Better Than Denny's

         I went to Church by myself last week.  Jenna had opted to go with Roland to pick up Randy and his family at the airport.  Roland and I had picked up a van the day before.  We had also borrowed a playpen for the baby to sleep in. 

I am happy I was there for sacrament meeting.  Bonnie’s doctor and his wife were the speakers.  We hadn’t seen Dr. Nay at Church since COVID began.  He still had a mask on his face which made me feel guilty that I wasn’t wearing mine (as masks are now optional at Church)

Sister Nay talked about taking upon His name and comparing simple reminders to power bars or power bites.  Reading the scriptures would be a power bar, performing service, being kind . . . Though I have put Sister Nay on possibly a higher pedestal than perhaps she would place herself, it made me realize that even those that seem to be natural at taking upon His name and wouldn’t need power bars do have to work at it. Spiritual power bars give us energy.

Dr. Nay had mentioned that oft times we may become offended by the choice of words or actions of another – but it isn’t as though most people are going around intentionally offending others.  Sometimes we just get rubbed the wrong way or see things out of context.  How we react is on us.  I wish I had taken notes.  Both talks were both very meaningful.  I enjoyed them a lot.

It appears I published a post after I returned figuring I would see them all within the hour.  Ironically, I could have created several more thoughts to post each day but had decided to finish watching a movie I had started the week prior.  I had even gone through a second and wondered: “Where in the world could they be?”

I did figure that they would stop for something to eat even though Roland had Chicken Cacciatore cooking in the crockpot.  They made the mistake of choosing a Denny’s that evidently was not fully staffed.  The ironic thing was that in the time they had ordered until the time they were served, they could have eaten the Cacciatore.  I had several reports that it was NOT a good experience.  But at least they got to visit, right?  Probably in a more productive way than the van would allow.

So now I have a week’s worth of family time plus another two unrelated but will perhaps be mentioned during their first day of June with us.  I have loads of pictures that Jenna had taken.  How great it is that she is documenting what I used to.  So, I’m back.  Don’t know how missed I was.

Let's Talk About My Birthday

          For my facebook page I had attached two scrapbook pages. My celebration started the evening before - unbeknownst to our friends whose home we had gone to.  We played three games.  Two of Smart A** - amazingly I did not land on any donkeys the entire first game (except for the one with the bullseye to declare the winner) and won the game.  I did get stuck in the second game and Jenna won that one.  We had fun.

          Our friends then taught us a new game from their collection – one I had played before but had not enjoyed the first time.  It was more fun the night of the 27^th.  I declared myself a winner in my mind from having completed my original journey first.  Jenna also declared herself a winner as she was the first to complete all of her cards.  I was right behind her.  The winner is actually declared through points total – which requires counting and math.  It took just as long to count points as it did to play the game – or at least it felt like it.  If I was in charge we would not be counting points.  Yuch!  But I did come in second.

   Jenna had been looking forward to various event all week long and would continually ask, “are you excited about . . .”

 On Friday morning I opened the gifts that she had placed in a box that she had decorated.  I think I opened the Disney figures first;  we will be using as game pieces in the future. I then opened the book which Jenna said would be from Roland and then the CD would be from her.  The CD was not a total surprise as I had mentioned it to them.  The other three were surprises.  I love Dr. Seuss and was happy to receive and happy that Jenna read it to me.

On Friday we went to Roseburg to get something to eat on the way to the movie theater as "Cruella" was released on my birthday and so had to make it a part of my celebration. 

Yesterday we had gone to Roseburg to pick up a rental as my youngest son and his family would be arriving today. I went to church by myself.  I’m glad that I did for sacrament meeting was really awesome.  That will be a separate post along with more about family history, my stupid laptop and a trip to Riddle to borrow a playpen and introduce Bonnie to some other dogs to see how she would react with them.  Probably won't be posting until my son and family return to the airport and we have said our good-byes.

 

Where is LaTiesha?

 It’s only been five days since my last post and I have had ideas – even disconnected paragraphs. Problem right now (a very personal thing) is time management – which I used to be good at – but I’ve let myself slide – along with my memory which, by the way, is horrid.

  I was supposed to pick someone up on Sunday.  I had even called her on Saturday night to give her a time.  A reminder went off that morning.  Two hours later I was in the car and then the church without her. 

 I guess that wasn’t as bad as picking up Bonnie after Jenna walked her to the theatre.  Jenna also gave me a bag of poop as she didn’t know where to dispose of it.  Not cool.  But okay. 

It wasn’t okay.  I forgot about it.  Of course I can’t smell.  But Roland can.  He has a hyper sensitive nose. Apparently he spoke harshly at Jenna and told her not to assign me responsibilities because I don’t remember things.  Finally.  He admits that my memory is slipping. But then again so is his - to a degree.

Our goal right now is to tidy up the house a bit as we have guests coming.  They will feel cramped, I’m sure.  We all will.  I predict it will be an exhausting vacation - for them at least.  We have already reserved a van to pick them up from the airport and drive ourselves around in just one vehicle instead of two. 

We don’t know all where we will be going or how long we will spend in each area. We had wanted one of our stops to be The Enchanted Forest (here) – but they seemed to have problems recovering from snowmageddon back in February 2019 (here and here) 

COVID didn’t help matters and it sounds like Tofte family (here) has been satisfied with their forty plus years and are ready to retire the place (at least that is how I read) and haven’t given a specific on when (if) they’ll be reopening – and yet their facebook page seems to indicate that they are hiring for the season.  So I don’t know if that will be on our agenda.

Anyway, I will be spending time with them after they arrive and so may not be posting again until the second week in June.  Just a heads up for those that may be following my blog.

Ever Changing With Mother Nature

Last week the temperature would start out in the mid-forty’s and go up another 40 degrees throughout the day.  That’s not nice.  This week we have had consistent weather and have included wind and rain. 

 

I prefer the cooler weather – especially for walking Bonnie.  We all feel deprived when it is hot.   

The Sound of Rain

          Even before Bonnie came to live with us, Jenna found a comforting sound (to her) to drown out the noise of the chickens and roosters who crow all hours of the day.  She turns the phone setting to rain falling.  I don’t recall having heard it until after Bonnie had come to live with us.  That is because Bonnie snores loudly.  LOUD.  Like “wake up the dead” kind of loud. Jenna has turned up the volume in order to drown out the noise.

Who's Hungry? More food pics

 At the beginning of the school year we had been asked to participate in a school meal program – even though Jenna does not currently attend in our district.  At first meals were being delivered on a daily basis.  At 9:30 in the morning they would drop off a breakfast and lunch.  Now they drop off just once a week.  Watching Jenna bring in a grocery bag full of treasures is certainly fun to watch as she is like a kid on Christmas morning.  Every bag has included five snack size packages of baby carrots.  She enjoys most breakfast and chicken items.

Lately some of the selections have been weird – well for school cafeteria or with most children in general I would imagine.  She has received snack size packets of radishes.  What child enjoys radishes? Whole radishes.  Jenna and I both thought it was weird.

On Monday most of the items she removed from the bag seemed colder than refrigeration cold.  Oh, a frozen bag of clam chowder –

 enough to feed three or four people.  Frozen.  Takes two hours to thaw and another two to cook.  That isn’t cafeteria normal.  Not only that, it came with an entire set of Hawaiian King rolls. 

That is not cafeteria normal.  We’re not complaining mind you.  It’s just . . . unusual.  Jenna doesn’t like anything that contains any form of fish although she will eat tuna fish sandwiches on occasion.  But NOT clam chowder.  Roland and I had some today and enough there for tomorrow.  We have several nuggets and at least two chicken patties that Jenna will be eating.

 Yesterday Roland and I had a pizza that was not part of the school lunch.  I had never tried Amy’s pizza before but the pizza looked good on the box.  The pizza looked NOTHING like the picture on the box.  

Oh, wait.  It did have mozzarella cheese seen on the box.  The tiny green specks did not appear to be spinach but perhaps oregano or basil.  The pizza was not bad – sort of a tomato Florentine shall we say.  But my mouth was not satisfied as it was hoping for what my eyes had seen on the box.

 I should have added some spinach before I cooked it.  After Roland and I had eaten half of it I decided to add the spinach. 

 That’s better.

 

Belated Mother's Day

 I have tossed a few ideas around on what to post.  Meanwhile I received these in the mail.  Enjoy.

For the sweetest Grandma!
Happy Mother's Day!

Doesn't Rochelle have the most fabulous hand print?  I admire her creativity.

Some Chickens Never Learn

                 Are chickens even teachable?  We have put up so many barricades to keep the chickens out.  The neighbors to the west of us have called the police about our backyard neighbors’ menagerie at least four times.  The chickens didn’t bother me when they were at the top of the hill.  I wasn’t even bothered about them venturing into our yard.  Taking over the front yard seemed a bit much.  I drew the line at their overtaking the deck . . . which in itself would have been no problem but their bowl movements were/are.  I don’t like that!

                I recall 3 Nephi 10 in which Christ compares himself to a mother hen.  He gathereth his children as a hen would gather her chickens.  I have personally never seen that happen.  There are several hens that will invade our yard – no peeps though.  The youngest I’ve seen were small in size but still able to identify it as rooster or hen.  The hens overall don’t seem protective – especially when we find eggs that have been pecked.  That is definitely NOT a motherly thing to do.

                The white chicken refuses leave our porch.  We have shooed her off more times than the neighbors have called the police.  She finds ways to get  back in but then has a problem figuring how to get back out.  She seems to look for the most obscure spot to lay her eggs.  There have been seven that I know of – though the most I have seen at one time was four.  That was yesterday and I found her on the porch again this morning.  Perhaps she does have maternal instincts and has chosen that particular spot in order to hide her eggs in hopes that they will become children.  Perhaps that was why she was trying to get back in – to make certain her eggs weren’t being  pecked or stolen. 

Unfortunately for her they will  never hatch.  They now live in our fridge or have long since been eaten.  It almost makes me feel sorry for her that we are not able to communicate with one another. I don’t want to be a threat to her but I don’t particularly wish to raise chickens either.  I don’t want them gone as badly as the neighbors to our west – but I do understand where they are coming from.  That is a lot of animals for that plot of land.  Again, I don’t mind sharing my yard but I should not have to deal with cleaning up their large mess from my own porch.   At the same time I would much rather deal with the chickens than to have the drug house in our neighborhood as we had in West Valley.

Things That Glow

           Glo-E Bear

 

          I think it was the Christmas after she had turned three when Tony gave Jenna a Glo-E teddy bear for Christmas.  It came with a wand and a story book. 

Jenna kept the name Glo-E and was fascinated that the bear was able to change color.  Glo-e was only a fad, however. Hi-Five had always had a special place in her heart and has always been her number one.

The above is not the best picture we have of Hi-Five – the way he looks at present.  You can read more about Hi-Five in this post.

On December 3, 2008 the preschool had sent home notes that they were having a teddy bear party in honor of the letter B.  Bear starts with B.  But so no child would feel left out about not having his or her own teddy bear the note said that another stuffed animal was welcome in its place.

Jenna was torn.  She really wanted to take Glo-E to show him off but she didn’t want to leave out Hi-Five who wasn’t a bear, but she loved him so much (still does) and ended up taking both.

I happened to be there that day and remembered Jenna sitting with her teacher as she answered questions about the toys and filled out the form with both names.  I did not hear the entire conversation but have this as a momento

 

Constellations

 

I was never into astrology but I do remember watching the star shows at Hansen Planetarium.  For the most part I was puzzled as how they were able to get certain images out of a set of stars.  Some I could see, but others required a lot of imagination.  For the most part I have not been able to see the constellations for real in the sky except for the swan (whose proper name I don’t even recall) and the Big Dipper.

As I have mentioned in some other posts, I don’t normally have an awesome view of the night sky nor have I seen stars all that many times usually because the skies have been overcast or on occasion full of smoke.  Thus I appreciated the times that I am able to view the stars – which has lately been in the form of the Big Dipper.  

I tried taking a picture of my view but it was just too dark.  Even this illustration isn’t accurate to what I see.  The sky is a dark blue and if I move my head back and forth, the stars appear to be twinkling. It is really the blinds that block the light while the opening through the slats allow the light to shine through.

 Butterflies

Jenna and I were visiting on the front porch when a UPS truck pulled up.  I hadn’t ordered anything but my birthday is coming up.  I thought possibly something that Roland had ordered for me.  No, it was a Mother’s Day gift from my eldest son, his wife (who I’m certain was the one who sent) and daughter.  What a surprise.  So unexpected.  Wind chimes that Jenna decided needed to be hung up right then.  We had each taken several pics as we had hung them, before the wind blew them down.  She took a couple of pictures at dusk, but I did not get any pictures of the glow.

You Missed the Excitement

 I heard the truck pull up and heard the footsteps come up our driveway.  I looked out the window and saw a man whose expression said he definitely was not happy.  I was alone except for Bonnie.  Roland had taken Jenna and a friend to Roseburg for the youth stake activity. 

I opened the door and cautiously peered my face around the deck.  It turned out to be the couple from behind us.  She said that Penelope had fallen out from the fence that they had put up (I would think a repair is now in order?) 

Penelope appears to be three times larger than she was in this picture: 

Our neighbors had a large carrier with them to put her in.  They climbed the hill and got her.  I was in awe watching them.  They both wore flip-flop type sandals – not the appropriate hill climbing shoe.  I forgot to ask them if they are getting enough eggs for themselves.  I will have either Jenna or Roland ask next time one of them climbs the hill.  I am glad that Penelope chose our yard to escape to as the neighbors west of us probably would not have allowed them in their yard.

After they had returned to their house, I saw them hammering reinforcers into the ground.  Now if they could just get a reinforcement for their chickens.

Yesterday's Mother’s Day

           Jenna always asks before hand: “Are you excited about Mother’s Day?”  “Are you excited about your birthday?”  “Are you excited for Easter?” or whatever it is.  Generally I’m not.  But I’m not necessarily unexcited.  For the most part I just think of it as another day.  There may be moments when the whatever event is showcased or spotlighted – particularly Easter but then it seems forgotten.

          There was a Mother’s Day Tea Party scheduled at the Grand Victorian.  I have never been to a tea party other than the pretend parties I would have with Jenna and her stuffed animals.  I really don’t care for tea and I haven’t worked my way up to socializing with a bunch of woman I probably don’t know.  Thus Jenna and I resorted back to a time when we had still lived in Kearns.

 

          After we returned home from church Jenna returned to the corner where we had passed some children who were selling pink lemonade – a very weak drink at that.  We had inherited a tea set from a hoarder and Jenna asked them to fill up the teapot while I prepared a tray filled with crackers, cheese and the “almond bark” the girls had made in young women.  Jenna had already warned me that there would not be much in the way of almonds. 

          Midway through our “tea” I announced that I had to have some real food and took out some leftover chicken out of the fridge and she decided to have a leftover pizza.  It was a simple Mother’s Day, no hoopla.  I already posted about my early gift (the Yeti water bottle) which I have used from the moment I received it.  Roland also purchased chocolates in three forms: a chocolate almond candy bar, package of chips ahoy and some glorified milk duds (which seem to bring on a headache whenever I eat them)

          Once again, there hadn’t been a Mother’s Day program or even just a performance of primary Mother’s Day songs.  It’s different.  Not a terrible difference – just a change I still haven’t gotten used to.  But I think I actually like it more than not. 

          I’ve been reading facebook reminders all week about what Mother’s Days past have been.  One year I was told that I would not have to do the dishes.  I thought that meant that either Biff, Randy or Roland would do them (Tony was out of town) but they didn’t.  They saved them for me to do on Monday.  How thoughtful.  Tony said he would have done them if he had been home.  He would have.  Ooki had also volunteered if he was still with us.  That was a given. 

            No breakfast in bed.  We all tried the new cinnamon cheerios together.  I thought they tasted like I think wood would taste - kind of a nuts and twigs assortment. I don't know why we continue to try new Cheerios products.  The multi-grain are the only ones I have liked.  The rest of them have gone from "not so great" to "kind of horrid". 

Anyway, that was my mother’s day this year.

Let's Make It a Game Night!

             Pre-pandemic I loved Wednesdays.  It was my short day whenever I would sub – usually for Coffenberry.  The staff there would work with me on my schedule.  The third Wednesday was the day that seniors could meet up at Roseburg cinema to watch a featured movie.  It was cool to have sponsors which made that possible.  

            Though I enjoyed the opportunity of seeing movies for free on the third Wednesday, I looked forward to the second Wednesday of each month.  That is when the ward offered a pot luck luncheon.  Afterward there was a group of us that would hang around and play games for an hour or two.  Though I enjoyed the luncheon itself, I enjoyed the games even more.

Pre-pandemic we had scheduled nights to play with different couples in our ward or sometimes we would invite my friend, Carol.  When we would play in teams, it was usually her and Roland against Jenna and me – not always but quite a bit.  We had even tried to set up a game night with a couple who had just moved into our work only one or two weeks before the stay-at-home order was given.  Thus fourteen months later we finally set up a game night but made it a night to eat dinner first – which I don’t think is necessary but Roland thinks he needs to feed anybody and everybody who happens to drop by.

We decided to have it at their home as they have a lot more room and we wouldn’t have to feel crowded.  She made the dinner and Roland ended up making the dessert as mine had failed.  We’d taken out a handful of cards – at least one per game we had brought and asked which they would like to play.  Any sounded good and Roland ALWAYS wants to play Baulderdash and so we numbered the boxes and picked the first game that way.

After dinner we ended up playing a partial game of Whatzit and then played a game of Baulderdash.  We are hoping for another night (or regular set up) to play the two plus games that we hadn’t played (or even brought with us) on Thursday night.  I think we need to cut out the food so that we have more time to play games without cutting into anyone’s sleep schedule.  We may have overstayed our welcome.  I hope not. 

It was fun for Jenna and I to play our party games with other people and not just her and I.  Pre-pandemic we had even played games with the missionaries on occasion. We have missed playing games.