Everything I need to know I learned from a snowman...

~It's okay if you're a little bottom heavy.
~Hold your ground, even when the heat is on.
~Wearing white is always appropriate.
~Winter is the best of the four seasons.
~It takes a few extra rolls to make a good midsection.
~There's nothing better than a foul-weather friend.
~The key to life is to be a jolly, happy soul.
~We're all made up of mostly water.
~You know you've made it when they write a song about you.
~Accessorize! Accessorize! Accessorize!
~Avoid yellow snow.
~Don't get too much sun.
~It's embarrassing when you can't see your feet.
~It's fun to hang out in your own front yard.
~There's no stopping you once you're on a roll.

Storms

We've seen snow storms, ice storms, sand storms, hurricanes, tornadoes, and have survived them all. In 1996, North Carolina was hit by hurricane Fran. We were living in Cary at the time and our street was the only one, that we knew of, that didn't lose power. While everyone was busy removing trees from their driveways, I was in the kitchen baking cinnamon rolls. When the town announced they were establishing a curfew, we jumped in the car and headed north to Delaware so we could watch our son play in his college football game the next day. We caught up with the hurricane in Baltimore. You could call us storm chasers. In North Carolina, if there is a threat of snow, everything shuts down; schools, businesses, churches, etc. Now I grew up in Utah where snow is an everyday occurence in the winter. The only time I remember the school being closed was the day the furnace broke down; but, I understand the problem with snow here in the south. First, the state doesn't have enough snow removal equipment to clear the roads and second, southerners don't know how to drive in it. They're either too cautious or they drive too fast and don't know how to handle an out-of-control vehicle. Plain and simple, it's safer if everyone stays home.

We received about 5 inches of snow last night. The neighbor kids are outside sledding down our driveway. No church tomorrow....I get to stay in my pajamas until Tuesday!!

Grandma's Banana Bread

2 sticks margarine
2 cups sugar
4 eggs
4 cups flour
2 tsp baking soda
1 tsp salt
6 ripe bananas, mashed
3/4 cup walnuts, optional

Cream shortening and sugar, add eggs.
Add remaining ingredients and mix well.
Pour into two greased loaf pans
Bake 1 1/2 hours at 300 degrees

Enjoy!!

The Entertainer

My husband never ceases to keep me entertained. Here's just one example....We were having a party at our home and his job was to hang the pinata over our driveway. He was trying to decide the best way to get a rope over the tree limb and decided to tie a hammer to the end of his rope. He gave it a hearty heave ho and was disgruntled to see the hammer had wedged itself in the crook of the tree. Wondering how he could get the hammer unstuck, he decided to tie another hammer to the other end of the rope and hit the first hammer loose. So he swung the rope and tossed the hammer up into the tree and cussed when he saw the second hammer was also stuck. Now what would you do in this situation????? His remedy was easy. Next thing I heard was the sound of a chain saw starting up. Sure enough, he cut down the tree in order to get his hammers back. Now isn't that smart thinking??!!

The Devil Made Me Do It......

I actually told this story to someone yesterday, so thought I'd post it on the blog. My husband used to travel constantly. He would come home, replace his dirty clothes with clean ones and take off again. Well, one day a box came in the mail. It was from a hotel he had stayed at the week before. I opened it and found a letter saying, "Dear Sir: Here are some items you left in your room......". I pulled out a man's shirt and a pair of socks. They weren't his. At that instant, the devil appeared on my shoulder and whispered in my ear, "Do it"!! So, I placed a pair of panty hose and a slip in the empty box, replaced the letter, and sealed it back up. When he came home, he saw the box and asked what it was. "I don't know", I lied, "It's from that hotel you stayed in last week...". He opened the box, read the letter and looked inside. No sooner had he looked, when he slammed the lid shut. The conversation went like this:
Me: "what is it?"
Him: "nuthin'!!!!!"
Me: "Well, there must be something in there!!"
Him: "nope, nuthin'!!!"
Me: "Let me look.."
Him: "I said, there's nuthin' in the box!!"
By then, the astonished and perplexed look on his face got the best of me and I burst out laughing. He didn't think it was funny, but, like I said, the devil made me do it!!

Do Not Eat The Oranges....

Our 12-year-old granddaughter was attending "Standards Night" at the church tonight and our kids reminded me how I broached this subject with them. I found a book, way back when, called "Love and Oranges". It was written by Marvin Payne, the father in the Saturday's Warrior movie. I used a chapter in the book to teach our children about abstaining from sex before marriage. The premise was that they are walking along a sidewalk in life and next to the sidewalk is a conveyor belt loaded with oranges. The oranges represent the sexual relationship between a woman and a man. There is a sign that says, "Do Not Eat The Oranges" because they are the Lord's oranges. Pretty soon they come to a tunnel with a sign over the entrance that says "Marriage". They go through the tunnel and when they come out on the other side, they are married and the Lord is standing on the outside. He is taking the oranges from the conveyor belt and giving them to the newlyweds, for they are His gift to them. After that, every time one of our children left on a date, I would remind them, "Don't Eat the Oranges"....It became a family joke, but they got the message. I even carried it a little further. After the wedding reception, as they were leaving for the honeymoon, I presented them with a basket. In the basket was Orange soda, Orange crackers, Orange cheese, Orange Cheetos, Orange candy, and of course Oranges with a big Orange bow on top.

Have you been looking in the mirror again?

I have called my mother every night for the past three years...ever since my father died. We live a couple of thousand miles apart, so I like to check in on her at the end of the day just to see how she's doing. She's 84 years old and living alone, so even though I have siblings that live nearby who take very good care of her, I feel like the only thing I can do for her is to call. Last night when I called her, she was feeling blue. This happens now and then so I had to ask her, "Have you been looking in the mirror again?" This always makes her laugh. They say inside every older person is a younger person wondering what the heck happened!! As we age, our body begins to wrinkle and starts to sag. Our hair turns gray and we begin to look like a person we don't even recognize. Who is that old woman in the mirror? I don't feel that old!! Our body ages, but our soul stays young and soon the only thing we have to look forward to is resurrection morning when we get that youthful body back....no brown spots or varicose veins.....just a body, perfect in every way!! Thank goodness we can tell that to the old woman in the mirror.

How to tell the sex of a chicken...

The last time we lived in California, we lived in a rural area with no sidewalks and a hitching post in front of the 7-11. Most of the folks in town had horses or other animals. We decided it would be fun to have a little farm. The kids were excited, so we went to the local feed store and asked to buy some chickens. We told them we wanted four hens and a rooster. We were looking at all the baby chicks running around in a pen and they all looked the same to us. The man picked one up by it's beak and said, "That's a hen". He picked up a couple more and said they were hens, too!! Then, he picked one up and announced it was a little rooster. By then we were scratching our heads wondering how in the world he could tell the difference. So, I had to ask. He told us that when you pick up a chick by it's beak, a hen will just hang there, whereas, a little rooster will flap its wings. Who knew!!! So, we bought our chicks, a few ducklings, and a couple of pygmy goats. I also bought a milk goat, but that's a story for another time. After a few months, we were scratching our heads again. The chickens had all drowned in the duck pond, the ducks had all been trampled by the goats, and the goats had gotten loose and eaten everything in our garden. Needless to say, that was the end of our farming experience. Guess we were meant to be city dwellers!!

Choosing the father of your children...

One of the most important decisions a woman makes in her lifetime is, "Who will be the father of my children?" So, of course, I have to explain how I chose mine. One of the first things I remember about him was being picked up and dumped into an irrigation canal. I was 15.....he was 16. It was love at first sight. (Well at least for me.) A couple of years later he saw the light and we were "officially" in love, but too young. When he was 19, he left to serve as a missionary for two years while I attended college at BYU. Soon after his return, we were married. Two young people with their heads in the clouds loving every minute of life. Nine months and four days later, our first child was born. Reality brought us back to earth!! We were parents!!! During the pregnancy, he was determined that it was a boy and would not discuss girl's names. I went into labor on his birthday and he was thrilled that he and his son would share the same date. A daughter was born the next day; but it was, again, love at first sight. Through the years, we added two more daughters and two sons to our family.

Most men have some kind of hobby....golf, hunting, whatever...My husband's hobby was (and still is) his children. He sat through every play, concert, ballgame, recital, whatever they were doing at the time; and he sat on the front row cheering, clapping, making sure they knew he was there. They knew without a doubt that he was the president of their fan club. They knew they were the most important priority in his life. He has been a devoted husband and father, always putting the needs of his family before his own. He has blessed our family in a millions ways. We love him dearly, especially me, because, after all, I chose him!!

Why are homes for sale and houses for rent?

You can check the classifieds in any newspaper and find that homes are for sale and houses are for rent. I've always wondered about the difference. Can you drive through a neighborhood and distinguish a home from a house? They both have windows, doors, roofs and from the street, there's really no way to tell if someone is a homeowner or a tenant. In the past 40 years we have lived in six "houses" and six "homes". They all provided us with shelter and a place to put our furniture. You've probably heard the saying, "A house is made of bricks and stone, a home is made of love alone"...hmmmm. It's been my experience that it doesn't matter if you live in a house, or a home, it's the people who live inside that make the difference.

Oz

Oz....the destination. I agree the joy is in the journey. Along the way you meet interesting characters, see beautiful scenery, and learn lots and lots of new things. The many things I've learned in my journey cannot be listed in detail here, but my journey to "Oz" has been full of joy and wonder with only a few speed bumps along the way. My "Oz", my destination, has to be defined as my Heavenly Home. A place where our family will be together forever...a gigantic family reunion!! Our journey here on earth will lead us there if we all follow the right path, hold on tight to the iron rod (the word of God) and don't get lost along the way. Where is your Oz? What is your destination??

The yellow brick road...

My yellow brick road didn't start in Kansas....it started in Utah...Orem, Utah and over the next 40 years it wound its way through Idaho, California ( 3 times), Texas (twice), Florida, Pennsylvania and North Carolina. Whew!!

My Mormon boy graduated from BYU with a degree in business/marketing and landed a job with Procter and Gamble selling Crest toothpaste and Ivory soap. We were sent to Boise, Idaho with our 2-year old daughter in tow. While we were in Boise we added baby #2, a son. When we were expecting baby #3, we were moved to Union City California in the San Francisco bay area. Baby #3 was born there...a little girl. When she was 9 months old, P&G moved us, and our 3 children under six, to Tampa, Florida.

Two years later and while expecting baby #4, my husband jumped ship.
He left P&G and took a job with a Johnson&Johnson company, selling surgical suture. They moved us to Lubbock, Texas (where #4 was born, another daughter) and then to Southern California, back to Texas (Dallas) and back to Southern California, where
#5, a son, was born.

My yellow brick road continued on to Pennsylvania and North Carolina...no more babies, but more details to follow...

Recipes

Johnny Cake
1 cup yellow corn meal
1 cup flour
2 1/2 tsp baking powder
1/3 cup sugar
1 tsp salt
1 egg
1 cup milk
3 tbl melted butter

Mix ingredients well, pour into well-greased 8x8 pan. Bake at 425 degrees for 20 minutes. Serve with honey butter.

Honey butter

1 stick butter or margarine (softened)
1/2 cup honey
1/2 tsp vanilla

Beat together until smooth.

Johnnycakes and babies...

There's an old pioneer song that goes something like this: Come girls come and listen to my noise, don't you marry those Mormon boys, if you do, your fortune it will be, johnny cakes and babies is all you'll see. Well, I married a Mormon boy and I've eaten lots of johnny cake, or cornbread as it is more commonly known, and I've given birth to five babies; but, marrying that Mormon boy has taken me on a journey that would rival anything written by L. Frank Baum. This blog is about that journey. I hope you'll enjoy reading about it...