Christmas Treats

Here we come a-waddling! Why is Christmas so tied up with food? Michael and I both could stand to shed a few pounds, but it is the holidays after all.

Firstly, the Christmas party. It was really fun. That's our bishop in the red shirt. Man, has he had a rough few months with all the extra work and strain the flood brought to our area. Nice to see him a little relaxed.

I love living here and I love our ward, but honestly, the folks up here cannot make food like Texans do. It's probably a case of not better, but different. But I do miss Southern cooking. I always looked for the other Texan's food when we had a ward potluck. But she's moved on.

Speaking of food, I always make a little something for Michael's employees. This year, I made cranberry bread again due to popular demand. They came out quite nicely. Recipe on request.

And the inevitable and important sugar cookies. Even though there are just two of us, I needed to make these. So I mustered up a five-year-old to help me. A new addition to our ward family, her family came back home from the Midwest. I think she said about five times "This is fun!". She had a grand time, loved the dinosaur cookie cutters pulled out of Kroger peanut butter jars many, many years ago, and made a set of cookies for her family. She especially thought about the boys which is surprising because she very frankly told me that they give her a hard time some days.
We're off on Christmas Day to see our family in Texas. And there will be more food there, I am sure. And I certainly hope there's some Mexican food in my immediate future.

The Grandparent Tree

It has been very hard to be away from the grandchildren so much of the time. When Catherine was tiny and so far away, I saw a precious little ornament with her name on it in the Denton mall. Buying it and putting it on a tiny little tree I bought made me feel closer to her. Now there are ten tiny ornaments on our grandparents tree. And it's just ten times as hard now to be living far away from them.

It's funny how the personalities match so many of these kiddos even though I picked their ornaments out when they were all infants.

I realized that the grandchildren have never seen our very cool little grandparent tree so what follows are the photos for them. There are a few extra ornaments just for fun but I've included a close-up for each of the grandchildren (not in any particular order) so they can see their ornament:

The grandparents tree

Closer look

For Seth who brings joy to so many folks.

The first one for Catherine that made me think up the tree in the first place. 

Martin, our only Texas grandchild until Miles came along!

For Joseph who is all boy, a couple of train cars

Mischievous Vivi

Juliet who got oodles of the Denney's Irish charm

For cute and sweet Miles

The Littlest Angel who just happens to be Penny

Eli with a pinata in honor of his Mexican heritage

Eliza, our redheaded fairy princess.

The Opening of the Boxes

 There are just no words! It was hard waiting until Michael came home, but I wanted him to share the moment with me. Of course, Michael had to remind me just how many computers we've bought over the years so that I could write a novel. I did remind him that the current one has been paid off with other things like my shop and my other writing gigs.
And the first one was a great investment because of that silly program called "Where in the World is Carmen Sandiego?" It created a lifelong interest in geography in my daughter GL who eventually majored in geography in college.


So I'm pretty pumped. Now all I have to do is sell the things after giving away a few early Christmas presents to my immediate family.

This has been a fun but daunting adventure and the next time I publish a book it will be much, much easier!

Back home again

I had a fabulous trip to Texas and Utah. I saw all four children and their families. I missed some grandcats and a granddog but otherwise saw the whole clan. MF had just had her fourth and I went to Texas to help out there. Then I went to Utah for the baptism of GL's second-born. The photo is of one of the dance moves of GL's fourth. What a doll! All ten grandchildren were unbelievably cute and charming.

I loved the weather in both places, ate Mexican food in Texas and hit up the Provo Bakery in Utah, played games, helped with art projects, and got to rent a very cool Fiat 500.

The only glitch to the trip was that there was rain in Philly when I arrived there from Denver on my way home. This may not mean anything to you, but the Philly airport is notorious for shutting down for weather. We got stuck there two days in December and I would have been stuck there for almost twenty-four hours if Michael hadn't decided to come pick me up. I guess he missed me! It's a two and a quarter hour drive one way. Instead of getting home at 6 we rolled in right before midnight.

I realized how much I love Texas on this trip. Yes, I love northeast PA. It is beautiful, lush, green and the possibility of seeing a gorgeous waterfall is never more than a few miles away. But I do love that open Texas sky, the cloudless days and the general look of the place. It drove right, smelled right and sounded right. Which means, of course, that that is our final destination once Michael finishes his career up here.

The other big news is that my book (Snarky and Sweet)  is coming out in print very soon. It's already available as a Kindle book. It will be on Nook soon and then the print versions will be available. I'm waiting for my box of books from the printer. It's been a fun thing to go through this process.

Water, water everywhere

As a new Relief Society president for only a few weeks (RS is an organization for the women of our church--I'm the president for the women in our congregation) I've been mostly dealing with flood. There have been evacuations, teams sent out to find members who haven't been to church in a while, work teams, donations and a big potluck for workers. The task that proved to be the most difficult was finding assignments for our work crews to do. Since they came only on weekends, we had to be sure that there would be work for them at an address, that there would be an owner willing to sign a release and to stay on the premises. Obviously, I didn't do all this myself. But it was a huge group effort and I had my part to do.

That's why I've been silent for a while.

And this blog hasn't featured photos for a long time because a) it rains every time I think of it and b) we were asked by our church leaders not to take photos of the work sites in deference to the tender feelings of others.

We had even more flooding this week. It's been enormous. The damage has been tremendous and the heartbreak incalculable.

I'm going away, far, far, away tomorrow. It will be a welcome break. Sadly, Michael can't go with me but I get to meet not one but two new grandchildren in Texas and Utah respectively and attend the baptism of my oldest grandson.

It's good knowing that the last of the work crews finished last weekend and that my counselors are more than able to handle things in my absence. And this Sunday is our church's World Conference which means no local meetings but satellite and internet broadcasts.

Life can be very unexpected. I didn't expect to ever be a Relief Society president and to take over the job in such adverse circumstances has been a real surprise. The bigger surprise is that if you asked me, I would tell you I like the job and find great satisfaction in it.

Earthquake, Hurricane, Flood

We are okay. But our valley is not. The flooding is insane here. We live on a mountain and our house is doing great. We have many friends who have had to evacuate. Our church family has tried to house those who needed a place to stay.

I must say that it is a bit much to have an earthquake, hurricane and now flood in short order. I'm trying very hard not to believe it's some kind of apocalyptic sign.

Folks here will have a lot of cleaning up to do. We all hope that the levees will hold and that the towns of Forty Fort, Kingston and most of Wilkes-Barre will be spared. But Nanticoke, Nescopeck, Pittston and many other places are not protected by that high levee put up after Hurricane Agnes. They will just have to deal with the unimaginable amount of water pouring down their streets right now.

We are very grateful that we have not suffered damage from the hurricane or the flood. The earthquake was an itsy bitsy tremor in our area and really didn't damage anything here. But still.

It really makes you see the value of preparedness, having a 72-hour kit ready and being able to function without power, water or natural gas.

Here's hoping this is the last of the disasters for 2011.

Hurricane Irene in my neighborhood

Two blocks away

Across the street

The neighbor to our left. Hard to see but he lost a whole tree.

One block away

Just one fallen branch. That and debris was the extent of the hurricane's effect on our yard.

On Monday morning, a neighbor a few blocks away was already cutting up a fallen tree.

We were very blessed. What more can I say? We have three enormous trees on our lot and any one of them could have taken our house with it. Also, I think the hemlocks across the street are tall enough to hit our house if they fell.

Folks up in the Harvey's Lake area got it much worse than us. Many people in our county are still without power or water.

We lost power for twenty-four hours. One neighbor told me that in forty years, he hadn't lost power for more than an hour in our neighborhood. Another neighbor confirmed this. So for these folks it was a shock. For Michael especially, this was nothing new as he grew up in South Louisiana. For me, the hurricane was new, but the emergency preparation and power loss was not.

There was one amazing benefit of the whole event. Our phone rang at about 1:45 AM in the middle of the power outage. It was Michael's pharmacy. They are supposed to call his cell phone, but, oh well. I had gotten up to answer the phone and had been dreaming about seeing stars in the sky. So I got my glasses and walked outside.  I had never seen a really dark sky before. So there I was, seeing a sky full of stars for the first time in my life. It was astounding. I couldn't even find the big dipper there were so many stars competing with it. Venus was like a flashlight in my eyes. I wasn't disappointed. Just sorry I had to wait so long to see the sky as it really is.

Getting ready for Irene

It's going to be an interesting weekend. We are due for some weather associated with Hurricane Irene but we are on the outer edges of her reach. We keep a supply of stuff for emergencies but I added some more flashlight batteries, drinking water and foods that require no refrigeration or heating up yesterday. Today I got cash. Michael will gas up the third car. Two of the cars already have gas. Michael's lived through enough hurricanes that he knows the importance of having enough gas to get you somewhere out of a danger zone. We almost always have one with a full tank. This afternoon we shift some stuff around in the basement which is wet on a good day and we move into the garage anything that could blow around the yard and damage the house or our cars. We do not have garage space for the cars so will just have to hope for the best on that one.

We live far away from any creek, stream or river and high up on a mountain (relatively speaking of course compared to our daughter who lives in Utah) so we should be clear from any flooding. However, groundwater will come into the basement and if there's no electricity to power our dehumifiers, we will have water in the basement. The Susquehanna is one foot below flood stage so everyone is feeling pretty good about that as well.

Michael is in charge of emergency preparedness at his facility and they think about these things all the time. So he has huge generators there and tanks of fuel ready to be used if needed. Power outages during a blizzard are always possible so this isn't something new. 

We could ignore the whole thing which would be foolish. Much better to be prepared and to have nothing happen than to ignore the situation and find that we are indeed going to suffer from the storm.  Big question right now is whether or not we have church tomorrow as I have to give one or maybe two lessons. Only time will tell on that one.

Wanderlust

 It's been a while since I've visited. But Europe calls to me constantly. I'm reworking a novel right now about a schoolteacher in France. She's helping to herd a group of teenagers on a school trip. Sound familiar?

Of course it does. I tend to write what I know, even in fiction. But even those arduous trips with teens are precious to me. Because I love Europe. I've never been to a country in Europe I didn't fall in love with. These pictures are from Portugal where my daughter lived for a few years.

And I have a long list of places still to go there. I've never been to Bath, Brussels or Rome. And they're all way at the top of my bucket list.

This year has had some fine moments but it hasn't been the greatest in a lot of ways. The constant desire to travel has been one of the hardest things to deal with.

And that's because it's not just Europe that is calling to me. One of the most frustrating things this year has been knowing that some fabulous places (I've never been) are within driving distance of here. Niagara Falls, Boston, Cape May,... I could go on and on. And now the weather is cooling off. It won't be long before any trips to those places become problematic.

But I can still be a tourist right here in Northeast PA. Because having the weather cool off in August is novel. And having everything so green in August is also novel. And my fascination with fall color still hasn't worn off and probably never will.

So we'll stay close to home. We have a couple of grandson baptisms this year that will make traveling a pleasure. They just won't be in Europe.

Why Folks Up Here Are Wussy

Here are a few more photos from the Texas/Louisiana trip. Three of my kids made it to the party. I was so happy to have them all together. They reminded me that they are often all together. MF plays hostess at her house in Carrollton to her sibs. It's just the parents who are missing! And we do hate missing out.

But I'm glad they get together. How many groups of sibs do that? I'm so proud of all of them.

So why are folks up here wussy? Because they have such a beautiful climate, that's why. It rarely goes below zero around here and rarely goes above 90. Very temperate, right? But it means that they're basically spoiled. I spent a week in Louisiana and Texas where the daytime temps were in the 100s and it only cooled off in the nighttime to 85 or so. And I heard this many complaints about the weather---ZERO. No one said anything.

But tonight I covered a council meeting for the newspaper and of the five or so folks I talked to, three of them complained about the weather. It was in the low 80s with a nice cool breeze. For goodness sakes! What would folks in Texas and Louisiana do with that right now? They'd be doing cartwheels down the sidewalks.

I'm looking at my outside thermometer right now and it's 70 degrees at 10: 30 PM. Just absolutely gorgeous weather. But it's a bit humid and so folks up here are complaining like they're going to die. Not joking!

They really are nice people up here. But if they've lived here all their lives, they have absolutely no clue about weather.

Momma's birthday

We had a lovely time in Texas and Louisiana. This is a photo of my mom who was celebrating her 90th birthday and her "baby" brother who is in his 80s.

A great time was had by all. All of her children, four of her grandchildren and three great-grandchildren made it. Her brother, a son and daughter-in-law and some very close friends made it a special day. Two of the grandkids made a special trip to see her before the party since they couldn't make the actual day.

MF brought her three little ones to the party and they were really, really good. I was happy since three of my children were there. And nothing makes me happier than being around my own kids.

 I was worried about the weather since it was in the 100s the whole time. But I'd forgotten how protected you are in Texas and Louisiana. You basically go from air conditioned car to air conditioned mall or supermarket and then back again to your air conditioned house.

I keep asking myself why I live in Pennsylvania since so many of the people I love are in Texas and Louisiana. It's a good question to ask and we certainly have plans to go back "home" after Michael retires.
  We also got to visit MF and family and see our two other children in Texas. Our son threw us a small party at his house so that we could visit with some old friends. And we also attended the church congregation we used to belong to in Denton. Ward boundaries have changed a lot but we saw many people we knew from old Denton days.
Morgan's pool was a lot of fun. The kids have specialty dives including "the Egyptian", "the Pencil" and "the Princess." Too cute!

Glad to be home though as there is much to do here and a Pennsylvania summer is something everyone should be able to experience at least once.

Out of Commission

I've been not working up to speed for a quite a few months now. The almost constant migraine headaches really put a crimp in my style. But I'm trying a new med now which seems to be working a lowering the number and severity of them. Now I have a whole backlog of things that weren't getting done. So I have a lot of catching up to do.

The weather here has been crazy but what's new? Seems like the whole US is having issues. Here it was very hot for folks who don't have air conditioning (meaning me!)  And then yesterday I had multiple errands to run while there were flash floods all around.

And I'm still enjoying writing for the newspaper. It's really fun to start a new career and to have to learn so much so quickly. 

But in spite of the hot weather, it's still beautiful and green here. Summers are my favorite time of year in Pennsylvania.

And the Rocket's Red Glare

A very fuzzy photo of my grandgirls having fun at Knoebels on their recent visit. I wanted to convey excitement because that's what the Fourth is like around here. Last night there were three major fireworks shows going on. It was fantastic, noisy and somewhat sobering. It must have sounded like that to folks who lived near Gettysburg during the battle.

One set of fireworks is visible from our front lawn. So we put on some bug spray, set up our lawn chairs and enjoyed the show in the comfort of our own yard. The guy who does the fireworks is called Pizza Paul and he runs a local---can you guess?---pizza restaurant. But he lives for fireworks. He does these on Back Mountain and then he does the big fireworks for the city of Wilkes-Barre.

No worries about burn bans here although the fireworks can get rained out. And the weather yesterday was perfect. A little hot for the locals perhaps (high 80s) but the temperatures soon dropped. And by the time we went to Sonic for dinner last night with the top down on Michael's convertible, it was in the 70s again.

I have an assignment on Monday night to cover the festivities in Pringle, the smallest incorporated city or town in Pennsylvania according to my buddy, Tom Mooney, who knows these things. It's one half square mile with a whopping 991 residents. And they too put on their own fireworks show with the city of Wilkes-Barre's fireworks visible in the distance.

There will be eleven, count them, eleven different fireworks displays in this little valley over the next three days. And this in a metropolitan area smaller than my hometown of Shreveport.

What can I say? These folks love to party and they do it with a bang!

Whirlwind Tour

That's what a two-week visit from the grandkids feels like--a whirlwind tour in a rock band. And I'm the rock star. I've never felt so in demand. Lots of cooking, book reading and even roller coaster riding made for a very busy two weeks. We had a great time and the kids were very sweet. MF and NL were considerate guests and very cooperative ones.

Grammie had to pitch in and ride one day a lot at a county fair since the kids' dad was riding the big rides. I got to ride an elephant ride, a circus train ride and also got to squeeze myself into the kiddie trapeze ride so that the baby could ride too. I also went down a giant slide with the baby.  Michael was at work that day so it was Grammie to the rescue as MF is expecting and couldn't do any rides. Knoebels is an awesome amusement park, but I got really excited by the sleazy sights and sounds of an old-time carnival. Took me right back to my youth. I was a bit disturbed though when the carnie told me that I had broken his merry-go-round since it was my horse that didn't want to work.

We found out at that fair that the girls aren't afraid of any animals at all no matter how big and were willing to offer their little hands out full of feed to an amazing variety of nibblers.

Since I don't post pix of the little ones, my photos are rather limited. We did go to Steamtown in Scranton so there's a photo of something we saw there. Michael and MF's oldest took the shop tour. We also went to a cute county fair, the library several times, the most amazing library book sale ever, and parks. The visitors also went to see Cars II and the Crayola Factory without moi so that I could do a little writing and catching up.I really liked the day when MF and I took the kiddos to the downtown book sale, spent oodles of time in the downtown children's library and then went to the farmer's market where we bought lunch and lots of good vegetables and fruits for supper. The kids snarfed up amazing things including beet greens and Swiss chard.


Michael did not get to take off as many days as planned because of a huge project at work that had to be done. But he got to go to Knoebel's with us and he spent a lot of time with the kids. He enjoyed playing with the oldest in a game of pitch and catch. He and Vivi enjoyed joke books and he and the baby read books. Little E had everyone read books to her. MF's middle child was my constant companion in the kitchen and even in the garden where she learned to weed and deadhead flowers. She made rhubarb pudding, cupcakes, Jello-O, salad, you name it. She's amazingly enthusiastic about helping. The little one just did her charming thing and drank gallons and gallons of milk. For folks who buy a two quarts of milk to last a week, we had some adjustments to make there.

We got another unexpected play day because MF and company had a flight canceled.

Today I had a huge editing job to do and no Internet. My cable modem had died. Luckily, the tech came in the early afternoon and she was extremely helpful, even making sure that our digital picture frame was working properly with the new modem. The kids really enjoyed the frame and were excited to see themselves appear on the frame on the same day we did an activity. They also liked seeing pictures of their cousins in Utah whom they haven't seen for a long time.

We had a great time. And we'll see them again soon as we are headed to Texas and Louisiana soon to celebrate my mom's 90th birthday.

Knoebels

Knoebels is just one of those things you have to experience. I couldn't begin to explain. So click on the link, visit their website or find some other way of getting an idea of what it's like to go back into the past to one of the "real" amusement parks your parents, grandparents or even great-grandparents went to.

Son-in-law NL took extra duty because our daughter MF is expecting our precious grandbaby number 10 and so wasn't riding much. And Michael and I aren't as good as this as we used to be. But we were there to lend a hand when an adult was needed to accompany V or E who were both raring to go. Michael adored riding the sail plane which took him back to days spent at the amusement park on Pontchartrain Beach. He even remembers the price of this ride back in the day. Evidently you have a lot of control over your plane as you manipulate the wing. He and V had a quiet ride. NL and baby E had a rollicking ride and grandson ML flew solo and did great. I had the thrill of doing a smaller roller coast with V. It packed a surprising wallop and she enjoyed every minute of it.

Our grandson ML is just over 48 inches so could ride almost everything by himself. V is just in the middle and could enjoy both grownup rides and ones for the "yiddle" kids. E was up for everything and rode a lot of  kiddie rides but also went on some of the biggest rides. She is pretty tall for her age so I'm pretty sure she was one of the few two-year-olds on the big rides. Her dad taught her to raise her arms to heighten her experience on "The Whip." But I think her absolute favorite was the kiddie fire trucks with a bell to ring and a steering wheel to turn.


First photo is of son-in-law and grandson in the battle of the bumper boats. Then Michael in his sail plane. V is in there but we could only see her on the upswing! The last ride is called the "Italian Trapeze" was a particular favorite of all the grandkids and the colors on this old Italian ride just knocked my eyes out. Plus as  the thing telescopes out to gain height, lurid copies of naked Renaissance goddesses come into view. It's like an enormous hallucinogenic birthday cake.

It was a beautiful day at the park. The weather was just perfect, everyone there was having fun, I heard almost no one yelling at a kid (very unusual for a theme or amusement park) and except for an abundance of visible upper-arm tattoos on hairy male arms, all was beautiful. The food is even superior at this park with good healthy options alongside the requisite funnel cakes and pickles on a stick.

Sorry Texas, Pennsylvania wins.

Mystery PA location

Moi at Dairy Barn opening

Callas on the slate in our side yard

Waterfall at Ohiopyle

Random view on our way to Ohio

The callas Michael bought me to replace the Mother's Day ones I killed

So sorry, Texas. But big news flash. Pennsylvania wins hands-down on natural beauty. Here are a few photos from our recent trip and of the yard after we got home. There's really not much contest. 

When we first moved here we had no idea where we might retire, and we talked about how beautiful it was here and when the first summer came, we decided to enjoy every minute of it as it was so gloriously moderate in temperature and so very green.

Now we know that Texas will be our home when Michael retires, but we also talk wistfully about how nice it would be to keep this house so that we could come here for the summers. 

Not all of these photos are in PA, but enough of them are that I think you can see what I mean about wanting to be here forever.

The mystery location is that beautiful Frank Lloyd Wright home we visited. We're not allowed to post photos of it, but I think we can safely post this one as no one is going to recognize it.

The Dairy Barn photo is obviously in Ohio but all the rest I think are in PA. Not quite sure about the view as we crossed through Maryland and Kentucky to get to Ohio. 

We hope the weather will cooperate when our grandkids, daughter and son-in-law arrive on Tuesday. We've had some uncharacteristically scorching days. Michael has actually had to water a few times!

Naomi does it again

If you know my Naomi, you know that she has been excelling all over the place for a long time. She outdid herself at Quilt National though.

Naomi took one of the best prizes "Most Innovative Use of the Medium" and, just as importantly, sold her quilt to a collector who will appreciate it and take very good care of it. These photos are large files so be sure and click on them to see all the details. Be sure and check out her blog which has many more details: Killerbee Designs

Here's Naomi and her quilt:

And since it's hard to get a good idea of what it looks like without standing right in front of it, here's a closeup:

Besides going to Quilt National and being the proudest set of parents there, we also went to Fallingwater, Frank Lloyd Wright's masterpiece.
Believe this or not, we're not allowed to post photos of Fallingwater on a website without permission. So if you want to see photos, just drop me an email and I'll send some on! It's a cliche but it was an experience of a lifetime.


 We did get to see the Falls at Ohiopyle and no photo restrictions there. So here's a photo of that wonderful place. People were swimming, kayaking and whitewater rafting. Very cool!

And then back home again to see that the iris are still blooming and the rhododendrons are gorgeous as well. We're having a terrific heat wave. Not too bad if you're in Texas, but up here with air conditioning only in our bedroom, it's a bit more serious.

We're glad to be back and have just a few days to prepare for the next big event, MF and family come for a visit!

Getting Excited

We're leaving tomorrow for the vacation of my dreams. My daughter Naomi's quilt will be part of an international exhibition which opens this weekend. Not only do I get to spend a lot of time with Michael away from our jobs, but I get to see my darling oldest child be praised for the great talent she is. And I get to see a lot of art. Not only are we going to the art quilt opening, but we also get to go to the awards ceremony and banquet.

After we've seen the exhibit, we're pushing on to see one of the things on my life's bucket list, Fallingwater by Frank Lloyd Wright. We'll spend a few quiet days in Southwestern Pennsylvania soaking up history and architecture and then back home.

The only little bitty downside is that the iris and the rhododendrons in our yard are starting to bloom. We have a whole bank of iris in our front yard. It's my favorite flower. We missed them last year as we were in Europe when they bloomed. I'm hoping they'll still look good when we return.

Here's what they looked like in 2009 in case I miss them again.