Pooh Bear's favorite day...

"What day is it?"
"It's today," squeaked Piglet.
"My favorite day," said Pooh.
-A.A. Milne

Well said, Pooh Bear.     :)

Two hands...

This exceptional girl is studying Music at a local University and was looking for audiences to practice her piano "finals" on before the real "finals" at school. We jumped at the chance to hear her play!

What a treat!

Just a little about this girl of whom I think the world, and if you know her I'll bet you agree! The following quote may have been written with her in mind.

“For Attractive lips, speak words of kindness.

For lovely eyes, seek out the good in people.

For a slim figure, share your food with the hungry.

For beautiful hair, let a child run their fingers through it once a day.

For poise, walk with the knowledge that you never walk alone.

People, more than things, have to be restored, renewed, revived, reclaimed, and redeemed. Remember, if you ever need a helping hand, you will find one at the end of each of your arms.

As you grow older, you will discover that you have two hands, one for helping yourself and the other for helping others.”
-Sam Levenson

Avoiding flashover...

We are blessed with many friends who have exceptional talent at baking and candy making! Not only that, they are generous and share their delicious treats.  Rachelle and Debbie gave us this for Christmas. Yum!   :)

Even the twigs' friends were into the baking and sharing, along with giving homemade glittery cards.     

  

The majority of us in our home don't have this talent. (Our girlie is the exception and loves to bake if she gets the time.) The rest of us are having a good day in the kitchen if we can avoid flashover. Just the other day while in the shower, I heard screams coming from Hunter and hysterical laughing coming from the girlie, then I thought I heard "Fire, Fire, Fire!" Thank Heaven the Mr. was home as Hunter was on the hunt for a fire extinguisher. The Mr. picked up the flaming toaster oven with hot pads and carried it out the front door.

Hunter was just warming up a tortilla...

Yup...it's a good day in our kitchen if we can avoid flashover...and extinguishers.

The twigs trump Moab with Temple Square...

The twigs wait with bated breath for this day to come each year. Yes, one would think I'm referring to Christmas but it's actually the Annual Stake Temple Square Clean-up Day. They even convinced us to give up our Moab vacation in October to be home for this event. We're pushovers for the twigs so we acquiesced and then had the great luck of being able to attend the Clean-up as well.

There was a huge gathering of people from all along the Wasatch Front to clean up beds and pull the summer/fall flowers, then get the beds ready for winter planting. What an operation!

This planter had been completely full of geraniums, parsley, dahlia's, etc. just an hour earlier.
 

We put the plants in garbage bags, then turned over and raked the soil. These handy dandy little trucks would carry our garbage to large dumpsters outside of Temple Square.

Our girlie had a good story about a little truck like this. She had been standing by a planter, opening a garbage bag, when she heard one of the people in charge ask for a volunteer. No one responded so they asked a second time. She's a little shy but was brave enough to speak up and say she'd help. Turned out they needed someone to ride along in the little truck, carrying the bags to the dumpsters. It was the job all the rest of us wanted. Kudos girlie, for speaking up!   :)

There was plenty of fun shenaniganizing going on too, like trying to put things in Hunter's hood. 

Friends helped me catch a snapshot or two.

 

After all the clean-up the kids got to have a pizza party. Good times!  :)

A kleptomaniac named Rascal...

When our first twig made his appearance and we were deciding on a name, I was all alone with my opinion.

I totally loved the name Rascal Striker Branch. What a fantastic name! C'est vrai? 

Yeah, no one else thought so either, which means I've been waiting 18 years to get my "Rascal." 

Recently, we added our new family member (HERE) and everyone agreed he looked like a Rascal!

He's a busy guy being a kleptomaniac of things he finds on beds, in trash cans, by bathtubs, in closets...

...if he's not got us playing "kick the tennis ball for me to chase 200 times a day 'cause I never ever get tired of chasing tennis balls 'cause I'm wonkers for tennis balls!" 

"Rascal" is the perfect name for this guy.   :)

Googly eyes and a grocer's daughter...

We were in our neighborhood grocery store at Thanksgiving time, everyone armed with their list of items to grab then convene in the produce department. As we met up, one by one, we all came with stories of googly eyes. 

They were everywhere! 

That's an excited doughboy! One can only guess that someone with too much time on their hands had a heyday adhering googly eyes to anything and everything in sight.

This one was a little creepy but still pretty comical to us. (Okay, okay, in our defense we had been running on precious few hours of sleep right then so we were an easy audience.)

Our favorite of all was Bessy!    :)

I grew up as a grocer's daughter so have to admit I felt a twinge of guilt for laughing at all the shenaniganizing that had gone on with someone's livelihood...but I just couldn't help myself. I'd totally LOVE to buy cottage cheese with a googly eyed cow on the label - wouldn't you?    :)

The lower lights...

I was writing to my twig, Elder Branch, when the song Brightly Beams Our Father's Mercy played on Grooveshark. It's a men's chorus version and I LOVE it. The last verse says:

"Trim your feeble lamp, my brother;

Some poor sailor, tempest-tossed,

Trying now to make the harbor,

In the darkness may be lost."

 

Found this cover of the song online and it even includes the background story - too cool!

Brightly Beams Our Father's Mercy 

 

It made me all warm inside thinking of my Zac in North Carolina trimming his lamp, trying to help those who are tempest-tossed find their way to the peace of the Lighthouse Master, The Savior. How I love my boy!

Made me think of all those around us who trim their lamps, trying to do His work. We're grateful for you!    xoxo

"Every boy (child) should have two things: a dog, and a mother willing to let him have one." -anonymous

We've had the two best dogs in all of history.    :)

"There is only one smartest dog in the world, and every boy has it."      -anonymous

Plaid was a handsome, gentle boy who was balm to our aching hearts when we were wanting children.

 "A house is not a home until it has a dog."     -Durrell

Then there was Kipper. He didn't bark, he bayed. I'd never heard such a sound, except maybe on hound dog movies like "Where the Red Fern Grows." I loved it!



"No symphony orchestra ever played music like a two-year-old girl laughing with a puppy."      -Williams

After Kipper left us to chase cats in that big field in the sky (here) we decided to begin searching for another dog to call our own.

"Every boy (child) who has a dog should also have a mother, so the dog can be fed regularly."     -anonymous

After a few weeks we came across this boy at a rescue shelter. He was just 9 months old which was way more puppy than we were looking for but there was something about those beautiful brown eyes...

"I shall call him Squishy, and he shall be mine, and he shall be my Squishy."     -Dory

He came home with us on a foster to adopt arrangement and was a total keeper! Now we need to decide on a name...oh and get a dozen more tennis balls. He's totally wonkers for tennis balls! 

A Pelton Wheel and a yurt...

UEA weekend we'd hoped to escape to our beloved rock heaven in the desert of Moab but the twigs trumped that plan so we looked for closer and quicker escapes. Our very fun Scottie and April always have at least 3 great ideas ready at the blink of an eye and had carved out a few days to escape with us. They knew of an amazing little place in Southeastern Idaho and away we went to Oneida Narrows Reservoir.

On the banks of the Reservoir is an "off the grid" little hot springs called Maple Grove and was my first encounter with homemade power. I found it very interesting. They used a Pelton Wheel to garner power from water as well as using solar panels and a windmill. Pelton Wheels are noisy! (The Pelton Wheel and windmill are in the bottom left corner.)

That first night we hopped in the hot pool at 10:00 pm and stayed till after midnight. It was perfect! Then we made the mad dash back to the yurt and learned that a little power at midnight to heat a cold yurt is totally fantastic! Did I say Pelton Wheels are noisy - I take it all back, never heard a thing.

Did I say yurt? Why yes, yes I did. Sleeping in a yurt has been on my bucket list for years and it was so much fun I may have to do it again, sans boxelder bugs.   :)

We went for a little ramble out yonder and met this big friendly dog named Diesel. He helped ease our longing for sweet Kipper and made us think maybe we could love another dog.

Scott and April know how to play and come well prepared!  (The Mr. and I think that's the cutest little trailer for two.)

They are also completely generous which tickles the twigs who didn't stop smiling.

Thanks Scottie and April for your rockin' ideas and for being fabulous you!   xoxo

December roses...

There's a saying that's been much on my mind the last few days, something about roses in December. I looked it up and this is it's origin: “God gave his children memory, that in life’s garden there might be June roses in December” (C. Anketall Studdert-Kennedy).

Our June (actually October) roses looked like this.

 Our December roses are yummy and in bottles.

The very best thing about our December roses is that they are soft so this little girlie can eat them.

She was cursed with incredibly obstinate teeth. None of her baby teeth wanted to make their appearance and once they were here they just wouldn't leave. Now the permanent teeth have picked up the obstinate ball and are running with it.

She's had surgery on her mouth 4 times this year to hook all kinds of buttons and brackets onto "said teeth" so they could be coaxed into place. The last surgery was the day before Thanksgiving so she's back to eating those December roses.

What a curse I keep thinking...but I've watched enough of you, dear family and friends, endure and grow through great difficulty, heartache, and pain, to make me wonder if this is...dare I even say it...a blessing.

I noticed our girlie's wall in her room when I was putting something in her closet on Monday. It looks like this...

It's filled with sayings like, "If God brought you to it, He will bring you through it" and, "If life gets too hard to stand, Kneel."

Might it be that this pain and hardship is her catalyst to continue building her relationship with God the Father and His Beloved Son, Jesus the Christ.


I also noticed that the only "guy" picture hanging on her wall was Him.

(Thanks, Sister White, for the beautiful picture!)

I'm grateful for my sweet girlie, for our December roses, for Acetaminophen, and for Him. xoxo