We really love getting all of your Christmas greetings. I am sorry that we are not as consistent with sending you ours. Our two biggest news items this year are: Ailsa’s return from a successful mission; and Todd’s release from the calling of Bishop.
It is fitting that Ailsa got to serve a mission to Spanish speaking people. After all she is our “Sister Salsa.” We were happy that she had to learn a language, but, were a little reluctant to just send her out to any old dangerous place in the world. Since her return she has filled us in on all the scary details that the youth of the Church gratefully do not send home in their weekly missionary letters. Now we know that Houston, although not terribly remote, is dangerous enough. One of her areas (Greenspoint) was lovingly refered to as Gunspoint by the missionaries. But, the neighbors take the sisters under their wing and protect the “church ladies.”
Ailsa picked up some good cooking skills and recipes from her friends in Texas. She can now make a pretty hot homemade Salsa (too hot for me!) This fall we had an abundance of tomatoes to process into Marinara sauce (a recipe from Todd's mission in Italy) and also Salsa (from Ailsa’s mission.) One day Todd came home from work, tore off a huge chunk of Italian bread, dipped it in the sauce and stuffed it in his mouth. Yes, he had mistaken the hot salsa for Italian sugo. And, no he won’t make that mistake again.
Last March after 387 years serving in the local Bishopric, Todd was released as Bishop. Not only was there an audible relief from our household, but from the whole ward as well. Truthfully, it was a pleasure and an honor to serve the Church in this fashion. Todd had a nice six week sabbatical from work last winter. But, he ended up with pneumonia at the same time. So mostly, he just stayed around the house, put a new tile floor in the master bath and cleaned the carpets, among other things.
Lenore has been teaching at the Prosperity Learning Center for the last year and half. She loves this job, and we feel it is right down her alley. We have noticed a marked decrease in her pontificating at home since taking on this role.
Jensen is at BYU and really enjoying herself. Unfortunately, at this point, she has plenty of credits. But, we really don’t know for sure what she will graduate in. She really has become a bright spot of sunshine in the home. She is lots of fun. We try often to remind her and Ailsa that to graduate to the next stage in life (the Mrs. Degree) they will need to develop relationships with boys that extend beyond the “parallel playing” stage.
Laney is fast becoming too big for her breeches. Last Christmas she asked the Santa at our ward Christmas party for, “harsher punishment for parole violators, Stan.... And, world peace.” (See Miss Congeniality) She is a great student and regularly gets all “A’s” on her report cards.
We now officially have a clowder of cats in our household: Tom, Diggy, Bella (usually called Beller, pronounced with the British intrusive “r”), and Cissy. We have had to register as a shelter with the local RSPCA and obtain special Health Department dispensation. None of us has the heart to deny a new kitten or a stray that may cross our paths. And they seem to do so often.
We wish all of you a very Merry Christmas and hope that you take time soon to contemplate the special gifts of our families and this beautiful world we live in. God is great and has blessed us all so richly.
The Lillywhites
19 December 2010
14 December 2010
TSAint
The problem with our ever-worsening approach to “safe” air travel since 9/11 is, in an effort not to offend a small, but relatively easily traceable minority, we are offending everyone else. Don't spend precious traveler time and TSA resources looking for the tools and instruments that might be used in an attack, look instead for the people who would carry out the attack.
12 December 2010
04 December 2010
River/Thanksgiving 2010
My sister Kim and her husband Ed are so nice to open up their Colorado River home every once in a while to our family gatherings. It is lots of fun and a great chance for the cousins to associate. The family reunion feel from the movie “Dan in Real Life” is not far from what we experience, without anyone shouting “you.... are a murderer of love!” and singing “Ruthie, Pig face Draper.”
We had been looking forward to this latest trip for some time. Ailsa was now home from her mission, as was Lauren. Grandma's health isn't great. It was difficult for her to make the trip. But, it may soon become impossible.
I hadn't given much thought to possible weather problems for our trip. The weekend of 20-21 November had seen a snowstorm with pretty good accumulation. Then approaching “our” travel day of Tuesday 23 November (evidently, pretty much everyone else's too) the weather people started predicting a huge blizzard for northern Utah. I was supposed to leave work at 1pm go home and pack and Laney was getting out of school around 3pm. I was hoping to leave as soon as possible after that to avoid the storm. I kept looking at weather maps on line and it appeared that if we could get away by 3-4 at the latest we might be fine. It looked like the snow wouldn't go down south very far, or at least wouldn't do so until we were safely in Saint George. I figured if we could get to Holden without trouble, we would be fine.
Needless to say I was quite stressed getting home and packing and finishing up everything at home. I had to get a package together and take it to the Post Office. So we really didn't get away until 4pm. It is nearly impossible for me to pack ahead of time (the night before, or the morning of) at least I am never able to do it. Kim and Kristin called often wanting to know if we got away, and should Katie and Hannah try to drive it. Really, the only traffic we ran into was around Spanish Fork (ha ha I just wrote Fark, Freudian?) Kristin decided to leave and was probably minutes ahead of us on the road.
We stopped in Fillmore at the Burger King for dinner. Fillmore needs more choices. It was freezing and blowing really hard. But, no snow so far.
As it was, the “Blizzard of the Century” never really materialized and there was much hype for nothing. There was some precip. But, not nearly as much as the prior weekend. However, In defense of all those weather people. It was concerning because if there had been much more snowfall, it would have been a huge mess. The difference was the high winds. It would have been a nightmare on I15 south with all of the Holiday travelers.
We rolled into Saint George around 9pm. Kristin had decided to go on. They arrived in Saint George around 8 pm and weren't tired, so they drove straight through to Parker. We had our usual fun visiting with Grandma and Grandpa. In the morning it took us a little while to get up and going. I think we didn't leave until 10am. We had arranged to swap cars with the puggas and fold our seats down in the Explorer for Grandma to lie down on. We hoped that would not hurt her back too much. We were supposed to stop every hour or so for her to get up and walk around.
Grandpa really likes the In-n-Out Burgers, so we stopped in Henderson (both ways) to eat there. My dad is a fine driver. But, sometimes when I am following him I wonder if he has recently finished a refresher course at Bob Bondurant's school of evasive driving. JK, I'm just a little too non-aggressive in the caravan mode and often let people in between us right before crucial course changes.
At the In-n-Out, grandma saved us some seats and we were right next to two different families who struck up conversations with us. The one lady told Lenore she looked like Anne Hathaway. She's been told Marie Osmond and Teri Hatcher, and one other (who escapes me right now) in the past. But, not Ms. Hathaway. Anyway we got to talking to this family and it turned out the lady was Jeff Barton's sister. And then the other lady was a nurse who used to work with Jeff. Small LDS world. Jeff's sister texted him right then to let him know who she was eating lunch with.
We religiously avoided purchasing much gas in Needles or Vidal Junction. It was about $4.00/gallon. My dad put in 10 gallons in Needles. He thought we had started with a full tank and then after he realized that we hadn't, didn't think we could make it all the way to Parker.
We arrived in Big River around 3pm. Just enough time to settle in and buy what we needed for the Thanksgiving meal at the Safeway. The weather was lots warmer. The whole time we were there it was in the low 60's and was supposed to be a little cloudy. But, was largely just sunny.
Thanksgiving day I went for a ride in the morning. Nothing major, less than 30 miles. The weather map said there would be some wind. And it was bad in Parker. The ride wasn't too bad though. For about the first five miles after I turned around, I literally was leaning into the wind. But then it let up and the ride was mostly very comfortable.
When I got back from the ride, Jensen and I went shooting with grandpa. Ed and the others had already left to get set up. We had about 7 or 8 of us there. Nice thing, there was no lack for guns, so no waiting around to shoot. This wasn't a long range area so we had our spinner target set up only about 40 yards away. Jensen hit it with her rifle and almost put a hole right through it. So we retired it to use later at a greater distance.
When I returned, Laney was waiting for me to go canoeing. The water was quite low and there was an island exposed that she wanted to explore. We rowed out there and claimed it “Calizona” for God and our country. We picked up a number of the clam shells that littered. I did a little SUP on the way back. But, it spooked Laney and the craft wasn't too stable. It's a good thing Lenore was waiting for us at the dock because being daft AND blind I was looking further down river for it. And besides we needed someone to chew us out for not wearing life vests. (I doubt the water was deeper than four feet.) It was very beautiful.
Thanksgiving meal was very nice. All of the usual food. Two roasted turkeys. Ed decided not to do the deep fry thing, for which I am glad. There was lots of yummy pecan pie and chocolate pecan pie too. the evening was just relaxing.
Friday Stuart and I went for a bike ride together. Well, sort of. He is stronger and fresher than I am/was, and went off the front. At times he was a good kilometer ahead of me. But, he did work me and it felt good.
Friday afternoon we went to see the new Harry Potter movie. It was OK.
By Saturday morning about half of the family had gone. Ed got us up early to drive in the desert out to his long range shooting area. We spent a couple of hours there. The Explorer is great in 4wheel drive. We did a lot of shooting at 110 yards. Jensen's rifle is fun. I like it a lot. Once you get the sighting figured out, it wasn't too difficult to hit a 6inch target at that distance. Meanwhile, Ed was shooting a 7mm bolt action at targets up to 900 yards.
Right when we returned back at the house, Stuart was leaving on a bike ride. He offered to wait for me. I told him to go on ahead. I went out on route 62, the road that follows the river on the west side going north. I have ridden this route at least two times before. Note to self: this route is no longer safe for cycling, if it ever was. There were a couple of times where because of the condition of the road and the traffic, if I made one false move, I was toast.
Stuart took the same route all the way to the dam and came back on the east side. He was gone a long time and then started to fall ill. He called his family to come rescue him with about 2 miles to go. Pushed too hard, started to feel dizzy.
We bundled up the car and started our trek home arriving in Saint George about 8pm. We had intended to stay the night there and go to the puggas ward and then home in the afternoon. But, as we entered the city Lenore noticed a travel advisory road sign about an approaching winter storm. It was hard to decide what to do, knowing how accurately the previous storm had been predicted. But, we looked online and it was supposed to be steady snow starting in the night and continuing through the day on Sunday. While it didn't seem dangerous, it did appear that driving would be annoying in those conditions. So , even though no one wanted to. We loaded in our car and headed back to Murray, making it home at a little after 1am.
Having returned home “early” from our vacation, we decided to extend it through Sunday by going to Leslie's ward for SS and Sacrament meeting and we had a lovely farmer breakfast in the morning.
All in all it was a wonderful time. The weather was gorgeous. Made it very difficult to traipse back to Salt Lake. The cousins all got along wonderfully, no drama, no fuss. It really is a joy to see that they like each other.
Drowsy driving: Twice at least while driving, both on the way there and on the way back, I nearly lost it. It's getting so I can close my eyes for the briefest scintilla of a second and when I open them up again, it feels like I was almost out. It is very scary. Both times it wasn't late at night, only about 6-7 in the evening. I remember this happening only once when I was young, driving back late at night from the Capistrano area. Need to come up with a solution. May have to go back to eating sunflower seeds while I drive.
We had been looking forward to this latest trip for some time. Ailsa was now home from her mission, as was Lauren. Grandma's health isn't great. It was difficult for her to make the trip. But, it may soon become impossible.
I hadn't given much thought to possible weather problems for our trip. The weekend of 20-21 November had seen a snowstorm with pretty good accumulation. Then approaching “our” travel day of Tuesday 23 November (evidently, pretty much everyone else's too) the weather people started predicting a huge blizzard for northern Utah. I was supposed to leave work at 1pm go home and pack and Laney was getting out of school around 3pm. I was hoping to leave as soon as possible after that to avoid the storm. I kept looking at weather maps on line and it appeared that if we could get away by 3-4 at the latest we might be fine. It looked like the snow wouldn't go down south very far, or at least wouldn't do so until we were safely in Saint George. I figured if we could get to Holden without trouble, we would be fine.
Needless to say I was quite stressed getting home and packing and finishing up everything at home. I had to get a package together and take it to the Post Office. So we really didn't get away until 4pm. It is nearly impossible for me to pack ahead of time (the night before, or the morning of) at least I am never able to do it. Kim and Kristin called often wanting to know if we got away, and should Katie and Hannah try to drive it. Really, the only traffic we ran into was around Spanish Fork (ha ha I just wrote Fark, Freudian?) Kristin decided to leave and was probably minutes ahead of us on the road.
We stopped in Fillmore at the Burger King for dinner. Fillmore needs more choices. It was freezing and blowing really hard. But, no snow so far.
As it was, the “Blizzard of the Century” never really materialized and there was much hype for nothing. There was some precip. But, not nearly as much as the prior weekend. However, In defense of all those weather people. It was concerning because if there had been much more snowfall, it would have been a huge mess. The difference was the high winds. It would have been a nightmare on I15 south with all of the Holiday travelers.
We rolled into Saint George around 9pm. Kristin had decided to go on. They arrived in Saint George around 8 pm and weren't tired, so they drove straight through to Parker. We had our usual fun visiting with Grandma and Grandpa. In the morning it took us a little while to get up and going. I think we didn't leave until 10am. We had arranged to swap cars with the puggas and fold our seats down in the Explorer for Grandma to lie down on. We hoped that would not hurt her back too much. We were supposed to stop every hour or so for her to get up and walk around.
Grandpa really likes the In-n-Out Burgers, so we stopped in Henderson (both ways) to eat there. My dad is a fine driver. But, sometimes when I am following him I wonder if he has recently finished a refresher course at Bob Bondurant's school of evasive driving. JK, I'm just a little too non-aggressive in the caravan mode and often let people in between us right before crucial course changes.
At the In-n-Out, grandma saved us some seats and we were right next to two different families who struck up conversations with us. The one lady told Lenore she looked like Anne Hathaway. She's been told Marie Osmond and Teri Hatcher, and one other (who escapes me right now) in the past. But, not Ms. Hathaway. Anyway we got to talking to this family and it turned out the lady was Jeff Barton's sister. And then the other lady was a nurse who used to work with Jeff. Small LDS world. Jeff's sister texted him right then to let him know who she was eating lunch with.
We religiously avoided purchasing much gas in Needles or Vidal Junction. It was about $4.00/gallon. My dad put in 10 gallons in Needles. He thought we had started with a full tank and then after he realized that we hadn't, didn't think we could make it all the way to Parker.
We arrived in Big River around 3pm. Just enough time to settle in and buy what we needed for the Thanksgiving meal at the Safeway. The weather was lots warmer. The whole time we were there it was in the low 60's and was supposed to be a little cloudy. But, was largely just sunny.
Thanksgiving day I went for a ride in the morning. Nothing major, less than 30 miles. The weather map said there would be some wind. And it was bad in Parker. The ride wasn't too bad though. For about the first five miles after I turned around, I literally was leaning into the wind. But then it let up and the ride was mostly very comfortable.
When I got back from the ride, Jensen and I went shooting with grandpa. Ed and the others had already left to get set up. We had about 7 or 8 of us there. Nice thing, there was no lack for guns, so no waiting around to shoot. This wasn't a long range area so we had our spinner target set up only about 40 yards away. Jensen hit it with her rifle and almost put a hole right through it. So we retired it to use later at a greater distance.
When I returned, Laney was waiting for me to go canoeing. The water was quite low and there was an island exposed that she wanted to explore. We rowed out there and claimed it “Calizona” for God and our country. We picked up a number of the clam shells that littered. I did a little SUP on the way back. But, it spooked Laney and the craft wasn't too stable. It's a good thing Lenore was waiting for us at the dock because being daft AND blind I was looking further down river for it. And besides we needed someone to chew us out for not wearing life vests. (I doubt the water was deeper than four feet.) It was very beautiful.
Thanksgiving meal was very nice. All of the usual food. Two roasted turkeys. Ed decided not to do the deep fry thing, for which I am glad. There was lots of yummy pecan pie and chocolate pecan pie too. the evening was just relaxing.
Friday Stuart and I went for a bike ride together. Well, sort of. He is stronger and fresher than I am/was, and went off the front. At times he was a good kilometer ahead of me. But, he did work me and it felt good.
Friday afternoon we went to see the new Harry Potter movie. It was OK.
By Saturday morning about half of the family had gone. Ed got us up early to drive in the desert out to his long range shooting area. We spent a couple of hours there. The Explorer is great in 4wheel drive. We did a lot of shooting at 110 yards. Jensen's rifle is fun. I like it a lot. Once you get the sighting figured out, it wasn't too difficult to hit a 6inch target at that distance. Meanwhile, Ed was shooting a 7mm bolt action at targets up to 900 yards.
Right when we returned back at the house, Stuart was leaving on a bike ride. He offered to wait for me. I told him to go on ahead. I went out on route 62, the road that follows the river on the west side going north. I have ridden this route at least two times before. Note to self: this route is no longer safe for cycling, if it ever was. There were a couple of times where because of the condition of the road and the traffic, if I made one false move, I was toast.
Stuart took the same route all the way to the dam and came back on the east side. He was gone a long time and then started to fall ill. He called his family to come rescue him with about 2 miles to go. Pushed too hard, started to feel dizzy.
We bundled up the car and started our trek home arriving in Saint George about 8pm. We had intended to stay the night there and go to the puggas ward and then home in the afternoon. But, as we entered the city Lenore noticed a travel advisory road sign about an approaching winter storm. It was hard to decide what to do, knowing how accurately the previous storm had been predicted. But, we looked online and it was supposed to be steady snow starting in the night and continuing through the day on Sunday. While it didn't seem dangerous, it did appear that driving would be annoying in those conditions. So , even though no one wanted to. We loaded in our car and headed back to Murray, making it home at a little after 1am.
Having returned home “early” from our vacation, we decided to extend it through Sunday by going to Leslie's ward for SS and Sacrament meeting and we had a lovely farmer breakfast in the morning.
All in all it was a wonderful time. The weather was gorgeous. Made it very difficult to traipse back to Salt Lake. The cousins all got along wonderfully, no drama, no fuss. It really is a joy to see that they like each other.
Drowsy driving: Twice at least while driving, both on the way there and on the way back, I nearly lost it. It's getting so I can close my eyes for the briefest scintilla of a second and when I open them up again, it feels like I was almost out. It is very scary. Both times it wasn't late at night, only about 6-7 in the evening. I remember this happening only once when I was young, driving back late at night from the Capistrano area. Need to come up with a solution. May have to go back to eating sunflower seeds while I drive.
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