Beneath the Wraps

In an earlier post     I had proposed the question, “ What’s up with bridesmaid dresses anyway?”   Why are Bridesmaid and Choir Dresses always so ugly? Well, maybe not Always.  But more often than not. Neither of my daughters-in-law wasted money on needless dresses – nor did my sister or I.  No bridesmaids.  No ugly dresses. I had once heard someone describe the purposely made ugly dresses allows the bride to shine (Roz Doyle on Frazier)           I love the movie 27 dresses.  Roland purchased the DVD one year and gave it to me for my birthday.  The movie came with a humorous book called "101 Uses for a Bridesmaid Dress" by Cindy Walker.  It provided ways to recycle. There were suggestions such as cutting the dress up into squares and washing your car.  Or throwing the dress over the car to protect it from the elements. How glorious it would have been to own ...

          Last week my husband spotted a wallet in the parking lot of a shopping complex.  His arms were full of groceries and he asked Jenna if she would bend down and pick it up.  Excitedly, she retrieved the wallet and announced that it must be returned.  I am so happy that it was such an automatic decision for all three of us to turn the wallet in.  Oh, and we could have so used any money it may have contained.  But I’ve been in that situation too many times where I have been the one that has lost whatever – and if the roles were reversed, it is exactly what I would want the finder to do.   As the grocery store is the largest – it is where we ended up taking the wallet.  The owner frantically entered the store only moments after we turned it in.  We told him where it was.  With gratitude he gave Roland a half embrace. Jenna was a little bit disappointed that there weren’t an...

        In addition to sharing my birth month with Mothers' Day, half of my birthdays happen to fall on Memorial Weekend - which actually bothered me as a kid (or rather when the holiday was pushed to the Monday prior to the 31st) because everything was always crowded, nothing but war movies all weekend long, and like I really have a strong desire to visit cemeteries on my birthday.         But now that I think about it, having freedoms is a pretty awesome birthday gift.  So thank you men and women who helped fight (and continue) for this awesome gift.  What an honor it is to celebrate your day with you!  Have a good one

I once attended a Relief Society enrichment meeting where we made “journal jars”.  What is a “journal jar”? you may ask.  It is a jar containing questions that will hopefully provoke thought to get written answers one may record in his or her journal.  Questions like: “Do you remember your grandparents?  What special memories do you have?”           “Did you have a favorite radio or TV show as a child?”           “Tell about the changes you have seen in your lifetime: society in general, technology, fashion, politics, laws, inventions, etc.”           Jenna absolutely LOVES to explore these questions – or my answers rather.  Often she can answer for herself, but many ask for detail on things that she hasn’t experienced yet such as marriage, parenting, high school, dating, etc.    ...

          I know that I mentioned in an earlier post – perhaps several – that cooking is really not my forte.  Roland, on the other hand, enjoys cooking and baking but does not have the time or opportunity that he used to, and so I have had to put together more of the meals and frankly, I’m just not that good at it.           I can follow a recipe but it’s got to be exact.  Roland has told me a few times (probably) that I need to cover dishes when baking in order to maintain moisture – I haven’t committed that to memory however.  If the recipe had instructed me to cover the dish, I would have done so, but it didn’t – needless to say the lasagna I made was a little dry.           The other day I went to the office to meet Roland for lunch.  He was on the phone and pointed to his lunch bag and said he had something for me.  Inside were ...

          I am usually not pressed for time – but on those few days that I do need to leave – well, those are the days my mom would like me to stay.  And it would be all well and good if I actually lived closer – or with her.  But I don’t.           We’re down to one functional car – and even that has been questionable.            Since Roland works late on Wednesdays, he drove the car in and so I borrowed my son’s car in order to get out to mom’s.  Talk about nerve racking.                     First off, it has a quirkiness to it that anybody but Biff might not get – and the fact that other people have trouble turning on the ignition is actually a great feature in Biff’s opinion.  I was just about to give up, when I actually got it to turn....

One year our family was asked to host a room for Halloween.  Roland wanted to do something different from the typical activities and games that we had seen in years past.  So we ended up doing a haunted maze  (which I will provide details for as it gets closer to Halloween).  The point I was looking to make in this post was the reaction of what some considered scary while others seem to enjoy or become bored with. Our “haunted maze” was a big hit with the teenagers – but too frightening for the majority of children under eight maybe ten.  Except for Jenna – who would laugh each time she went through.  She feared nothing at the time.            Over the years she has grown into some fears.  I suppose we all do.  Some we can rationalize – while others make us wonder why it has become a fear.           Jenna LOVES crossing bridges....

This morning I was helping Jenna to get the knots out of her shoelaces and adjust the shoes back to her feet.  She tugged at the heel of the shoe and stomped on the floor in attempts to get it to fit over her own heel.  It reminded me of the convenience of the shoehorn.           I had worked at a daycare only briefly.  The children were required to take naps.  All shoes had to be removed before naps.  After the naps, all shoes were to be returned to feet.  This was not always an easy task.  Some of those children had really tight fitting shoes over really fragile feet.  Thus  I started bringing the shoehorn to work.           Funny about the different reactions I received from the kids.  Suddenly I had this long line of children who would wait their turn to be fitted properly into their shoes – while others would go out of their w...

I had looked into a Charter school while Jenna was still in kindergarten (which I referred to in this post )   She needed to be challenged, and just wasn’t getting that in our assigned public school.  I am still on the waiting list.           If she had started APA   in the first grade, I don’t think she would have ever questioned it.  She would have loved it in all the ways that I would have not, had it been available to me when I was a youth.  But after two more years of public school?  I think she would totally freak out and hate it even more than the school I was trying to get her away from.           Jenna is very smart academically.  But organizational skills and prioritizing is not in her nature at this time (something that we will be working on this summer) and I don’t think she will adjust well going from free spirit to uniform and structu...

          Roland had been in charge of putting together the  Mothers’ Day program last week.  It was AWESOME – one of the most amazing Mothers’ Day programs that I remember.           It was based on Pres. Uchtdorf’s talk from the September 2011 Relief Society Meeting.  The theme of the talk was based upon the “Forget-me-not” and five pieces of advice that we should not forget.           Roland introduced the theme of Pres. Uchtdorf’s talk and introduced those who would be speaking. The first speaker shared with us a bit about his childhood.  He has seven siblings.  All eight children were expected to play a musical instrument. The first petal was to “ forget not to be patient with yourself ”.  No one is perfect, even though there are many who may appear so.  The first speaker reminded us of patience. I unfortunate...

         Jenna LOVES to sing, and dance, draw, learn, explore . . . I have wanted so badly to enroll her in dance lessons, or music lessons, art classes , etc.  I have even considered sports when she has shown interest – but it was always out of reach financially - even on those rare times when it looked like the class itself might be in reach, I knew that the costumes (or uniforms) would get out of hand.           Last summer I had the opportunity of enrolling her in a peewee theatre class taught by a gal who had instructed children’s theatre in New York.  Jenna would have an opportunity – not only to act, but to sing, to dance and perform and hopefully make new friends.           The play is never done in its entirety.  The instructor has been given only six to eight weeks to rehearse before putting on the show.     ...

         Mother Nature’s at it again.  Seems many of my posts have to do with the weather.            It was hot on Monday.  HOT.  The kind of weather  that wipes you out just looking out the window.  Highness was upset when I wouldn’t walk him during the day.  But I had taken him for a short walk in the morning, and one as the sun was going down – figuring that it would be cooler. It wasn’t.          This morning I wore a pair of shoes that I actually hadn’t worn for a while.  The shoe on my left foot felt extremely tight – which is weird.  It’s usually my right foot that gives me problems.           After we returned from dropping off Roland, I take off my shoes and put them in Jenna’s closet – figuring that she’ll grow into them within the next couple of years.     ...

While visiting my mom the other day, she pointed to a box of tissues covered in a pile of tissues that had been pulled out.  My neice,  who is almost towo, discovered the fascination of the Kleenex box just a few months ago. When Jenna was in preschool, we had purchased several boxes of tissue to donate to the preschool.  It was a knock off brand – and a knock of quality – unless the actual tissue paper is what we may have been going for.  I like Puff’s.  They’re soft.  They don’t feel like you are holding wood up to your nose as this knock off brand does.            I remember when Jenna discovered the tissue box.  How exciting it was for her to reach in and pull out a tissue and have one pop up again. Unlike Jenna, who would just pull them out by fascination only, Anna would hold each pulled piece up to her nose.   I don’t know where she found so many opened boxes.  I e...

          We had a bear-sized dog come live with us before we were married and were moving Roland and the boys into the house.  He was an older dog who had come with his own name – but if he hadn’t, we would have named him Houdini as he was an escape artist.           The first year we lived in Kearns we had gone to a Cinco de Mayo [taste of Kearns] celebration.  The boys  (Randy specifically)  had wanted to enter Houdini  in a contest but didn’t know what category.  They ended up entering him in the fluffiest – we were among the first to arrive and hadn’t had the opportunity to see the one we knew would take first place.           Best trick really would have been the best option, but I don’t think the boys had a ball with them (as I recall we had just walked to the High School where the celebration had taken place) otherwise Ho...

          It’s time to get my hair cut – or at least thinned out.  I feel like I have a heavy scarf draped over the back of my neck.  I have been pulling it back – but some days just don’t seem to matter.           We’re down to just one car.  Jenna and I have to get up in the morning to leave by 6:30 to take Roland to work.  Jenna stays in her pajamas, wears slippers out to the car, buckles herself in, lies down and throws a blanket over herself.            Roland turns the heater on – I usually turn my side down before we arrive to his work (one nice feature which still exists on the car – passenger and driver can adjust to different temperatures) I shut the heater off before completing the journey home.           We return home one hour before I take Jenna to school...

          Trying to get Jenna to pick up after herself has been a chore.  I just don’t understand why it is such a big deal to remove clothes from one’s body and not put them away or put them in the dirty clothes as soon as they come off.  Granted, to take them off and discard them to the floor does take less time at that given moment – but when it builds up – it does take much longer than it would if initially put away.  She’s a smart girl – but she is also very lazy about certain things. There are actually four or five charts I would like to incorporate – but not all at the same time.  That would be overwhelming for both of us.  I did have the “Go to Bed on time” chart up, but as there are just a few weeks of school left, and it is her whining that is really grading on my nerves right now, I have changed the incentive chart to “I will go an entire day without whining” I hope there will be enoug...

Met Roland Dec 31, 2000                    first date – First Night           New Year’s kiss on train Boys welcome New Years with future cousins three days pass –  Marriage proposal,  Oh, right Mother to three boys I know them better than I know dad I know them better than dad knows them Purchase house in Kearns                    Roland and boys move in May  -           Biff’s birthday.            toothpaste and laser tag September Married                            ...