The view from up here...

...from the top of the stairs, with Grandpa Bailey and Alice. ...from piggyback rides in Grandma Bailey's living room. (Look, we caught Connor on camera!)

...or from another piggyback ride at Uncle Kim's.Do I know these last two girls???

New blogs

Let me introduce two new blogs: Aunt Terry is now up and running with "Terry's World" at tarlady.blogspot.com (Theresa Ann Ryan).

The second blog is done by some women in our ward (myself included), to answer some of the political questions brought up by the current campaign as related to Mormonism. One of the women is a journalism major (Master's degree), and the other is an attorney. I'm the voice of the common person, I guess. I really don't know how I got included, other than having an interest in the topic. www.truthandreason.typepad.com

Check them out!

And the Christmas memories keep rolling...

Brenna and her great-grandpa looking through a seed catalog...Or Brenna enjoying Christmas oranges...
Great-grandpa holding Alastair (who is obviously teething--lots of drool at current time!)
Or catching Catherine playing with Alastair. Funny. Not too many pictures of Connor. That could be because he runs whenever a camera appears.

Or he sticks up his hand to cover his face.

And interestingly, not too many pictures of Great-grandma Bailey. Despite our efforts to order pizza or Chinese food, to make things easier, she was ALWAYS in the kitchen, just whipping up something "easy" like peach cheesecake, or apple pie, or homemade chicken noodle soup.

We've discovered that if you want to spend time with Grandma, help out in the kitchen. She appreciates the help and you get to hear some great stories from her life.

Such as:

The time on her 1st mission when the mission president had exhorted the missionaries to open their mouths in any situation--in the grocery line, on the street, etc. She was being transferred to a new area and had to ride the bus--a couple of hours. So she began talking with the man seated next to her. He wasn't really interested in her gospel message, but she "unloaded" (in her words) and gave him the whole story. When she got off, she thought he looked relieved! End of story? No.

At the next Zone Conference, another set of missionaries

asked her if she had been on the bus on such-and-such date.

Yes, she had.

Well, the woman sitting in FRONT of her had been listening. She looked up the missionaries

and was baptized!

I'm just glad I was helping peel potatoes!

Two weeks ago today...

Yes, we had plenty of snow while we were in Idaho. The normal picture here is of a lovely plum tree with green grass under it. Not so in December!I was just reflecting. Two weeks ago, right about this time of afternoon, we were trying to drive in the lane to the Bailey home. Usually, that quarter mile lane is traversed in a matter of a minute or less. Not so this time! One hour. Yes, one hour! The wind had been blowing, and all that beautiful, powdery, 12 inches of snow started moving around... drifting... filling in the lane. Justin and Darcy barely made it in with their 4-wheel drive an hour earlier. Catherine and Aaron, with 3 unhappy children, had taken 20 minutes, a few hours earlier. Here's Justin, running back to the house for another shovel. And maybe a warmer hat. It was bitterly cold with the wind!
It was a matter of shovel out under the wheels, rock the car backward and forward (with lots of yells, "don't spin the wheels!") and then move forward 10 feet before repeating the actions.

One of the major problems is that the Honda minivan has a low clearance--we were constantly high-centering on the snow drifts, and the chassis has NO place to hook on a towing cable. That would have made it all too easy--Grandpa could have just got the tractor and hauled us through all those drifts. But the owner's manual states: towing is definitely NOT recommended.

Once we made it to the house, Grandpa took the tractor out with a blade, and then later with a snow blower to clear things out. He was up at 4:30 Sunday morning to get it ready for us to go to church at 9 a.m. We were the first out. Stuck again. After 30 minutes of work, we were able to get back to the house, then go in shifts in the 4-wheel drive vehicles. We were only 20 minutes late for church, and we were providing the special musical number (Kevin-piano, Deborah, Elly and Alice on string instruments--it was beautiful!)

We'll always remember this Christmas vacation!

Images of Christmas

Whether putting together a puzzle with Grandma Beth,

gathering with the extended family at Grandma and Grandpa Bailey's,

wearing new Christmas clothing, or

waiting with anticipation for the unwrapping of gifts, Christmas brings such great memories. And Justin, sorry about making it look like you were still sleepy. I'm SURE that wasn't the case, was it?

Christmas Giving--2007

With the theme of "Variety is the Spice of Life," the sibling gift recipients of 2007 were as follows:

Catherine gave to Justin

***

Aaron gave to Elizabeth

***

Justin gave to Ryan

***

Darcie gave to Jamie

***

Ryan gave to Darcie

***

Jamie gave to Aaron

***

Deborah gave to Alice

***

Elizabeth gave to Catherine

and

Alice gave to Deborah

***

We saw varieties of hot chocolate; a gorilla variety of tri-pod (that Elizabeth hasn't stopped playing with yet); a variety of air fresheners for Deborah's car; a variety of Pride & Prejudice Soundtrack (there are so many different ones out there?); and a variety of photos and frames. I'd like to hear what the other gifts were. Aaron, what did you get? Ryan and Jamie, what spicy variety of things did you receive?

***

And, who wants to come up with next year's theme???

Did Someone Mention Snow?

Snow, snow, snow... winter has technically just begun, but snow has been around for quite a while now. Here in Cedar Falls......and on Interstate 80 between Laramie and Rawlins in Wyoming... (and this was before it got scary and Kevin took over driving)...
...at Hoback Junction, near Jackson Hole, Wyoming. This part of the journey was SO beautiful!
And the bighorn sheep didn't seem to be bothered by all the snow, though they were feeding near the roadway. It was thrilling to see them!
We were happy to make it to Idaho, safe and sound. The roads were snow-covered the last fourth of the way (about 300 miles). But the Christmas holidays were totally worth it all!

Friday, January 04, 2008

Well, it's over, and I’m looking forward to peace and quiet!

You think I’m talking about the holiday season? No. I’m talking about the Iowa Caucuses. (I’d say Hawkeye Cauckeye, but I’m not sure how to spell that.) When we returned home from vacation, the answering machine was full with political calls. The mail was full of political mailings. The airwaves had back-to-back-to-back political ads. Here in Iowa, we’ve been deluged with politics--the first ads began last January, about 30 days after the last general election. The rest of you should be grateful you don’t have to go through that!

But we do appreciate being able to see the candidates up close. Last night, our county held all our caucuses at one location (which was not nearly big enough). For an hour before the caucus starting time, candidates could speak, and they did. First came Mike Huckabee (huckster is a better term), passing himself off as a conservative, with multiple scriptural references to make sure people remember he is an evangelical Christian. Then came Ron Paul, with his fiery defense of the Constitution, followed by Ann Romney, Mitt’s wife. These were IN PERSON, and Kevin and I were in the third row. Where else could you have national presidential candidates parade by like they were local mayoral candidates??? We also heard from Dr. Hugh Cort, a presidential candidate who either is a nut-case or has a really scary scenario about suitcase-nuclear bombs being smuggled in by illegals. The other candidates had a surrogate to speak for them, except Rudy Guiliani who didn’t do anything.

We were disappointed in the preference tally, and the setback to Mitt Romney. Although not a perfect candidate, we thought he would do a good job as president. After seeing some of the campaigning Huckabee has done, if he became the Republican candidate I’d ALMOST rather vote democratic. The ugly head of religious bigotry has come forth again (I thought that was relegated to the 19th century), and Huckabee is at the front. Even more troubling is that there has been no outcry from the other candidates or the general populace. It will be interesting to see if the Huckster can delude the voters of other states.

* * * * * * * *

An Early December Sampler

Instead of chocolates, I'm sending out some photos of what our first few days of December have been.

Decorations....

Chipping away the ice from the weekend ice storm. It was good that we had afternoon church, because all four of us spent nearly two hours getting the driveway and front sidewalks free of most of the ice. I spent an hour yesterday working on the deck. Since we don't have any ice skates, it was a bit hazardous. One family on the street built a circular igloo (or in my childhood, we would have called it a fort, since it didn't have a roof) with all the chunks of ice from their driveway. School began 2 hours late yesterday morning with the leftover ice, and it is supposed to snow/rain/etc, again tomorrow. I'm getting tired of ice...

Last night, Alice took part in her school's 5th & 6th grade musical. (Alice is wearing the blue hat on the second row). She also had a small solo on one number. It was fun to watch!

A few notes

A busy week or two, and suddenly I'm way behind on my posts! The October/November time is like that. With our anniversay, birthday, Halloween, stake conference, and all the yard work to tuck things in for the winter, there just hasn't been much extra time.

First, I had to include Kevin from the ward Halloween party. Someone had an afro wig, add a mustache, etc., and voila!

Second, the jack-o-lantern--design by Elizabeth, workmanship--Kevin, pumpkin preparation--Alice and me. A real family affair with a pumpkin that had lots of character.

We had almost 100 trick-or-treaters here on Halloween night. Although it was a chilly night (40 degrees with a north wind), it didn't seem to keep people home. If Halloween had been one night earlier, we would have had 60 degree balmy weather! We would have been able to leave the coats at home.

The girls and I went to a ward member's home Halloween party for an hour, then joined some of their school friends for the last hour of trick-or-treating, in a ritzy area of town. They got king-size candy bars at some of the homes! I haven't seen Elizabeth's stash of candy lately, but I'm sure it is diminishing rapidly. Alice has had a bad cold, and has held off eating her candy, since sugar suppresses the immune system and she wants hers to be as strong as possible. She asked me to put her stash up out of sight so she wouldn't be tempted to indulge.

Then a few days later we had stake conference. Since there was no General Authority or broadcast, the stake presidency had the whole show; Kevin had three talks to prepare. He did well with all of them! For the Sunday session, Elizabeth and Alice, along with another young woman from our ward were asked to provide string music for the prelude. So we worked up a number of hymns and hymn arrangements (I accompanied), and they provided 15 minutes of music. They sounded so nice! Lots of people complimented them after the meeting.

The day before, it was the Young Women's turn to clean the chapel, so we were able to inspire them "we get to make the church look super for all the visitors at stake conference"! And they responded. Elizabeth even got a flower arrangement out of the Relief Society closet to dress up the women's bathroom. It was fun to participate with them in the extra-special cleaning.

So, it was my birthday...

After a leisurely-spent day, doing what I wanted to do rather than what I should do, we went to Black Hawk Park for a picnic. That's where the ward often has their 24th of July event. It was nice that daylight savings hadn't ended, so we still had a bit of sunshine. Still, it was chilly as the sun set. (But there were still mosquitoes out!) After Kentucky Fried Chicken, we went for a walk. There is actually a roadway here--we weren't walking on water, though the river was very high, with lots of overflow in low areas.
Back home, we indulged in my traditional orange cake, this time with chocolate drizzles. It was delicious!
And the maple tree in the back yard has finally turned colors--just in time for my birthday.

Dedicated to Deborah, our Optimist

An Optimist fell ten stories,

And at each window bar
He shouted to friends

and family below...

"Well, I'm all right so far!"

And the amazing thing is, that somehow she always lands safely!

Deborah, are your guardian angels working overtime, helping with all the things you've got going on in your life right now? (Master's studies, teaching, performing, church calling, dating and occasionally sleeping......)

Things we learned last weekend

We learned a few things on our trip last weekend...

...don't forget my overnight case. (A trip over the river and into Wisconsin, to a Walmart, and crisis solved!)

...don't build an all-wood cabin for our home in Idaho. (We had been thinking of doing that). There is NO insulation in the walls--they look beautiful but you can hear people talking in the other rooms even though doors are closed. I had plenty of time to ponder this as I lay awake far into the night. Some of the other guests were a group of women on a husband-less-antique-and-quilt-shopping weekend. They stayed up late talking yet that wasn't keeping me awake. It was the occasional bursts of cackling or exclamation that would come just as I was about to drop off. At that point, I wasn't sure I ever wanted to go to a bed & breakfast again.
If we had a home like that, with visiting grandchildren, if one cried in the night, everyone would hear it.

...take more weekend trips!!

Weekend Retreat

Something new to do: stay in a bed-and-breakfast. We found one that sounded nice--a cabin setting. I've always liked rustic Americana.

And we had SUNSHINE! Glorious blue skies, vibrant colors of leaves. Not a sign of civilization, either on our side of the Mississippi, or on the Wisconsin side. And I was glad that I had read first, the Red River Girl book, as it gave lots of background for the settling of this area.
It was fun chatting with another couple as we waited for breakfast, which was a huge affair--fried potatoes, bacon, sausage, scrambled eggs, thick slices of decadent french toast. Good thing we were planning on doing a lot of hiking! (And we weren't hungry until mid-afternoon). Pike's Peak State park was a couple of miles away and the trails and lookouts over the Mississippi River were spectacular. Why haven't we taken the family here before?

(It's less than two hours away).

The morning was chilly; pleasant by noon. And the sunshine felt soooo good! We also visited Effigy Mounds National Monument. It has been 24 years since we last visited here--Ryan was a 1-year-old toddler. We saw a bald eagle flying over the water below us. We saw large V's of migrating birds.

But best of all, was just being with my sweetheart. It is hard to believe we've been married for 30 years--how time flies when you are having fun!

What's with all the rain???

October. Blue skies, autumn leaves, crisp nights and bright days.

Except for this year. We've had twice the rain in the first half of the month that Idaho has had in the last YEAR.

I'm grateful today...

...that Kevin is home tonight! He was able to get on an earlier flight from Chicago to Cedar Rapids than the one he was scheduled to fly on, and as he drove out of the CR airport to come home, he got one of those automated phone calls from the travel agency: the flight he was booked on had been cancelled due to bad weather and the next flight was tomorrow morning. (I'm grateful he is such a savvy traveler!)

...that the rain is supposed to stop tomorrow and the sun is going to shine on Saturday! Kevin and I are going to a bed & breakfast tomorrow night, in Macgregor--a little town on the Mississippi where there are hills and hardwood forests, and maybe the leaves will be at their peak for color! This is our big hurrah for our 30th anniversary.

Time to decorate for Halloween?

Once upon a time, we created "Mitch", who watched over our front porch. That must have been the time that Kevin was in Japan, because we took his jeans, an old shirt, a John Deere hat, and even his gloves and shoes, and stuffed them with leaves--lots of dry leaves!
I won't comment on the costumes (?) Justin, Ryan and Deborah are wearing.... (Justin was still recovering from his broken arm).

Thumb-sucking runs in the family...

Seeing Marta, my granddaughter, with her thumb in her mouth reminded me of her father..

.

You asked for it--you got it!

DEATH BY CHOCOLATE ("DER TOD VOR SCHOKOLADE")

First, the actual recipe:
1 9x13 Pan of brownies, baked
2 pkgs chocolate Mousse, prepared
1 large container Cool Whip
8 Heath Bars, crushed (or a pkg of Brickle Bits)
1 c pecans, chopped
Crumble the brownies and place 1/2 in a large bowl. Spread 1/2 of the mousse over the brownies pieces, then 1/2 of the Cool Whip, then Heath bar pieces then the nuts. Repeat all steps. Refrigerate for several hours or overnight. Serves 12-15 people. This is fun in a clear-glass bowl, so you can see the layers. I often do it in three layers instead of two.

Now, my reality:

• instead of Mousse, I use instant chocolate pudding.
• I like mini-chocolate chips instead of the Heath Bars, simply because I am more likely to have them on hand.
• I don't usually put the nuts in.

This is probably the Death By Chocolate that you remember. I should have taken a picture of it on Friday night, but wasn't thinking! And I'm not going to make it again just for a photo. My waistline couldn't take that!

I am grateful for...

...laying in my snug, warm bed this morning, listening to rain on the roof. We have such a comfortable home!

...the convenience and swiftness of email so I don't have to worry if Kevin made it safely to France. I wonder how, in centuries past, those wives endured when their husbands went overseas for missions, or war, and didn't have communication for months!

...the ease of photography and how many pictures we have of the children (more now than when Catherine was the baby and we were poor students being careful with our money--and getting slides developed was "expensive".) I think we have more pictures of our grandchildren already than all the pictures of our children!

Just another Saturday

First of all, Happy Birthday to my mom! She is 88 years old today! (And doesn't look a day over 65). I just hope I have the same ability to live long and prosper!

***

Second, a group of us (5 couples) went to the community theatre last evening to watch a fun play--a murder mystery, with some laughs and a twist in the plot at the end. Thoroughly enjoyable! A woman from our ward is in the play and we thought it would be fun to support her. Afterwards, it was "Death by Chocolate" at our house. Having company is nice as then the house gets extra clean.

The only glitch in the evening was that Kevin wasn't there. Alice went with me as my companion, since Kevin was over the Atlantic, on his way to France. This trip came up suddenly--too suddenly for me to arrange to go with him (which would have been fun to do as our 30th anniversary is coming up!).

By the way, he made it safe and sound this morning.

And still more things that have been keeping me busy...

For Emma's birthday, I FINALLY got the book finished that relates our experiences together during our visit to Guam and Japan. I hope it has arrived safely! It was super fun to do and made me remember just how much I miss her, and Marta, and Ryan and Jamie. I am so looking forward to them living back on the same continent next year! Another thing that has been keeping me busy is doing name indexing. I am still doing some name extraction work as well, but eventually that will be done away and everything switched over to indexing through FamilySearchIndexing.org. (See the article in the August Ensign for more information). I have done over 2500 names since the last week of August. In our YW program, we are doing this as a service project. The girls have been challenged to do 500 names by Christmas. Then a Scout in our ward has incorporated it as part of his Eagle project. So I am keeping track of my hours to report to him. So far in October: 13 hours. (Hmmm, maybe that's why I haven't got my books read yet...)

A post a day...

I was inspired by Jamie's "post-a-day" showing what the girls were doing. And Justin said since we've been doing blogs, we haven't been writing letters. So taking these two random bits of information, I've decided to be more consistent in sharing what's happening here in Baileyville. Tune in daily!

Other things keeping me busy

Gardening still keeps me busy--fall is the time for clearing out, cleaning up, and reorganizing the flower beds. Then there is mowing the lawn, as much to mulch up the fallen leaves as to cut the grass, which is growing slower these shorter days. (It is now dark when we get up in the morning.)

The roses are moved (gardening keeps Kevin busy too, as he did all the digging here). I've loved having them in front of the house, but now that the tree is getting larger, there was too much shade. They will be happier in their new spots by the fence. And I planted new daffodil, crocus, and hyacinth bulbs in the yard, looking forward to their spring blooming! And of course, the thing that keeps me busiest is parenting. We're at the stage where my advice and comments are not welcome, where "I can do it myself!" is just as fervent as at the two-year-old stage. And almost as untrue. Then humility comes back, with an apology, and then niceness. Parenting seems to be a roller coaster experience.

I was reading in the newspaper last night and this short piece caught my eye: The Sound of Music: Tune up your brain.

"You know those seemingly endless hours your parents made you spend practicing the piano or learning to play the violin?

"Time to say thank you, because all that practice did more than tune up your recital skills. It may have made the language areas of your brain more efficient, too. If you never took music lessons, here's why you should start.

"Researchers recently asked a group of musicians and nonmusicians to listen to--and reproduce--tone sequences. Not surprisingly, the musicians performed better on the task. But this was a surprise: As the musicians reproduced the tones, scans of their brains showed major activity in areas linked to language, leading researachers to conclude that building music skills may bolster language areas of the brain as well. In other words, studying music is like doing push-ups for your brain."

Maybe that's because music IS another language! (But they are right--it is very beneficial.)

Things keeping me busy lately...

With the publishing in the Ensign of a pamphlet on food storage, I was reminded that we were not very organized in our storage. I'm pretty sure we have enough of the basics--wheat, beans, rice.

But then it was mentioned that we should have a 3-month supply of the things we normally use, and I knew we didn't have that. Thus, a project was born. Kevin "loves" it when I say something on the order of , "Honey, I think we need more shelves downstairs."

We already had shelves (built by Kevin several years ago) but they were spaced widely, for holding big boxes. So, if I began to put in cans and small boxes, I could only stack it part-way up and a lot of space was wasted.

So Kevin immediately got out his tape measure and began the plans. Within a few days, the new shelves were in (you can see the lighter, newer wood inbetween the old shelves). Wow, now I can fill them up, and I did!

The only problem is keeping my system intact. I've already noticed that stuff put away by others is in different spots than what I had planned. Do I just do all the putting away myself, or do I periodically straighten it up?

At General Conference, I take out all the foods in the 72-hour kits (backpacks!), and we get to eat it! (This is an idea I picked up in Relief Society a couple of years ago). It's fun snacking on the special things (trail mix, granola bars, juice cans, even candy) as we listen to Conference.

Then I replace those items, so that if we ever do have to use those kits, the food will actually be edible. I also try to put in items that have the furthest-away expiration dates--hopefully, a year or longer. That way I don't have to replace everything, every six months.

It has been educational doing this, as we've found things that I wouldn't want to have to eat. For example, don't make your own trail mix--the nuts go rancid! Keep the nuts, dried fruits, etc. in their original packaging.

So, this fall, we're a little closer to being ready for the future!

Which to read first....

Hmmm. I hate dilemmas! The book interest group chose a book by Sheri Dew to read.
















But then, Aunt Ida and Aunt Jeannine were talking about "Sink Reflections" this summer, and when I saw it at the bookstore, I grabbed it.


















Then, I saw a book at The Book Nook, published in 1893, with that delicious smell of an old book. And it looks like a romance. That's intriguing!



















But at the library I saw a new youth book about the French/Indians who settled St. Paul, Minnesota. Ooh, I love historical fiction! (And I never knew that the Red River Valley--in an old song--was in Minnesota & Manitoba, Canada!)

So, which do I read first?

A Bit of October

October!

Time to bring out the fall decorations, for my second favorite season, after Christmas. I love crisp mornings, warm afternoons, the earthy smell of leaves on the ground, the crunch as I walk through them. But maybe you noticed the green outside the windows. Fall is a little late arriving this year! Maybe that's because we've had a good amount of rain.

And a good amount of heat--86 degrees yesterday.

A couple of times in the past week, we've been warmer than Las Vegas!

Don't look too closely, as Alice still has wet hair from her shower. We were just out stretching our legs a bit before watching General Conference.

That reminds me of another reason I love October. I've always loved listening to the Conference. It is such a peaceful time. And this was no exception.

I prayed for Elder Wirthlin to be able to finish his talk; I thought Elder Holland's talk on the Trinity was one of the best explanations I'd heard; and I want to be known as a mother "who knows", and to have clean hands AND a pure heart.

Yes, General Conference was good.