Beneath the Wraps

     The Hallmark Channel has aired a new movie this month. It is called "Ms. Matched"  and I was absolutely thrilled about a book put out by Shawn Roberts character, Ben Reynolds.  I think every girl ought to run out and get this book and take it to heart before she stupidly spends a fortune on ONE NIGHT !  Holy Cow.             The story starts out at a Bridal Expo in which Libby and her business partner, Michelle, are trying to promote their wedding planning skills, along with many others who are promoting cakes, gowns, invitations, what have you.  The wonderful expense of being a bride.             I remember going to a Bridal Expo with my second daughter-in-law.  I was horrified and appalled at the costs and expenses and hoopla and waste.  Ben Reynolds explains that it is possible to create sim...

        It's hard to believe that just over a week I had the heater on just before Memorial weekend - and now?  June 1st hits with high temperatures and warm winds and knocked me into a coma.  Would not have made a good chaperone had I gone with Jenna and her classmates on her first overnight field trip through the school.         The house is in need of new paint - actually, new railing - but paint will be less costly for us at this time.  Roland picked out the forest green I have wanted for each house that we had lived in but never quite got the color right.  Just after we put the first coat on, I wished we would have gone with blue. Jenna picked out a really pretty color - unfortunately not early enough. The green on the house shutters and trim match the railing . It looks more blue in this photo.  It was a steel blue before - a VERY faded steel blue.  Guess it's ...

         Jenna has seen some English-speaking programs dubbed in Spanish, but not many foreign language translated into English.   She said she tried to watch “The Snow Queen” and wasn’t impressed.         Last  night we watched “Help, I Shrunk the Family”.   I don’t know if I had heard of it before.   Jenna has watched all the “Honey, I Shrunk the kids”, “Honey, I Blew Up the Kid” and “Honey, I Shrunk ourselves” I assumed that this was related.   It’s not.   Not Disney.   Not American.   Not English speaking – which is okay.   Everybody should have an opportunity to be entertained in his or her own tongue.            Apparently I’m a theatre snob.   I think I might have picked some of it up from my brother Corey.   I get bugged when the mouth and speech are not in sync.   More than that I real...

My mom brought her Saturn SL1 brand new.  Corey, Kayla and my mom all had Saturns.  I took a picture of them - each standing by his or her car.  They took it to Saturn.  I don't know what Saturn did with it.       Roland and I had borrowed my mom's car on more than one occasion to go to Arizona.  It was just more reliable than anything we ever owned - except for the Saturn Ion we had for less than two years.  I think we have taken that to Arizona as well.       Saturn used to send reminders to their cliental to let them know that it was time for their car to be serviced.  My mom took hers in (or had Corey take it in) to be serviced each year, until they went out of business.       After we put my mom into assisted living, Roland and I asked if we could buy mom's car.  We didn't know it came with a personality - that it was somehow possessed.   ...

        I really enjoyed "Everything on a Waffle" by Polly Horvath.   I had read it and posted about it a few years back ( here ).   Last week I started reading "The Vacation" by same author.   It is hilarious.        Henry lives with his free-spirited mom and his dad who works for Fuller's Brushes and is away from home a lot as he is making sales.        His mother gets the notion that she wants to go to Africa and serve as a missionary - which her dad finds odd as they are not even religious.  She looks into Mormonism to see if she can be sent to Africa that way, but when it doesn't work out, she ends up going to Africa anyway to help build a school house and just tells everybody that she is a Mormon missionary.         Henry's dad reluctantly heads to Africa with her, but they leave Henry at home with his two middle-aged aunts who don't s...

Gideons’ International is an evangelical Christian association founded 1899 in Janesville, Wisconsin. The   Gideons ' primary activity is distributing copies of the   Bible   free of charge.   I remember when Gideons had come to my school to pass out palm-sized copies of the New Testament plus Psalms and Proverbs when I was in junior high. Mine was red.   I thought it was great to take with me when I went to camp or in the car.   My small book had taking a beating through the years, but I actually still had it in my possession until just before the move to Oregon.   I don’t know why I didn’t bring it.   My eyes can no longer view the small print, but I would have thought I could have let Jenna use it. I know some states or schools have had a problem with mixing of school and religion – though I don’t think passing out free scriptures is a crime, some lawsuits were brought against schools for allowing Bibles to ...

          I don't know if I had purchased this book before or after Jenna was born.  I'm thinking before.  I'm thinking 50 cents.  And what a treasure.  It is called "A Child's Story of the Pearl of Great Price" by Deta Petersen Neeley.  This is a book I would love for my granddaughters to have, but sadly it is no longer in publication.  I think it would be a wise thing for the Church publish it again.           The particular copy that I have was published in 1954 by Deseret News Print.  I think when I initially purchased the book, it was in pretty good condition.  Much better than its present state.  It looks like it has received some water damage, and the pages have started to yellow.  I need a backup in case it falls apart and I plan to scan it in a pdf or tiff in order to read it better and perhaps I can create a new form...

My apologies about this disjointed post.  I should have written this all down while it was happening.  Too late now.  The elders had showed us this video before.  They showed it again at the baptism.  I cried the first time that I saw it.  I cried even harder at the baptism.  Both times I had thought of Annaleigh, my brother-in-law's first wife, who was in need of assistance getting her to various doctor appointments and such, and how it felt like there were only a few of the sisters serving her needs and how much time and planning was involved. My brother-in-law, Bill, is great. Some of us just didn't know how depressing the situation was.  Bill lives up to his last name, Jolly.  He was devoted to Annaleigh and if someone just knew him but not her, there was really no clue about Annaleigh's condition or her attitude or needs.  Overall, I felt depressed just being around her.  Nevertheless, she still needed to be served. ...

          There was a Relief Society luncheon yesterday afternoon.  The tables were decorated so nicely.  There was LOTS of food.  I'm quite certain that there were leftovers, but I had gone back home to give Roland a message as he wasn't answering his phone.           I had returned to assist with the clean-up but was told I wasn't needed.  There were several who had helped clean-up the food table to redecorate for Vanessa's shower.  It's fortunate that both were scheduled so closely together as I don't believe the luncheon would have received the turn-out that they did.  At least half who had attended were there for Vanessa's baby shower - which received a good turn-out as well.           I almost didn't go to the shower as we are down to only one car and Roland had a need greater than my own.  But Sister...

          Jenna and I have read together since she was a baby.  After we had moved to West Valley, she researched a program for a Mother/Daughter book club (which I've mentioned in a few past posts) but I think Wonderstruck is the last thing that we read together.     http://beneaththewraps.blogspot.com/2014/04/the-last-two-books.html           I have tried to get her to read with me - but she's either too busy, not interested, or just seems to have outgrown us reading anymore.  Too bad.  I've recently read a couple that I think she would like.            The characters in both books are the same age as Jenna.           Rebel McKenzie (Candace F. Ransom) wants to be a paleontologist when she grows up (one who works with ice age mammals an...

My last post was about the treasures I discovered on 8mm tapes.  Yesterday I found a notebook with a couple of stories that I would like to share.  The first came from Jenna's head when she was three going on four.  I wish I had filmed her telling it, for it doesn't read quite the same (even with visual aids) as it is to watch her tell the story as she uses "Cootie" parts to emphasize particular parts in the story. For my readers who may not be familiar with the Milton Bradley game, Cooties, here is a brief description and history. The younger generation may view "Cooties" as "cute" game pieces.  The heads on the game I grew up with looked like ants. Keep in mind that Jenna was using a cootie body to demonstrate as she told her story (again and again)  And So the story unfolds:               Once upon a time there was a  caterpillar named Date   w...