God be with you....

...'til we meet again, President Hinckley.

A great, great man has passed on into the arms of his beloved wife, Marjorie.

President Hinckley, I will miss your wit and wisdom. Thank you for all that you've done to further the Kingdom of God upon this earth.

Seven Things About Me.....

I've been tagged by Ali! Here are 7 random things about me:

1. I like to write poetry, but haven't done so since college.

2. I taught myself how to play the guitar during finals week my 3rd year of college. It was a real stress reliever!

3. I'm the mother of twins. And, I'm a Gemini. A fellow blogger pointed that out to me. Cool, huh?

4. I think my eyes are my best feature. They are a cool greenish hazel color.

5. When I make a sandwich, I can't stand having the mustard touching the cheese. Ick. It must go on the slice of bread that's not touching the cheese. My husband thinks this is weird. Probably is!

6. I think it would be cool to live in a lighthouse.

7. I get to go with my family to Florida this spring! We haven't told the kids yet, but they will be sooooo excited!!!!

Consider yourself tagged if you'd like to participate and put 7 things about yourself in your blog. If you'd rather not, that's just fine!

Finishing my Alphabet Meme....

S is for.... SUN!! Something that is hard to come by in the winter, but something that makes the snow-covered mountains look so spectacular when it shows its face. There's nothing like a clear blue sky against white mountain tops. The sun making the snow sparkle is just dazzling!

T is for...TAPE! Why is it that tape is the hardest thing to find in my house? Maybe it's because I have no established place for the tape to live. Maybe it's because no one puts the tape back where they found it. Maybe because the two 8 year olds living in my house like to plaster their walls with posters and pictures and need an endless supply of tape to hang them up. Yeah. That's it!

U is for.....UNICORNS! Oh my...I loved unicorns when I was in jr. high! I remember I had this beautiful poster of a white unicorn surrounded by blue sky and pinkish clouds and a pastel rainbow. I loved that poster. I would imagine that I was a princess and that this snowy-white unicorn was what I got to ride every day. I wonder what creature my daughter will love when she's in jr. high? Right now, she loves frogs. A princess who loves frogs. That will work, as long as the frogs don't turn into princes for another 8 years!

V is for.....VICTORIAN! I love Victorian Era decor---the rich velvets, the beautiful floral wallpaper, floral carpets and intricate molding and ornamentation. The Queen Anne style furniture. Someday, I'll have a Victorian style house and I'll decorate my sitting room so that it just oozes Victorian style. And, I will have this room all to myself (I'll share it with my daughter, though) because my husband and son won't be caught dead it that room!

W is for..... WATER! My favorite moving body of water is a mountain stream. My favorite still body of water is a small Michigan lake. My favorite way to drink water is with a wedge of lime and slightly chilled in the summer, and not chilled at all in the winter!

X is for.....XERISCAPING! I've tried for the past few years to do this type of landscaping in my yard. I've got lots of ideas, just no gumption to actually do it! Now, I'm not sure if I should do it this year because we hope to sell our house some time this summer. Will a buyer love the xeriscaped yard, or would a buyer prefer traditional landscaping. Hmmmmmm.....

Y is for.....YELLOW! Now, yellow is really not my favorite color in the world, but I have such wonderful childhood memories of my yellow bedroom! It was a soft, butter yellow, I think. My mom made me an orange bedspread with appliqued yellow and pink daisies (outlined in turquoise) and window treatments which were a combination of yellow fabric printed with scenes from nursery rhymes and white Dotted Swiss fabric. It was so sunny and bright!

Z is for.....ZOOLOGY! This was my major in college that I haven't been able to use much in my career. I was a lab instructor for various biology and microbiology classes. That counts. But, for much of the time I've spent in the workforce, I've been using computers and doing database work. Not remotely connected to Zoology! I hope to change that this fall by trying my hand at teaching biology to high school students. I'm excited!
Now I've memed my ABC's. Next time, won't you meme with me?

R is for....REUNION

Today there is a grand reunion in Heaven. My Granny passed away early this morning and is finally with my grandpa, after nearly 60 long years. He passed away when she was about 30, and she was 89 when she died. She worked hard to raise 3 wonderful children, mostly by herself and was blessed with 6 grandchildren and 5 great-grand children.

Granny has also been reunited with her son who died 10 years ago of Lymphoma. It's a happy day in heaven!

It's a bittersweet day on earth, though because we will miss her. But her mind is now clear and her memories are bright and she is finally with the man she loved more than I think we'll ever know.

Granny, I love you!!

Q is for.....Quilt!

I married a Utah boy and unbeknownst to me, because of this, I'd learn how to quilt. Not just tying a quilt, but real, stitch-around-the-edge-of-a-pattern quilting. My future in-laws still lived in the LDS ward (congregation) where my husband-to-be grew up. About 4 months before we were to be married, my mother-in-law told me to go pick out some fabric for a quilt and to mark it where I'd like it to be stitched. I chose a lovely rose pattern and every Tuesday morning for about 2 months, I'd travel an hour from home to quilt with the ladies that knew my husband since he was a little boy. Now, I understand that it wasn't real, real quilting--as in we didn't piece together material in a sunburst or log cabin pattern (someday I'd like to learn that!). But, it was real stitching, tiny stitches in a room full of women who were 30, 40, even 50 years into their marriages and me---so happy to reap the benefit of their advice and experiences.

P is for.....Prom Dresses!

I recently had a conversation about prom dresses with my nieces, one of whom will be 16 in March. I talked about my prom dresses and promised to find them and bring them over to show them. What a hoot that was! Oh, the memories. My first dress was a long burgundy number. I wore it to Homecoming Dance, which is a formal dance where I grew up. It was not only my first prom, but it was my first date. The evening was going quite well. We sat at a table drinking our punch and visited with friends. We decided to dance, so he, being the dashing gentleman that he was, pulled out the chair from behind me. I knew he was doing this, but what I didn't realize was how far he had pulled the chair out. You see, my dress had become stuck under the leg of the chair and I stepped back a bit to sit back down to free my dress. But, WHOOPS! The chair wasn't there and I, holding a cup of punch still, fell right on my bottom, spilling the punch down the front of my dress. But, I improvised and switched the bow from the back to the front. It covered the stain nicely. Oh, and atBYU , I used that same dress for Preference. I altered it a bit to make it shorter by gathering it up along the side seams and pinning it.

My next prom was a spring prom. My mom made this beautiful mauve dress out of watered taffeta (moray taffeta?). It had a ruffle that when from the center of a sweetheart neckline to two huge rosettes on each shoulder. In the back, a 8" stand up ruffle went across the back and ended up in two more huge rosettes on each shoulder. It was gorgeous. I don't remember much about that date, or that prom however. But I had a gorgeous dress!

The third dress I had in that bag was a pale aqua dress that I wore as a bridesmaid. It had a scooped neck and bell-like sleeves.

It was fun to reminisce about those dresses and even more fun to know that I actually fit into something that small at one time!

O is for.....October

Yes, it's now November, but I love the month of October. The air is starting to get that crisp, fall scent. The maple leaves on the trees in my yard have turned the perfect color yellow. And, oh. When the sun is shining the yellow leaves almost don't look real. The temperature is a perfect 65 degrees during the day and in the 30's at night.

N is for.....Newborns

Sigh. It's been 8 years and now I can look back on my twins' newborn days with a smile on my face! I can giggle with my husband about the fact that our 2nd night home with them, after we put them down to sleep, we both fell into our bed and cried. We cried wondering how we were going to do this--to take care of them. Two at a time! We wondered how we were going to "teach them all that they must do" (from "I Am a Child of God", The Children's Songbook). Could we do it? Why in the world did Heavenly Father trust us with these two beautiful little spirits?

We did it though. We just buckled down and did it.

Here's a snapshot into my day and night with our newborns. We'd put them down about 10pm and go to bed. At about 1am, J would wake up. Bill changed him and brought him out to me to nurse. Then he woke up C, changed her and brought her out to me to nurse as well. (Yay for big, huge nursing pillows! Well, it was more of a foam shelf actually, but hey. It worked!) Then, he fell asleep on the couch. I whispered loudly when one child was finished and he'd take that one and put it in the crib and went back to bed. When the other was done, I'd take that one back to the crib. I slept until Bill had to wake up for work at 4:30, and we'd do the same thing. Only, instead of going back to sleep on the couch, he'd make me fried eggs and toast and give me a big, ol' glass of apple juice. Then, off to work he'd go and I was there to fend for myself until he came home.

Those first 3 months were pretty much a haze, but we got through it somehow!

M is for.....MOUNTAINS and MICHIGAN

Growing up in Michigan, I never saw mountains before. The first time I saw them was late at night when we drove into Provo, UT so that I could start school at Brigham Young University. I vaguely saw the outlines of the mountains that night. But wow. In the morning when I looked outside, it took my breath away! I love how the sky seems to go forever and you are surrounded by the sides of a bowl of mountains.

K is for Kelly Green!!

I had a pretty hard time coming up with words that start with "K". But, this morning, I thought that maybe I'd talk about the color combo that was a staple in my wardrobe in the 1980's. Yep. Pink and kelly green. My favorite outfit was a kelly green "Izod" type shirt (with the collar flipped up, of course) that was worn underneath a pink oxford cloth shirt. Tied around my neck were the sleeves of a kelly green crewneck sweater. I think a pair of navy blue Chino's completed the ensemble. Oh, I was a vision in preppiness!

Somehow, I managed to look hip and cool (or so I believed) with my K-mart clothes and outfits lovingly sewn by my mom in a sea of doctor's and lawyer's children dressed in real Izod shirts and Calvin Klein jeans. Somehow, I was never really made fun of (unless you count the time when I tried out for cheerleading and the dress I changed out of and left in the locker room was stolen. But, I digress....) and actually had some really good friends, though not necessarily the most popular kids, despite my parents' back-to-school clothing budget.

My children don't wear K-mart clothes, but happily sport numerous garage-sale, eBay and consignment store finds. People are amazed when I tell them that's where I shop for their wardrobe each year. "They always look so cute", they gush. A happy, frugal-mom moment. I'm grateful for a mom who always taught me that I was beautiful no matter where my clothes came from. I hope I can do that for my daughter as well.

Where have I been all my life?

We interrupt this alphabet meme to bring you this fun little map of my cross-country travels...

Started out in Michigan, visited stuff to the east, finally crossed the Mississippi River when I was 18 and on my way to BYU in Utah to go to college. From there, I've branched out a bit to the surrounding states. I see that I've still got several left to go!

That's odd....I can't get the whole map to show up on my blog. Anyway...the states that you can't see on the map are...Michigan, Indiana, Ohio, Pennsylvania, New York, Washington DC, Maryland and Florida.

We now return to our regularly scheduled alphabet meme...



create your own visited states map
or check out these Google .

L is for...Licensing!!

As in "Alternative Routes to Teacher Licensing". Yes, I know I skipped "K". I'll get to that letter tomorrow because all I can think about is the fact that I was accepted into the Alternative Routes to Teacher Licensing program by the Board of Education. I can teach jr high or high school biology classes!! I've got 18 months to obtain a teaching job, take a few extra classes and after a year of teaching, I can apply for my teaching license!

Oh! I am so excited!! I can hardly believe they accepted me! I was worried that my grades might not be good enough, or the science classes I took as a Zoology major weren't the right ones. Yippee!!!!

J is for...J, JUMP, JOYFUL!!

I'm feeling a bit nostalgic, so when I thought of the letter J, the first...er...second thing I thought of (the first was actually my son J) was a song from my favorite childhood album, The Sesame Street Book and Record (original cast). Here are the lyrics (I think they are correct, to the best of my knowledge):

J, jump, joyful, jumble around
Juniper, Jan, Jane, John
J, jump, joyful, jumble around
Jack-in-the-box jumping all over town!
Jingle jangle junk summer day
Big J swingin', flyin' singin' --

J, jump, joyful, jumble around
On a just nice day with the jumpinest J's in town

Jingle jangle junk summer day
Big J swingin', flyin' singin' --

J, jump, joyful, jumble around
On a just nice day with the jumpinest J's in town

This blog entry has been brought to you by the letter J and by the number 3.

I is for ICE CREAM!!

Pretty cliche, but you know? I love ice cream. My favorites are Baskin Robbins Mint Chocolate Chip, Bear Claw from Mackinac Island in Michigan, Vernor's Ice Cream by Sander's (Oh...a total blast from the past. It has been over 20 years since I had that yummy gingerale-flavored ice cream! Do they even make that anymore? Sadly, I don't think that they do) and plain, old chocolate or plain old vanilla. Oh, and homemade ice cream? I adore peach or strawberry.

I also love sherbet. Especially in the summer. I love to make floats with Sprite or club soda and sherbet. My favorite flavors are raspberry, orange and lime--either seperately or together as Rainbow sherbet.

What are your favorite ice cream flavors?

H is for Happiness!!

Do you know what happiness is? I'll tell you. Happiness is walking through the skybridge between my building and the cancer hospital and seeing a group of 3 girls dancing--each of them singing into a single long-stemmed rose. They didn't notice me because their backs were to me as I walked through, but they stopped singing once I passed and said, "Hey! It's time to do Karate-Ballet!" They were probably 7-10 years old. Oh. My. Word. They were so very adorable and the thought of them still makes me smile.

I did have to wonder why they were there...was their mom or grandma getting treatment at the cancer hospital? Was dad or grandpa finally getting released from the cancer hospital? Maybe they were the children of someone who worked there and they needed to occupy themselves for a few minutes while Mom went to grab something from her office. I sure hope that it's the latter. The thought of those young girls being affected by someone in their lives who has cancer kinda makes me sad. But, at the same time, hopeful. They've got the kind of "wishing-on-a-star" hope that we as adults don't seem to have anymore. I hope that the people in their lives that they love will be able to live a long, happy life.

G is for Granny!!

We call my maternal grandmother "Granny". Everyone does--her kids, sons- and daughters-in-law, grandkids and great-grandkids.

She's an interesting woman who had a hard life as an adult. She's the 2nd youngest of (I think) 9 kids in a Polish-Catholic family. She has told stories of how she sang vaudeville when she was just 4 or 5 while her older sister played the piano.

As an adult, she married a man who was about 10 years older than she was. He died in his sleep of a heart ailment when my mom was just 5, my uncle was 2 and she was unknowingly pregnant with my aunt. She latter married a man whom she met in a bowling alley's bar and ended up divorcing him after several years. She worked as a bank teller and eventually got to work at the airport's international center doing currency exchange. She brought home lots of foreign coins for me.

She used to sing a song that I thought she made up...

I love you
A bushel and a peck,
A bushel and a peck,
A-a-a-a-a-and a hug around the neck!
Doo dee, doo dee, doo dee,
Doo dee, doo dee, doo dee,
Doo dee, doo dee, doo dee DOOOO!

Imagine my surpise when I went to see the musical Guys and Dolls with my husband and they started singing that song!!

She stayed with us for a little while and made her bedroom on the enclosed front porch (out of which my parents moved to sleep on a hide-a-bed in the living room). I have fond memories of sitting in her bed watching the Rockford Files and eating Rocky Road ice cream.

She had a problem with drinking when she was at family parties (she didn't drink in my parents' home) and she was pretty mean as a drunk and would say some hurtful things. When she moved to be closer to my parents, she no longer had the opportunity to drink and was pretty well-behaved (for the most part).

Within the last 8 years or so, she has started to decline. Alzheimer's disease. She's had her delusions and the memory-loss is pretty evident. But, for now, she still recognizes all of us. That's good. It's going to be hard to explain to my kids when Granny starts asking them who they are. I've been trying to prep them a little, though.

Even with all of her quirks, I still love my Granny. A bushel and a peck and a hug around the neck.

F is for FLOWERS!!

What would the world be without flowers? They make the world beautiful, and they are what makes it possible to have delicious fruit to eat. Have you ever looked closely at the inside of a flower? So many delicate parts. I love watching the progress of an apple's growth from apple blossom to fruit. Absolutely amazing.

I guess that F can also be for FRUIT!!

E is for EGGS!!

This is so fun! My kids are learning how to cook! J made fried eggs with a few dashes of green tabasco sauce and a dash of red tabasco sauce (just like dad). He sprayed the pan, turned on the stove cracked the eggs. He only needed help flipping them, and to know when they were done. C made scrambled eggs with cheese. She also sprayed the pan, turned on the stove and she scrambled them and added the cheese all by herself. She also needed to know when they were done. They aren't even 8 years old yet. I'm such a proud mama!

D is for DUMB!!

"That 'D' word" is how my kids refer to one of the words they think of as a swear word. The other is the 'S' word (stupid) and one more is the 'H' word (hate). My mom taught my brother and I to never call each other by the 'D' word or the 'S' word, nor anyone else. And, to my knowledge, we never did. We also never used the 'H' word directed at anyone else. It really bothered me when I'd hear the siblings of a friend call each other those words. I vowed that I wanted to my children to grow up in a home, like mine, where those words are never used. I have to work on my husband a bit more. But as for my kids, I'm so glad that they are learning that love and respect exist in our home and that they can count on only loving words being directed at them and each other.

Starting the Alphabet Meme....

A is for.....ANNE!! I love my name. I always have. I love the "e" on then end, like Anne of Green Gables. My paternal grandmother said it sounded like royalty and it went well with my very English surname. It was she who suggested my parents put the "e" on the end. But, please don't call me "Annie".

B is for......BANANA BREAD!! I love banana bread. My husband never liked banana bread, until he had mine! His mom would always put walnuts in it. He has never liked walnuts. Ever. But, she always had a hard time putting any other nut in her banana bread or brownies, even though he told her that if she'd just use pecans, or even almonds he'd love it. But, after we got married and MIL would make brownies for a family party, she started leaving a corner without nuts for him. I guess I had an influence on her! I make my banana bread with a bit of cinnamon and pecans, if I have some on hand. But, no walnuts!

C is for CHICKEN!! Chicken is wonderful. It great for every season. Chicken pot pie and casserole in the winter; chicken fettuccine in the spring; chicken grape salad in the summer; herb roasted chicken in the fall. YUM!!!!

Chicken Grape Salad

Chicken, cooked and cubed (boiled, steamed, leftover, grilled--whatever you have)
Seedless grapes (green, red, purple or a combination)
3-4 ribs of celery, chopped or sliced
Green onion, if you like (my hubby doesn't like onions in salad, so I never put them in)
Mayonnaise

Add an amount of grapes equal to the amount of chicken chunks you have prepared. Add the celery. Combine with an amount mayonnaise (or Miracle Whip, if you prefer) that completely coats the chicken and grapes. Serve plain or in a roll or croissant as a sandwich.