty snowglobe on the right, select midi and then play "God Rest Ye Merry Gentlemen" on the Jukebox below the snowglobe.  (I played all of the selections and God Rest Ye Merry Gentlemen is by far the prettiest arrangement. Also there are 42 different scenes on the globe.)

Now pick your favorite puppy.

Have the grandkids vote, too.

Puppy #1

Puppy #2                   Puppy #3

Puppy #4

Also have the grandkids decide:

 Which pup looks like Baby Cosmo?

Listening to GRYMG midi version 

has created an image in my mind

 of someone dancing to it.

Do you think they dance in Heaven?

Riv Contest #8 Hints

This is the main street of the city and state

to be named for the Riv Contest #8.

On several occasions

Randy has actually driven the Riv 

 on this center road which runs north and south.

This is an aerial view of the next photo in this post.

This location is about 3 miles south 

of the main street shown in the top photo of this post.

The Riv may have never actually stayed at this exact spot, 

but it has driven by it on several occasions.

The city and state of this location for Contest 8

 are in the opposite direction 

   from the picture posted below.

For those of you who didn't see the post

announcing the winner of Contest 7, 

I will repeat the funny history of this picture.

When I told Rich Holdaway that I wanted to use this location,

his reply was,"If we place the Riv in the Sacred Grove,

will we have to cast a pillar of light upon it?"

Now let's see who can be first to guess the location

for Contest 8.

Where in the World is Randy's Riv? (Contest #8)

 The first person who guesses

 the nearest city and state or city and country

will win a $5.00 gift card to the fast food restaurant of his or her choice. 

UNFINISHED BUSINESS--Riv Contest 7

In August, I sent Rich Holdaway the following  4 photos asking him if he could identify the location and which one would be best for my Where in the World is Randy's Riv Contest.

 His answer was  really funny:

"If we placed the Riv in the Sacred Grove, would we have to cast a pillar of light upon it?"

My reply was  . . . . . . . (see photo below)

"OF COURSE, when we announce the winner."

Chalisse was the winner of Contest 7

by guessing Palmyra, New York.

I never officially announced the winner 

because I didn't know how to make the shaft of light,

and Rich has been really sick.

 At the end of August he was hospitalized 

for a week with MRSA 

and then in October, he was back in the hospital 

for 12 days with a lung infection.

It is great to have Rich feeling better now.

I will post Riv Contest #8 in 2 or 3 days.

Unique Dress & Halloween Decor

Some of my living room Halloween decorations:

Grimsly Mansion

Pumpkins for sale

The Junkyard

My Halloween Village

One side of my living room

A trick or treater in a very unique dress

Whitney tells us how she made her dress.

She must have been really thirsty last night.

I got a kick out of listening to her.

She is a very cute and innovative 9th grade girl.

Cosmo liked her dress, too.

(Of course, food always interests him.)

Happy Birthday, Ethan!

October 25, 2008--Ethan turns 7

Ethan had quite a week.  He started out going to Disneyland and then on to Sequoia and Yosemite National Parks.  When he returned home from his week long trip, he found that his house was decorated with balloons and a birthday cake was on the table.  My arrival was supposed to be a surprise, but someone let the "cat out of the bag" and told him that I would be there, too. 

Ethan is showing us one of his presents.  He got several Bakugan presents. I had fun seeing his Bakugan collection.  They start out like balls but when rolled across a magnetic Bakugan card, they pop apart into various shapes.  Does anyone know the rules of the Bakugan Game? 

Ethan is just getting ready to blow out his candles here.

Click on the arrow below to hear the birthday song and to see Ethan blow out all of his candles.

The Day After the Birthday.

It was hard for Ethan to get up the day after his birthday.

It was even harder for London to wake up.

I love how she is fast asleep and yet her little rump is up in the air.

They finally all got ready for church although London still doesn't look too happy.  In Primary, Ethan was given a crown because it was his birthday on Saturday.  I also got to see Ethan in the Primary Program.  He was the first child to talk and he said his part perfectly. 

London cheered up after church, though. 

Click on the the black arrow above to see London playing with Ethan's birthday balloons.

Even though the screen looks black, you will see London laughing and running with the balloons as soon as you click on the arrow.  When I have downloaded all my other videos onto my blog previously, the screen always has had the first frame of the video clip showing. Does anybody know what happened with this one? I even tried downloading this again and got the same result.  Why does the screen start out black? 

Did you notice that London had only 3 balloons in the above video and now she has seven?  I don't know why kids love balloons so much.  I remember when Jordan was about 1 1/2 or 2 and he would try to hold as many balloons at one time as possible just like London is trying to do here.

Cosmo on the Hunt again

This is for the grandkids because they liked the first video so much,

for Nickie because she was his first mom,

for Tricia and Dee because they also love dogs,

for Steve and Jen because they rescued him from the pound,

and for anyone else out there who thinks he is adorable.

Sage's Birthday October 12

Here is Sage with the birthday cake that I made for her.

To the First Guy Who Supposedly Fixed My Rain Gutters:

They still leak!

Happy Birthday, Pop!

On November 14, 1909, Pop took this picture of himself in front of his family home in Randolph, Utah.  He loved taking unusual photos.  He cut a lens cap in half, covered up the right half of the lens, set the timer on his camera, made a snowball, and ran into what would be the left side of the photo. Then without winding the film, he moved the lens cap to the left side, threw snow on himself, set the timer, and posed on the other side like he was a victim of being hit by the snowball he himself had thrown. In other words, he deliberately took a double exposure.  

Pop was the father of my mother. His real name was Archibald William McKinnon. However, when my sister was born, he said he was too young to be called grandpa, so he decided to have us all call him Pop.  He was 100% Scottish and was very proud of it.  He lived up to his Scottish heritage by being very frugal in his younger years and also by playing golf every day if work and weather permitted.  He also loved baseball; shortstop was his favorite position.  He also played the clarinet and loved listening to classical music.  

Pop was truly a self-made man. His father died when he was only twelve, so he took on a lot of the family responsibilities trying to help his mother with his younger brothers and sisters.  After graduating from Utah State University in Logan, he moved to Price and started working as a bank teller for $5.oo per week!

The above picture was taken one year before he married Ella May Empey, whom I affectionally called Grammy. When they were married in 1910, they were so poor that they lived in a tent house until they could save enough money to buy a house. However, by the time my mother was born in 1913, they were living in a house on Price Main Street. Other than his house, Pop never bought anything unless he could pay cash for it.  

He was not only intelligent and hardworking, but he had an ample amount of good common sense and was very personable. Because of this, he eventually worked himself up to becoming President of the Carbon Emery Bank.  Pop felt that as president he needed to make everyone, who worked for him, feel that they were important no matter what position they held, so after arriving at the bank each morning, Pop always made a point of personally saying hello to each employee from the bookkeepers in the basement to the tellers and loan officers upstairs. However, Pop never let his position in the community be an excuse to act act conceited or bossy.   He always lived just like he was an average guy, who walked to work, had only 3 suits in his very small closet, and drove the same car for 10 years. 

I never heard my grandparents raise their voices at me or at each other.  A very calm and serene feeling always permeated their home. Instead of calling me Bonnie, Pop always called me, "Sweet Doll."  He was like Randy; he simply adored children.  He always said that "Babies came first."  The first car I ever drove was his 1950 Cadillac, then his 1960 Cadillac, and finally, his 1963 white Buick Riviera.  He was a very calm driving instructor even though he often called me a "California Driver" if I started going too fast .

Everybody in town loved him.  They called him Mr. Mac at the bank and his friends called him Arch.  When my grandmother had a stroke, he brought her home and paid for nurses to be with her 24 hours a day.  When Pop found out that one of the nurses did not have a washing machine, she was surprised when he bought one for her and had it delivered to her door the next day.  Although he didn't go to church, he was a true Christian in every sense of the word.  When he heard that our Bishop didn't have enough money to by an organ for our new chapel, he gave them $5,ooo so they could buy a pipe organ like we had in the Price Tabernacle before they tore it down.  This was a lot of money because one could buy a brand-new car for $2000 or a very nice home for $10,000 in those days.  

When I was in elementary school, and girls would ask me if I had a boyfriend, I would just smile and give them Pop's initials saying that they were my boyfriend's initials.  Who needed a boyfriend when I had a grandfather as wonderful as Pop?  Every Friday night, I would watch the Friday night fight (boxing) with Pop and Grammy, sleep at their house, and then every Saturday afternoon, I would watch baseball, football, or golf with Pop.  As long as I lived in Price, I visited Pop and Grammy every day of my life except for 3 weeks in 1960 when I had a severe case of the Asian flu.

I will always remember one special gift of love that Pop gave me.  I was about 3 or 4 and was having trouble falling asleep in Grammy's back bedroom. 

"Pop, I can't go to sleep," I called.

"What's the matter Sweet Doll?" he asked.

"My feet are cold."  At this point I thought that Pop would just give me some of his nice big socks to put on my feet and legs, but that's not what he did.

He put his big warm hands under the covers and held my little feet in his hands until I fell asleep.  I will never forget that.  At the time, it really surprised me that he would take the time to stay with me that long-- holding my feet until I went to sleep.  As a teacher, each year when we started talking about Christmas and giving, I would always tell my students about what Pop did and how that was one of the best gifts I had ever received.

Gifts don't have to be wrapped up in pretty paper with a fancy bow.  

Sometimes the best gifts are simply when one gives of his time--when one gives from his heart.

Pop, I am hoping that Heavenly Father has allowed you to look over my shoulder while I have been writing this because I miss you dearly, and I will always treasure every moment I spent with you and learned from you. I don't think I ever told you how much that meant to me to have you warm my little feet by holding them.  You gave me many wonderful gifts--but that is the memory of you that I treasure the most. 

I will always love you, Pop!

Pop--The Baseball Player

Happy Birthday, Camille!

Camille is only 4 days old in this photo.

Isn't she adorable?  I love that little yawn.

Camille had to sleep in a cardboard box at Utah Valley Hospital.

Because so many babies were born that same day in Provo, 

the hospital ran out of bassinets to put the babies in.

Camille -- 9 months old

This was a pretty red dress with white lace.

Camille -- Age 2

This photo was taken at your two-year-old birthday party.

You're playing the little piano that Grandma and Grandpa Cook gave you.

Nanny and Grandpa Anderson gave you the dress and blouse that you are wearing. I had so much fun with you when you were little and I had fun with you as a teenager, too. Remember when we used to go to Sears in Billings and make fun of the dresses there.

Do you remember when I drove the get-away car when you and your friends went toilet papering?   And how can we forget all the nights I taught you and your friends how to drive by driving around the parking lot of St. Paul's Cathedral?

Thanks for being such a wonderful daughter, Camille!

I love you with all of my heart.

Hankies, Hoses, Raincoats, and Curls

When Camille learned to walk at age 13 months, she felt that she needed to have a hanky or wash cloth on her head at all times.  If I wasn't paying attention when I would go visiting teaching, Camille would find their bathroom and then reappear with one of their wash cloths on her head.  She always would put it on so one corner would be in the middle of her forehead and two other corners would be just above each of her ears. In the above photo, she's wearing one of my old fashioned circular hankies.  She would go around all day like this.  (Aren't kids creative? London likes wearing socks on her hands and arms that she calls "chomp-chomps" and Camille loved having hankies on her head.  I'm guessing she thought she was just beautiful that way.) 

Camille was very proud of her first raincoat. 

Camille is sitting in the rain watching raindrops falling on her hand.

Camille loved her toy puppy.  She is sitting on her favorite quilt which was made by her Grandma Cook. It had to go everywhere with her.  When she was about this same age, she had to have her adnoids out.  When they took her down for the surgery, she cried so hysterically for her blankie that the nurse had to come back and get it, so she would calm down.  As soon as she got it, she immediately stopped crying. Her quilt started out bright pink, but ended up almost white because it was washed so much through the years.

Taking it easy at Nanny and Grandpa Anderson's house in Price.

Notice Camille's beautiful curls in these 2 photos. 

Chase, Jordan, Tanner, and Trevor, I  hope you have enjoyed seeing these photos of your mom when she was a little girl.

Camille was a perfect little girl. She never gave me a bit of trouble when she was little.  She was just a joy to raise.  She basically potty trained herself.  She went to the hospital and came back potty trained.  After her surgery, she never had a wet diaper again at night.  She was potty trained  in about 2 weeks from start to finish.

I love you so much, Camille!

Love,

MOM