Clear blue skies

I've been pretty busy the last few weeks. I'm trying to finish a 'little black dress' I started for Heather over a year ago. It's an adapted vintage '40's pattern, and I got sick before I could finish it. I promised her I'd finish it before she moves, so I've been working on it a little every day. It is a beautiful pattern, but complicated. I told her that when it's done it isn't just homemade, it's a designer dress, since I've fitted it to her exactly. That's my story, anyway. I'm working on a new pair of socks, too, they are knitted from the toe up instead of from the leg down. That makes it easier to fit them to a person's foot better, since you can try them on as they are knitted. These are mine, I haven't made socks for anyone else, besides my mom, yet. The needles are so small, they are hard to see the stitches as well as on bigger projects. I love hand-knitted socks though, so I have to make me some every now and then. The darn yarn costs 7-12 dollars a skein, so they are'nt cheap to make, but they wear well, and the colors are so cool!

Today is David's mother's birthday, and we met his brother at her place for strawberry angel food cake. Jon brought his girlfriend, Gina, so we had a nice party. I brought all the fixin's- strawberrys, angel food cake, which is her favorite, and whipped cream. I found a cool booklet/birthday card that tells about the things happening the year she was born. She was aghast that the year was printed right on the front, but she enjoyed reading it. Mom Farr doesn't tell anyone her age, when someone asks her she tells them she's a day older than yesterday, so seeing her birth year in print wasn't something she likes, but she got past that to read all the information in it.

I heard on the news today that Utah and other states were snowy, and the airports were delaying flights to de-ice planes and clean runways. In the meantime, it was 80 degrees here, and just the most beautiful spring day! It's hard to stay inside on a day like this, I'd rather be outside in the yard, or reading on the porch, but there are things that have to be done.

I saw my old supervisor from work today, we had a good visit, and she had seen the letter I wrote to the editor about the court building that has been promised here in the Verde Valley for years. The office appreciated the support for getting probation moved closer to the court, but who knows when it will ever be built. I do my part in encouraging the county to honor their commtments, but we all know how the government works.....

Happy Easter

When I was a child, Easter was celebrated in such a lovely way. We wore brand new dresses, usually made by our Mom, with white hats and gloves, even new shoes to match. It was a special day, to commemorate the most important date in Christianity. After we hunted Easter eggs, we'd get ready for church, and listen to the story of Jesus. I cried, then and now, when I think of the great sacrifice He made for each of us, and express my gratitude for His mercy.

When our kids were young, I decided to separate Spring celebration from Easter. We would hunt Easter eggs on Saturday, and acknowledged that Spring was here, even if they ended up hunting eggs in the snow sometimes. The kids could eat their candy, and run and play, on Saturday. Sunday was about Easter, the Resurrection of Jesus Christ. It was so much easier for them to attend church and sit through the meetings, since they had had a whole day to enjoy the other part of Easter, but on Saturday instead of Sunday. It gave us the chance to create the Sacred day of Easter and really worship, express gratitude and joy at the Resurrection of Christ.

Today, it seems Easter is taking a backseat to other special days. Other than selling Easter candy and baskets, I guess businesses can't get much mileage out of Easter, so they are happier to push Halloween, and of course Christmas, they can make so much more money. School is rarely out on the Monday after Easter, and it's just another day of work, so it's much harder to gather the family together if they live far away. The birth of Jesus Christ is an important day, we all have a set day to celebrate together.

Easter is the culmination of His mission, his willingness to sacrifice his own life for our sakes, and then take it back again, as a resurrected being. I think it's the most important Christian holiday, and now it receives relatively little acknowledgement in the general population.
I hope we can remember the true reason for Easter, the literal death and Resurrection of Jesus Christ, and take time to honor Him, and our Father in Heaven, and be grateful for the great plan of salvation that allows us to recognize, repent and rejoice in the Gospel. Amen.

Flunked Stress Test

OOPs! I had a stress test today for my heart, and while my heart seems fine, my fibromyalgia kicked in and my hip joints froze up, so I couldn't walk the treadmill long enough to raise my heart rate. I flunked! The doctor was all annoyed that I couldn't do that test, and I reminded him that it's all over my charts that I have fibro, and I told the Physician's assistant that scheduled the test I had fibro, so someone should have noticed. We were able to switch to the chemical test, but even then they had trouble getting my heart rate up high enough to complete the test. I think things will be fine, but I haven't heard yet. I decided to get the tests done before I take this big trip, just to make sure everything is going well. Oh well, at least I didn't flunk the echocardiogram I did on Tuesday.

Random Things

The rules are as follows:
1. Link to the person’s blog who tagged you.
2. Post these rules on your blog.
3. List seven random and/or weird facts about yourself.
4. Tag seven random people at the end of your post and include links to their blogs.
5. Let each person know that they have been tagged by posting a comment on their blog.

I was tagged by Nisha, So here goes. My favorite random/weird facts- I used to work for Robert Redford as a horse wrangler. Yup, it was my job to drive to a movie star's house every day and ride horses. Tough life, eh? When my kids were growing up, we would be driving down the road and when a favorite song came on, I'd sing it and dance to it, (course I kept my eyes on the road) My favorite song was "Old Time Rock and Roll", I'd really get into it, and they'd just roll their eyes and say MMOMM..... My sister and I used to enter gymkanas- barrel racing, pole bending, etc. The weirdest competition was the hide race. She would ride the horse, dragging an old cowhide attached to a rope. I got to ride the cowhide, hanging on for dear life while she raced down the arena, around a barrel and back to the starting point. Only one team raced at a time, and whoever had the fastest time (without losing the poor sucker on the cowhide) won. Random fact- I drawl whenever I wear cowboy boots. I couldn't wear boots to work, people thought I was joking around, but it just happens, the accent I grew up with kicks in when I'm in boots!
Every year that I drove school bus I dressed up as a witch for Halloween. I'd carefully apply an even bigger nose to my face, warts and all. I had a big tall black hat, and sometimes I used a wild wig too, along with a long black cape. I told the kids that I was an angel all year long, so this was a chance for my true nature to shine. No, they didn't believe me either.
I was an 'Alcohol Evaluator' for 9 years, and never drank a drop! Instead, I interviewed people convicted of DUI's in Colorado, and set up a treatment program for them, which they had to complete as a condition of probation. I would rather work in the garden than clean house. OK, that's my random facts, those of you that don't have a blog, you are still tagged; email your own random facts to me and a few friends.I tag Julie and Jana on their blogs.

Madcap adventure

I'm busy planning this trip across the country next month. Actually, David's planning the route out to New Hampshire, I planning my itnerary back. We are caravaning out with 4 vehicles- Jared and Heather have to take their own cars, then we are taking the truck with a big rental trailer full of their earthly goods, and my Mom wants to go, so she is driving her motorhome. David and Nic will drive straight back within a couple days, but Mom and I will stay a week in NH to help get them settled in, and of course we have to go to the Atlantic ocean while we're so close.

Then the real fun begins- I'm forcing my Mom to drive with me to Ohio and Iowa for genealogy research. I figure that it's for her family, so she has to help. We'll be doing exciting things like cemetery visits, taking pictures of gravestones and such. Then we will ramp up the fun factor by heading to the courthouses, and finding birth, death and probate research. Aren't you jealous? I know, some people would rather go to Vegas, or have dental work, but for me, this is a great adventure. 3 lines of Mom's family lived in Jackson Ohio area, and are buried in the same cemetery, so this should be really cool! Or cold, since last weekend Ohio had 1-2 feet of snow dumped on them. Hopefully the flooding will be over, or not quite started, by the time we get there, and I can only hope that there won't be any snowstorms while we're tramping around.

I'm planning to stop in Nauvoo, IL on the way to Iowa. Nauvoo is big on the LDS history tour, and it's right on our way. There is a new LDS temple there, modeled after the one that was burned by mobs in the 1840's. Now Nauvoo is a great tourist place, so I plan to take full advantage of the new friendly natives, and have the wagon-ride tour about town. They don't run Mormons out anymore, they are happy to have the tourist dollars, so it should be a very interesting visit. Next it will be on to Iowa, party central USA. Mom's grandparents lived in southeastern Iowa for a 100 years, and I want to find all the history I can on her families there. I know her grandpa Mathews was a coal miner, and I have a picture of him in a beautiful garden at his home, so maybe we can find more.