Beneath the Wraps

            Since moving to Myrtle Creek, I've worn my winter boots less than ten times.   I finally managed to get them back into the shed, but had kept out some sweatshirts and long-sleeved shirts that I thought would go into the shed eventually.               I've been running the A/C the last couple of days as it's been over 80 degrees outside.   Yesterday got up to 86 at one point (that's when I actually checked) but may have gotten higher.             This morning I went out to water the plants and actually put a hat on my head.   It was 53 degrees             I've mostly been wearing shorts - even when the temperature has dropped.   Currently I am wearing long denim pants and a long sleev...

            Roland comes off as a domineering parent sometimes.   Jenna absolutely hates it when she is told to comb her hair or wear a coat or dress nicely or what have you.   The more he makes suggestions or "harps" on the subject, the more rebellious she is about it.             I will admit that I am not as observant.   For three and a half years I have tried fixing her hair and seeing it wreck before we get to school.   I stopped fighting.   Richard has only begun.   Although he has been a teenager, he's never been a girl.   We have hormones.   There seem to be chemical imbalance just before that time of the month.   Let it go.             The rain in Oregon is different from rain in Utah.   Desert rain is wet.   It soaks you.   Oregon rain - even wh...

                    The students who attend Coffenberry Middle School have been encouraged to wear College shirts so that they can start thinking about the future and start planning for secondary education. We're not too familiar with the colleges here in Oregon.   Oregon Ducks seem to be the most popular in this county.   But it was Beavers who had assisted Jenna and others in an engineering camp that was offered.           Jenna's familiarity lies within Utah.   She wants shirts from BYU and University of Utah - and so I asked my kids if they could assist with her desire.   Jeanie sent a boxload of College wear, mostly U of U shirts, but Jaime said there was one from BYU, one from Weber State.   Plus she has one from Duke University that we had purchased before Labor Day weekend so that ...

Magnetic Clothing – also known as Jinx, Cursed and Gremlin clothing: certain shirts, pairs of pants, blouses, dresses, etc. that attract food or dirt within less than ten minutes after being applied to one’s body.   I don’t know that everybody has at least one article of magnetic clothing, but I know several people do.  I have possessed such articles since infancy, I would imagine.  Though I don’t actually remember any examples until my early teens: white cotton pants, comfortable to wear – attracted dirt like you wouldn’t believe.  If there were any spills, any marred areas that I may have brushed against, any food item within a ten mile radius – they would be attracted and adhere themselves (and I also believed multiplied in size) my white pants – until finally I was at the point of “Why bother?  Really?” Today it is the army shirt that Tony and Rochelle had sent me for my birthday last year.  Our washing machine has seen it more than my b...

When I purchased these pants – I don’t know how many years ago – it was not my intention to wear them in the garden.  They were comfortable shorts – okay, maybe a bit longer than shorts, but something I could throw on during the summer and not feel the heat of the fabric surrounding me like an unwanted blanket.  There is a knot in the front.  Well, several knots, really.  I don’t know how to maintain them.  I have tried different methods for keeping them straight when I put them in the wash, but somehow they always manage to twist themselves together.  It seems the harder I work at keeping them straight and make attempts to keep them from knotting, the more knots and tangles will form before I remove the pants from the washer. I can’t find them now, but there used to be some rather ugly stains in addition to the knots.  Thus they became my garden pants.  As they were already stained, I didn’t figure being in the dirt with them woul...

          I don’t remember being in the ward when the name of Roland and his sons were read over the podium for new membership records. They must have been read the week that mom and I went out of town.           It was September of 2000.   We had gone to San Francisco to clean out my grandma’s apartment.   A place that housed her possessions but she had not actually lived there for over a year – and yet the rent was still being paid.   How wasteful.           Mom and I lined the halls with donations.   We had called Salvation Army, DVA, any thrift store or charity that would come.   Nobody would take it all, but every organization took a lot.   Hard to believe that apartment actually held all that much.   I never knew what a very Large apartment my grandmother lived in.     ...

DoogieHowser   ran from September of 1989 to March of 1993.  I have actually never seen an episode.  I remembered seeing previews for it.  But the entire concept of this teenage doctor was just so bizarre – I couldn’t imagine spending time watching it.  I’m quite surprised it was actually on for four seasons.           I have been a consumer in several stores throughout my life.  The older I get, the younger the clerks become.  Too often I will encounter those who seem clueless, who seem to have no sense of direction with customer relations, who look at me as though I’ve sprouted horns or am talking in a foreign tongue.  I refer to those kids as “fetuses”           There have been a few, however, that just “look” younger than they are, but speak with such maturity and sophistication that they sound much older than they look. (I think Neil Patr...

          My mom said that when she was baptized, she wore a white slip and panties.  She said it was embarrassing. She was almost nine.           I find it odd that mom has no such records of the baptisms of her own children.  I don’t recall having seen a single photograph of any of us.  And yet it seems like it would have been important enough to get at least the two younger of my sibs.             I remember what I was wearing.  How pertinent – huh?  Mom had made a pair of white culottes – they were short, not the standard length they have today.  She might have made them because she didn’t appreciate having only worn a slip and panties herself.           She also made a yellow gingham maxi dress which I wore to Church the next day. That is the sum of all...

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 ...