Beneath the Wraps

                I have used the above picture in an earlier post.   My first post in February 2012 – the year I started my blog.   The post itself had nothing to do with the picture.   Let me relate what really happened and why Jenna is making this face.             As I mentioned in a more recent post we used to walk everywhere – though Kearns offered more destinations than anything in West Valley or Myrtle Creek.  We did not walk to the library often as we had to cross a busy street, but Jenna had not taken a nap and would be in need of one and usually the walk to the library and back wore her out.              I would always hold Jenna’s hand when we were out on walks – especially when crossing streets – especially the busy one. She insisted on crossing 5400 on her own.  No way!  What kind of a m...

          The first car that I had ever purchased was a used chocolate brown Volkswagen Dasher.  The only images I can find are of hatchbacks but I am certain that my car had a trunk.  I didn ’ t want a hatchback.  The saleman had tried selling me a Ford Pinto.  I did not want a Ford Pinto.  I did not care for the salesman ’ s tactic. I went and found another salesman. not exact but think similar to what I had           It was a cute little car, but NOT a spontaneous one.   I would have to warm the car up at least an hour before going anywhere.   I would let it warm up and allow the car to run for about five minutes and then I would have to give it an extra few minutes before I was seriously ready to go.   I don ’ t even know what year it was or how many years I had it.             When I left for my mission, I allowed my brother Patrick to driv...

  Jenna took these five pictures yesterday morning: She took these three this morning and I took these two 

            posted to my fb profile August 2020 12 hours after I washed my hair I realized that it was still wet.   It’s been over a year now since either Jenna or I had our hair cut.   Although I have attempted to cut mine myself (and if it comes out butchered   - oh well.   Who is really going to see it or know behind the mask who to criticize?   If they are really six feet apart from me as been suggested, I would not think they’d be able to see all the flaws anyway)   While cutting is okay our hair really needs to be thinned out.   I haven’t a clue how to go about that one. The above picture was taken in August so our hair is much longer and thicker now – especially Jenna who has three ringlets hanging behind her when it is down – which isn’t very often.   Jenna and I wear our hair in pigtails for the most part.   I would much rather wrap each loop of the mask around a pigtail than have it pulling on my...

               There are several times when we are leaving the house that Jenna and I will slip out the back door to avoid taking Bonnie with us.   It’s nothing against the dog – it’s usually just an inconvenience to take her when we’re just going to the store or the church.   I have taken Bonnie with me a few times when I picked Jenna up from seminary.   This morning I allowed Bonnie to come with me.             Oh, that was a fun ride (not) as Bonnie whined for the most part.   Believing she had to relieve herself, I opened the back door as soon as I parked in the church parking lot.   She ran out and towards the building.   I could see her looking through the door.   Class was out and everyone was waiting for their rides.   I figured at least one of them would see Bonnie and Jaime would come out – which she did.   Only when she opened the door ...

            My brother Patrick has his birthday on St. Patrick’s Day.  It is always on St. Patrick’s Day regardless the day of the week.  St. Patrick’s Day is not a federal holiday in which some people are able to take the day off with pay.  It isn’t even seen as a holiday by many people though there are some who choose to celebrate the Irish heritage day.           Kayla and I both have birthdays which may fall on a holiday weekend as both MLK day and Memorial Day have moved their celebrated day to Monday – or rather a day that follows the weekend and those who get paid for Federal holidays are able to take them off.   I think had mentioned in an earlier post how excited my mom said that Kayla was to be off on her birthday in 1986 – the first celebration of MLK – though it wasn’t nationally celebrated until 1995 ( here )  https://www.almanac.com/content/when-martin-luther-king-jr-...

             I remember walking with the boys and then with Jenna when we lived in Kearns.   I walked with Jenna to the bus stop and to the school from the bus stop and returned to the bus stop and walked between.   I did a lot of walking.             Even when we lived on the rental property in Myrtle Creek Jenna and I walked nearly every day.   I go with her now when she is walking Bonnie and I have never felt so worn out.   Bonnie always sounds like I feel – exhausted and panting.   Maybe she’s not.   She’s overweight so I think the walk is stressful – especially because she always seems like she’s in a hurry.   She needs to pace herself.             I preferred the walks in Utah and around Neal and Riverside or Millsite park.   I no longer enjoy climbing – which is what we are doing each time we “...

       I had written my last post as a free verse to make it seem more interesting, but I lost the vision of what I had intended. What had triggered my thought on climbing in the first place was watching Roland climb up the unstable ladder.   It looks unstable leaning in mushy ground.   He was fixing the porch light and connecting it to another stapling the cord in place.   I was awed at his ability to look up.             I tend to lose my balance quite easily – especially if I am looking up.   I get dizzy when I am standing still on solid ground.   I think if I were climb a ladder now and looked up I would fall.   I have fallen at least twice because of whatever has made me dizzy.   I fell in my bedroom before we were married.   I don’t remember if I had even known Roland at the time.               My former ...

  When I was younger I was a climber             I climbed on the furniture did my best to scale walls aimed for the tree tops Climbing was a part of me   I may not have been the fastest runner but I did enjoy running playing tag and let us not forget Climbing.   After my sister Kayla had come along we learned that she was a better climber We have at least one photograph of her between two walls of the door frame head near the ceiling Mom had returned home one day to find Kayla   sitting on the closet door I suppose that is not as scary as finding me on the roof            of the house across the street   My daughter Jenna loves to climb She used to climb on furniture                         D...

                I remember loving nursery rhymes – I think because they rhymed.   Most were silly and didn’t mean much other than the rhyming words.   I tried my hand at poetry at a very young age.   Hey, my rhymes weren’t so off the wall as Mother Goose.   That must have been my first introduction to poetry.             I remember discovering free verse and gradually introduced to limericks and haikus.   I read the Childcraft book 1 more than any of them.                    Whenever the school offered book fairs or sent home scholastic brochures, I would order books that specialized in poetry.   One of my favorite was an introduction to American Poetry – I forget the title but the cover from front to back was covered in blue print of each author’s name and the title was in red and blue. My favorite...

            The first meeting we had attended in our current ward happened to land on Fathers’ Day -  though I don’t recall any mention of Father’s Day whatsoever.  The two talks given seemed to focus on Social Media which I thought was a strange topic to be delivering over the pulpit on a Sunday morning. I didn’t realize that only five years later it would become a necessary tool for the missionaries. We didn’t have social media when I was on my mission.   Facebook was out when my three boys had served their missions, but it certainly wasn’t encouraged and now the missionaries are required to have facebook accounts. We had two elders over on Saturday night and they asked if they could leave a thought before they drove away.   Their thought was on contacting others through facebook – which is what triggered the memory of our first meeting which one elder said must have been an inspired theme. Though many churches have met as a congre...

                   Jenna has three current event assignment to turn in today – or turned in rather.  She had known about the deadline on Monday but had decided to wait to see if something would happen.  Something happened alright – nothing she wanted to research however – and really how do you sum up the January sixth tragedy to just a few paragraphs?  Her other two current events consisted of Burger King changing their logo and compared hairy crabs to pumpkin lattes – funny.  But her third one was not as light but perhaps not as tragic as storming the state capitol had been on Wednesday.             Neither of us are avid fans of reading and researching certain topics – especially if it relates to mandatory school work.   When I was doing online school the past three years I did a great deal of research on YouTube – it’s easier to watch and listen than to ...

             Whenever Roland and I happen to be watching Game Shows together, without fail he will ask what I think about the dresses the models are wearing.           “What do you think of that dress?”           “I bet that dress would look good on you.”           “Would you wear that dress?”           I’m flattered that he believes I would be able to fit into anything that a game show model is wearing as I was not that size since college.   Overall I’m really NOT impressed with whatever.   I would be even less impressed if it did come in my size.   There are just some fashions that somebody my shape should NOT be wearing.           “Do you like that dress?” he asked yesterday as we were watching The Price...

           When Myrtle Creek Library was still a public library back in 2016 there was an announcement for a book club.   Unlike Salt Lake county that has several copies of many books, Douglas county had multiples of   approximately 8-12 books.   I remember the librarian passing a list of suggested titles and a brief description.   The most unanimous we for   A Light in the Wilderness by Jane Kirkpatrick.  The story is one of African-American pioneer Letitia Carson who made her way to Oregon and although she was a property owner by today’s standards, the law back then frowned upon women owning property.         It appeared to be easy reading and we each took home a copy (I think there were eight of us) and would meet the following week or two (I don’t remember) and while the storyline did seem interesting, most of us found the book to be very one dimensional as characters would be mentioned...