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.