Spring...and a few projects...

Spring is in there air...it feels so good!  Time got get a few projects done (or started!).

Feb. craft night was at Linda's house and she helped us make pillows!  We told her what we wanted them to say and she had the stencil all ironed on and ready to paint!  How do you like mine?  I saw these on pinterest and have wanted them ever since!  I thought they might make a cute wedding gift if you know the couple and their sense of humor well enough.  I think I want to embellish these just a little...maybe a flower or two on mine and not sure about Dave's.  Maybe a mustache?  I am open to suggestions!  Also, I went to buy the pillow forms at JoAnne's and they were totally out of the size I needed!  When I went to DI a couple of weeks later, there were two beautiful velvet Christmas throw pillows...one was dark green and the other was maroon.  One said Joy and one said Peace.  They looked brand new.  Most throw pillows were marked 1, 2 or 3 dollars each, but these had no price on them.  So we asked at the cash register and the manager said, "50 cents each."  Sold!  They fit perfectly and if I want to I can take the covers off at Christmas time and have pretty throw pillows to use!  What a bargain!

This month I began cutting squares for the "I Spy" quilts I want to TRY and make.  Those were also something I saw on pinterest.  Lots of little squares with all kinds of different pictures.  The kids can have fun looking for all the different objects/characters etc.  I am going to try and make one for David and one for Jacob.  We will see how they turn out!  No guarantees!  But I do love the fabric scraps I have been able to scrounge up...and yesterday and today I bought a couple of small pieces from the fabric stores...they were too cute to pass up!  I found some monsters, some mickey mouse, and a couple of others to add to what i already have...I hope these turn out half as cute as I imagine them.  I have never pieced a quilt before, so we will see!  If by some small chance they turn out at all looking like a quilt, I will post a picture!

 And now spring!  The weather was perfect last week to plant our garden.  We know we won't be here long enough to enjoy all the produce, but hopefully we will get a little of it before we leave.  And we thought a small garden (we made it much smaller this year than normal) would make the yard look nicer for someone who might want to rent the house (yes we need a renter...anyone looking?).  This is the chard we planted last summer!  We never pulled it up and it somehow lasted all winter.  Frost and all!  Dave has since trimmed it back a bit now...but we are amazed how hearty it is!

 We planted some Kale in front of the chard.  We have never tried Kale before, but Dave uses it in his green smoothies so we though, why not try it?  We will also plant a few tomatoes, zucchini, summer squash and some marigolds to help keep buggies away... 

 Dave loves to play in the dirt, and he loves his rototiller...I love to see him working it!

Funny thing, when we uncovered the rototiller, we found this little key on the pavement under it.  I have no idea what it is, where it came from, or what it goes to!  Perhaps Amanda knows.  Maybe one of her boys is missing it from a toy when they were here last time.  I don't know.  It is a mystery to us!  We have never seen it before.

Here is our little garden...all planted and ready to go...our last one at this house...bitter sweet...hope it grows!

 And now we need to revive our grass...Joel mowed it and Dave applied some weed and feed.  we will see what happens!  It looks a little better than it did before...(we have been pulling a lot of weeds!) but it still needs some TLC. 

 Nine years ago I got a start of this ground cover plant from Dave's mom.  It has taken off and practically taken over the front yard!  I love it in the spring when it gets all it's purple blossoms...we went out today and tried to thin it out and trim it back some...we got about half done...more to do!  There is a lot!

 AND, about 9 years ago we were visiting in Utah and my little brother had this little plant growing all over in his grass...I loved the little purple blossoms so we dug a few of them up and brought them home and planted them.  They come up every year but hardly ever blossom...this year each one blossomed a lot!  It's like they know we are leaving and need to see them blooming!  I want to call them Lupine, but I'm not sure if that's what they are...so funny that they come up every year though. 

We have trimmed the trees and are working on the yard...won't be long before it looks ready for the summer ahead.  Thankfully it is a small yard!  Happy Spring!

Inspiration and a leap of faith...

This is basically a "journal entry" for me, so don't feel you have to read this post if you don't want to.  A lot of changes are happening in our lives and I just need to write about the inspiration behind them.  About a year ago at Easter time, when Amanda and the boys were here visiting...everything seemed to be wonderful and good.  But on Amanda's arrival back home to Georgia, her "happily ever after" had taken a new twist.  Amanda's husband had decided to leave the church because he had done some "research" and no longer believed in it.  This came as quite a shock to all of us.  Especially since he was serving in the bishopric and had always been such a wonderful example of a loving husband, father, son, brother and friend.  Everyone has been very saddened by his decision. It is truly heartbreaking to see someone lose their faith. Amanda has a had a roller coaster year...lots of ups and downs, and after trying her best, she decided she needed to get off the emotional roller coaster, and out of Georgia.

Amanda applied to BYU and was accepted.  She will be returning there this fall to finish her degree in Math Education so she might be able to provide for herself and her little guys.  One day she was talking to me on the phone and she was feeling overwhelmed with the thoughts of being a single mom going back to school, taking care of her boys, getting a job, and finding daycare for them while she does all that.  After our phone call I just kept thinking about it and wishing I could help her.  I suddenly had a thought.  I call it a "vision" because I totally saw in my mind's eye, little Jacob following me around the house during the day while David and his mommy were in school.  The thought came to me that we needed to move to Utah and get a big house so Amanda and the boys could live with us.  It was a beautiful thought!  I LOVED the idea!  I could hardly contain my excitement at the thought of it!  But now to tell Dave...

Dave and I have talked many times about moving to Utah, to be closer to some of my family and to enjoy the beauties there, and be closer to our roots.  When I suggested my new idea to him, he surprised me by saying we probably should do that.  The wheels started turning and we began making mental lists of all the things we would need to do.  Our two biggest concerns were his job and our house.  We talked a LOT about a lot of things.  One day I knew he was for sure on board with the idea when his comment was, "Amanda is more important than my job."  

Now my other concern was Joel.  It's his senior year, he will be putting in mission papers soon, and I didn't want to "mess up" this important time of his life.  But we had mentioned our idea more than once around him so he knew what we were thinking.  One day, I was at my desk doing something and he came in and just casually said, "I think we should move to Utah."  My heart melted.  What an amazing and insightful young man he is!  Now that Joel was on board too, there was no turning back!  We won't move until summer and he will have already graduated and got his mission call.  He said he will be leaving for two years anyway, so let's just move!

It is with a leap of faith we are going to pack up and move this summer.  We haven't worked out living arrangements, jobs, or what to do with our house here...but we have prayed about this and we feel good about it.  We know it is the right thing to do, and it is the right time.  It IS a leap of faith..but we are trusting in the Lord.  We are excited to start this new adventure with Amanda and she is relieved to have some of the stress taken off her shoulders.  About a week or so after we made the decision to actually do this, Dave emailed me from work and said he had just met a man who was in town visiting Schneider Electric (formerly Pelco) and he was from the SALT LAKE facility!  We didn't even know Schneider HAD a Salt Lake facility!  I tend to think it was not coincidence he met this man and got his card...wouldn't it be wonderful if he could just transfer to Utah?  

We are going Easter weekend to Utah to look at some houses (and areas) and for Dave to tour the Schneider facility.  We are praying for some sure answers and directions as we prepare to make this huge change in our lives.  We will dearly miss our ward family here...we have made some of the best friends we have ever had...it will be hard to leave.  We have been here for 16 years!  But we are ready and willing to do it.  Hoping that all our friends will come visit when they can!  We will of course miss Ashley and Clark who do not want to move with us.  We invited them, but they are pretty independent and enjoying their life here.  Hopefully they will come visit us too!  Clif and Lindsay are in Rexburg a few hours away, so we might get to see them once in awhile too.

Yes, it will be an adventure, a lot of work, and a lot of change, but we are ready.  July 2013, Utah or bust!

  

By Request...Romper Room!

I had mentioned that I was on Romper Room in a previous post, and a sweet friend, Grandma Honey, said I should do a post about it...so here we go!  I believe it was about 1966 or 1967.  We were visiting my Aunt Lew and Uncle Jim in Salt Lake City, Utah.  Someone they knew worked at KSL TV and they needed another child for their Romper Room show for the week.  So I was it!  I don't remember a whole lot about it...but I do remember "Miss Julie" and her "magic mirror" and I also remember a few of the things we did.  In this picture I am in the middle, short blonde pixy hair, blue dress and white shoes...

 Here we are eating what looks like birthday cake!  I am on the far end in the pink dress drinking my milk.

 I do remember playing with the punching bags...I also remember playing with the punching balls (that are hanging up in the back there...the big balloons on a string...I remember those!

 It was shown every morning 5 or 6 days a week...but we filmed them in about 3 days...so you will notice that Miss Julie's outfit changes, when ours stay the same.  I guess she would go change and then we would film another episode.  See the Do Bee and Don't Bee signs in the back?  We were Do Bees.  

 That is me holding the flag.  We did the pledge every morning (every episode).

 Dancing or twirling?  Not sure.  My dad was obviously in the studio taking these pictures...I'm glad he did! I am in light pink and hard to see, but I am there!

 Another pledge picture..

 Stick ponies...I don't remember those.  But we were "Do Bees" and learned the right things to "do" - "Do say please," etc.

I still have my Do Bee ring...a bit bent up, but I have it.  It says "I am a Romper Room Do Bee."  It has a jack-in-the-box on it.  

So there you have it...my 15 minutes of fame when I was 4.  Maybe 5.  I can't remember.  But I will always be a "Do Bee."

Another old home...

When I was 7-8 we lived in Fairbanks, Alaska at Fort Wainwright.  This is a picture of the front of our quarters.  We are the door on the right and had two stories and a basement.

 It just so happens my brother's daughter just moved to Fairbanks recently and he is there visiting right now and sent me these pictures!  His son-in-law is military so could get him on the base.  Here is our "home" today...It is one long building with 6 sets of entrances...12 living quarters in all...

   My brother said these are not living quarters anymore but are offices...he went up and took pictures through the window of the back door...this is the back of the building...

 In each unit there was one back door entry for two living quarters...there was a stairway going down into a tunnel system that you could get to various buildings on the base and not have to go out in the weather.  Someone told my brother the tunnel system is now closed up.  This is the stairway down to the tunnel, that I guess goes nowhere now...

 Then on each side of that stairway going down, was a stairway going up to each living quarter.  That was our kitchen door right there!  How fun that Ron got to be there and see our old haunting grounds!  And how timely since I had just done a recent post about other old houses and how they look today.  Fun stuff!

I know this post won't mean anything to anyone but me, but it brought back a lot of wonderful memories of my childhood, of our travels in the military and of all the places and homes we have lived in.  Thanks Ron for sending the pictures!  

Long lost relatives...

Last year when I was working on my Auntie Bev's life history...she did a page about her heritage.  She listed her mom's and dad's families and birth and death dates etc.  When she listed her mom's sister Edna, she listed that Edna was the last one living and was "96 at the time of this writing."  I told Auntie Bev I didn't know my grandma had a living sister!  Where have I been all these years to not know that?  More importantly, why did my mom never tell me that?  Perhaps she did when I was much younger and didn't have much interest in family history, but surely she would have told me as I got older!  Auntie Bev contacted her Aunt Edna and Edna's daughter Jeanine and gave them my address.

 Was I ever thrilled to get a Christmas card from them!  And better yet, an email address!  I have been corresponding via email with Jeanine and it has been heavenly!  She has sent me family pictures!  Treasures!  This is a picture of my great Aunt Edna (my Grandma Ellen Brown's sister).  This was taken on her 90th birthday!  Jeanine says she still looks like this, only skinnier.  She turned 97 in January!  Why did my mom never tell me she had a living aunt!?  I still can't get over that...

 Jeanine also sent this picture of my Great Grandma (Edna's and Ellen's parents) and Grandpa Ellett with their first daughter Addie.  Isn't it beautiful?  And it was apparently taken at the same time as the next wonderful picture...

 The George William and Janett Leffler Shiner family...Great Grandma Clara Ellett is on the right in the back, and it's the same backdrop as the picture of her and her husband and baby (above).  This picture lists all their names.  It's a GREAT picture!  When I looked up their family group sheet, one sister is not in the picture.  Sarah.  She is just older than Clara and may have already been married and moved away.  I wish I knew for sure why she wasn't in the picture.  12 children!  Isn't this just the greatest picture!? I have never seen these pictures!

 This picture is my grandma and her siblings (Ellen, my maternal grandmother) is in the middle front, and Edna is to the right.  I had never seen this picture either.

 In this picture my grandma is on the right and Edna is on the left.  This is at their father's burial in Bicknell, Utah.  Another amazing picture that I had not seen before.  

 This is my Great Grandpa Ellett with his sons...he has a big knife and is enjoying some watermelon!  What a fun picture!

 Last summer when I met with my Auntie to start her life history...she had a copy of this picture of my Grandma and Grandpa...my mom is the little girl on the right with Grandpa's hand on her shoulder.  I loved this picture as I had never seen it before.  But my Auntie had no original, just a copy.  So I copied it, but it's a BAD copy.  I asked Jeanine if she might have this picture and she said no.  But a few emails later, here was the picture and she said, "The Alburn and Ellen Brown Family - do you have this picture?"  I do now!  A GOOD copy!  My Auntie Bev - whose history I helped with - is the little girl in Grandma's arms!  This is the last half of their children...there are 5 older ones who aren't in the picture.  10 children!  And a baby that died at birth...my grandparents were amazing people!

There have been many pictures sent to me from Jeanine (some I have seen before, some I have not) and some stories from Great Aunt Edna about my grandma.  I shed tears when I read some of them and when I looked at these beautiful pictures of long lost relatives...I am so thankful to have "found" these relatives and hope to keep corresponding with them until I can get back up to Utah and meet them in person!  Jeanine said she remembered me as the "beautiful little blonde girl who was on Romper Room."  Oh my, that was 45 years ago!  I got to be on Romper Room (a children's show on KSL TV) for a week.  How on earth did she remember that?  Yes, I cannot wait to meet this cousin (once removed?) of mine!  Here is one of my Romper Room pictures that I have...I am holding the flag.  Talk about an antique picture!  I might have to do a Romper Room post next...

Happy Birthday Dad!

Happy Birthday to my dad...he would be 82 today!  This is his 1940 school picture...

Love and miss him every day...I'm so glad that he's my dad!  

Google maps of old homes...

I was looking at some of my mom and dad's photo albums, and saw the page of their "first home" in Kearns, Utah.  Not the first one they lived in, but the first one they bought (I believe).  My dad had written in the address...here is the picture.

 For fun I decided to Google map the address...and here it is!  Of course it says Salt Lake now instead of Kearns, but it's the same house!  It was so fun to find it!  I cut the picture off too much at the bottom, but it has the same sidewalk and then another patch of grass before the curb.  The brick facing on the front is gone, but you can tell it's the same house.  That was so fun, I decided to try another one...

This is our house in Fort Smith, Arkansas where we lived when I was born (50 years ago!)

When I typed the address in Google maps, it took out the "South" in the address and a house came up, but it didn't look the same.  And you could see the house number on it, and it didn't match.  Of course I know after 50 years the numbers could change...but  it just didn't look anything like this picture I had.  You can move up and down the street on Google maps, and circle around and look across the street (it's quite amazing what you can do on there!) so I moved it to the house next door and ta da!  THIS was my house!  It had a different number for the address but it does say "addresses may not be accurate" and when Dave came and looked at it, he agreed with me it was the right house.

The carport has been enclosed, and I don't think it has siding anymore, but the windows and the roof line are the same, and what verified it for us was the telephone pole behind the house.  It's still there (the tree branches are in the way) and as we moved the Google map camera around to the side of the house, we could see the pole clear as day-transformer and all!  That's my house!  It's a little run down and no flowers or shrubs.  If you look closely, you can see the reflection of the Google maps car in the front window.  We have several pictures by this house...front and back yard...here are a few...

 Me sitting on a blanket in the grass, house behind me...not sure of my age...but I had more hair and am older than these other pictures which were taken on Easter, just a couple of weeks before my sister passed away...I was 5 months old...most of her hair had fallen out by this time...so we were both bald. Doesn't my mom look beautiful?

 These were taken in the back yard...I wish they were in color because me and my sister had matching pink dresses that my Auntie Lew had made for us...I think I must have been pretty heavy due to the look on my brother's face who is holding me!

Anyway, it was very fun looking at the old pictures and then finding the houses on Google Maps.  I put in a couple other addresses of my parents but couldn't find anything...and of course our military addresses, I'm sure the Google maps car isn't allowed on the bases.  But I have a few more I am going to look up.  It is sure fun to look at them...then and now!

Happy Birthday Auntie Bev!

My Auntie does not have a computer, and I know she will never see this, but it's for ME.  My journal of sorts...Auntie Bev is on the left, today is her birthday.  My grandma called Bev her "day-late Valentine."  I learned this as I worked on Auntie's life history last year.  Next to her in the picture is my Auntie Lew.  We are hoping she will start writing her history now that she has seen Bev's.   I already really love my aunties, but working on Bev's history drew me even closer to her.  I learned so much about her and I had to keep calling her with questions and we just had so much fun chatting.  She is my  mom's sister and it was like having a piece of my mom again.  I truly loved all the phone calls and letters we shared.  We also share a love of books...so that is in our conversations a lot.  In this picture I am signing some books I had given her...she insisted that I sign them when I came through her town in the summer of 2011 (when we started her history project).  I love you Auntie Bev...I hope you have a happy birthday (she is now 75 - I know this from her history as well!) and I can't wait until this afternoon when I can call you and we can chat again.  Thank you for letting me type up your history and add tons of pictures and make it a real book.  You are now an "author."  It was a fun project and I loved every minute of it!  Auntie Lew, start writing...

Honeybees and other rememberings...

I have a small project I have been working on...I have been compiling my notes from Stake and General Conferences from all the different little note pads I had them on, into one notebook.  Okay, not a SMALL project, but I did get it done!  My notes started back in 2003, and though I don't have notes from every conference, I have a lot. As well as a few other special firesides, Sacrament meetings, seminary inservices etc.  And now I will continue my note taking in the ONE book until it is full.  I enjoyed reviewing past notes, remembering the talks and the stories (most of them, some I drew blanks on) and I realize I need to go back and look at them more often.  Here are a few that particularly stood out to me recently: 

"Every temple built lessens the power of Satan and builds the power of God."

"Not making a decision is a decision itself."

"Faith is more essential than ability."

"Look at everything through the lens of eternity."

"Are we TV rich and family time poor?"

"Be the master of your time...the things of God matter most."

"Conversion is not a one time event."

I could go on and on...there were so many about temples and their importance, how they could be busier, how we need to attend often to receive light and inspiration...so many beautiful reminders of what is important in my life.  I was also surprised by how many notes I have on talks from Pres. Barrus.  What a wise man he was.  I loved serving in the stake for 5 years and being able to listen to all his talks in each ward conference.  He never gave the same talk twice!  One quote of his I heard recently made me really think about my calling, he said, "Your calling = your ministry."

One talk that really touched me in the last conference was by Elder Ballard...possibly because my dad and grandpa were both beekeepers...and with pinterest now, just a few minutes after the talks are given, people have their quotes done up all fancy to print up!  Here is Elder Ballard's:

He spoke of bees being anxiously engaged, truly converted, and how we need to focus like the honeybees, multiply our efforts.  I loved the talk and I loved looking up these pictures of my Grandpa Brown in his beekeeping apron...And by his old green Chevy truck (which is on display at Capitol Reef National Park if you ever go there) in his bee suit and with his smoker in hand...

 And my dad sharing his love of beekeeping...My Grandpa taught my dad the beekeeping business way back when...and we always had such good honey...It was a sticky mess extracting it, but it was sure tasty!

Boy do I miss that good tasting honey!  Almost as much as I miss my dad and Grandpa!

More Apron fun...

I had so much fun making aprons for my friends' birthdays...another friend had a February birthday so I just had to make her one!  She loves her coffee and she calls her kitchen "Nuri's Cafe" (I have made her things that say that on them) and when I saw this fabric at my most recent Hobby Lobby venture with Linda Saunders, I knew I had to have it for Nuri's apron!  I think it turned out as cute as the others, and she loved it!  It also turns out she loves aprons...I didn't even know that!

 And I finally finished the matching potholders for each of the aprons I made.  I was sick in December and never finished the chicken ones (two pot holders for each apron) and when I tried to finish them later, I just couldn't make them look right!  I cut them out with each apron I made, but just couldn't figure out how to finish them off so that I liked them.  So I gave each apron gift without the pot holders. I finally solicited help from my professional sewing friend Teri Stringham and she saved the day!  I added ric-rac and it was the perfect ending!   So now they all have matching pot holders!  Nuri is the only one who actually got them with her apron though.  Teri brought me some of her ric-rac collection and the red I used was a brand new package, not even opened yet.  It was from Penneys and the price was 13 cents!  She says it came from her mother's collection.  I feel honored to use it!  And it holds up really well!

What project shall I do next?  Dave is going out of town on business again this week so I can spread out my messes...first up will be making cards.  I promised some to Susan Tanner and I will get them done this week!