Online shopping and the holidays

So much for cyber Monday. It took me well over an hour to place one order because I just couldn't find what I wanted. It would help I think if the computer wasn't in the coldest room in the house!
I'm not ready for it to be December. It just seems like there's too much to do. And I want it to be a peaceful, joyful, happy time. But I'd still like for my house to look like a page from Southern Living! I know -- impossible!
We had a great weekend. A lovely day on Thanksgiving with loads of food. The absolute best moment of the day was when my beautiful granddaughter reached out two arms to come to Grandma. That was fabulous! Later we took her for a walk and she fell asleep in the stroller. She's so sweet! Being a grandma is the best.
Then Saturday we smoked pork and had a birthday dinner for Steve's dad. That was really nice to get to visit with Dad and Judy. She has a great personality and is fun to be around. We even got to sneak off for a bit of shopping. We had both grandchildren over that day. Totally fun. I even changed two diapers.
Either way the weekend was an orgy of cooking and now it's back to the grindstone with this darned project at work that I just can't wait to be over!

Birthdays

The weather has been so weird the last couple of days. I wasn't surprised to hear we had tornadoes last night.
To read more about the tornadoes, click here:
To read more about tornadoes in general, click here:
It matches my emotional state. The project at work is stressing me out because the topic is too broad and there's so much information in my head, my deadline is too short and my hopes are too high for what I'd like to accomplish. We'll just have to see what gets done but if I don't relax I'm going to be a self-fulfilling prophecy.
I reconnected with old friends this week and was reminded again that friendship is one of the finest things in life. To fall back into someone's life when you've been out of touch and have that instant bond is a truly wonderful thing. There have been so many great people who have had tremendous impacts on my life. It's sort of like the lily that bloomed in my yard this week. In the middle of the clump of lilies that bloomed months ago, one solitary stem with four or five blossoms just sprang up. Unexpected splendor.
Today we'll celebrate my granddaughter's birthday. The year flew by.

We had a birthday party for Steve's mother here a couple of weeks ago and it's funny how you notice details in pictures that you don't notice when you're in the middle of things. We took some lovely pictures on the sofa but the sheers behind it were totally messed up so the pictures look ridiculous! Here are two pictures not taken on the couch and one from a bath for Katelyn a couple of days earlier.

Pondering

Today was a frustrating day. My children are my greatest joy but they also can be my biggest frustration.
Today I feel old. I went through 40 years of newspaper clippings and it's interesting to me how some issues never change. Why does it seem like the more things change, the more some things stay the same.
I feel sorry for Joe Lieberman tonight. Why must we be so partisan that when a man breaks ranks for a cause he truly believes in he and his constituents get punished? I'm really tired of this strong two party system of government.
The weather was bizarre last night. A 25-degree change in temperature? Totally weird. And how funny is it that they're having blizzards in the north and there's a hurricane in the Caribbean.
I'm working in the corner office this week and I looked out the window today and noticed one bright red hibiscus bloom standing out against the gloom of the backside of the bush. Gorgeous.

I voted!

So Steve and I performed our little ritual. Driving to the polls together to vote after making our cheat sheets. Someone's cell phone went off while we were waiting for our ballots and three women working at the polls suddenly started shrieking: "Turn off your cell phones." I jumped about a foot but hadn't even NOTICED the cell phone ringing. Sheesh!!!
I really, really wish I could go to the polls and have a hard time choosing between two great candidates. Why does that almost NEVER happen? It seems a shame that we can't muster more good candidates for public office.
I'm delighted that the campaign season is over. I've been ready for it for weeks now. I'm tired of the debate, tired of the negative campaigning and tired of being stressed out over the lack of professional ethics of so many journalists. It gets very discouraging.

We're still cleaning this morning from the family party on Sunday. We keep finding paper cups all over the house. But we had a great time and Steve's mom really enjoyed it. We have four babies under 12 months and we all had great fun playing with the babies.

Kayaking

Where does the time go? I can't believe it's been two weeks since I updated!

I learned a valuable lesson Saturday. Never go off on a day trip without details. I blithely agreed to go kayaking with a group of guys doing the St. Johns River and never once asked how far we were going or how long it would take. About 3.5 miles into it and about halfway across Lake Harney with white caps swamping the kayak, I'm thinking "next time, I'm gonna ask a few more questions."

But it was great and a calorie counter tells me it could have burned more than 3,000 calories.

The truly amazing thing was all the water. The St. Johns is so wide and flat at the moment, more than two months after Tropical Storm Fay, that it has a completely different character. We kayaked probably in places where no one has ever kayaked before. And once we got into the river proper and out of purgatory, oh I mean Lake Harney, it was really beautiful. Sabal palms, cypress, birds galore and only two alligators on the whole trip. I was a bit disappointed.

To read more about Kayaking the St. Johns, go here:

Thursday night I got to enjoy all my children and grandchildren when they came for dinner. It was absolutely divine. Katelyn will be walking before we know it and Will is going to be crawling very soon. They seem to be fascinated by each other, which is totally fun.

Now I must get back to the Halloween costume, which will be great practice for making prom dresses or even a wedding dress!

Aren't they adorable!

Weekends

Boy how I wish every weekend was a three day weekend. There's just not enough time to do everything. Today, like most Saturdays, we shopped. Everywhere you go the selections are huge. It makes things so much more difficult. We picked out tile this morning. It's going to be different but I think it will be beautiful. A combination of beach and stone grotto. Can't wait til we get it done. But I couldn't believe the tile choices. It was incredible.

Then we visited Lowe's and Home Depot, trying to pick out a ceiling fan. How can there be so many and still not one I like -- except for the ones you special order for $250. That's just beyond my budget.

And speaking of beyond budget, does anyone really think it's worth an extra $120 to have a bone, high commode rather than a white, high commode? That just seems silly.

We put in eucalyptus mulch in a bed and the cat loves it. Everytime we go outside she's sitting in the mulchpile. It must smell like cat nip.

Baby boy

I kept my grandson last night for several hours. How wonderful to have a baby in the house. He's so sweet and he just chuckles and coos and talks. It's really fun.

Weekend again

Wow, the week really flew by. I meant to post last Sunday. I woke up Sunday morning and realized I was supposed to give a talk that day. So I said a little prayer and the Spirit whispered a topic and the talk went together beautifully. I found great examples from past talks at General Conference. After the talk I learned the exact same topic was discussed at ward council earlier that morning. It strengthens my testimony of listening as the holy spirit whispers.

The weather turned a bit cooler this week. It's been very nice. And more importantly we dodged any tropical bullets, which is great.

I received my certificate from the Grantham Prize and it's beautiful. As egotistical as it may seem to some, I think I'll frame it and hang it in the hallway. The presentation is now permanently linked here:


Tina Fey is at it again on Saturday Night Live, with her Sarah Palin routine. It's really quite funny, if perhaps a bit unfair.
Saturday Night Live

It's the weekend

Yeah! I hope to clean the house today but I'm slow getting started. My big goal for the weekend is to eat right all weekend long! I was on call today in case Sarah Palin did a surprise appearance in Orlando today but it appears that won't happen.

The weather has been perfect yesterday and today. Simply beautiful and near perfect temperatures.

Driving, driving

I started out Wednesday morning in DeBary, driving my daughter to her early morning Seminary class. From there I headed to Jacksonville, to be recognized by the Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission for my work. It was very nice. The executive director, Ken Haddad, called me a rare exception -- an accurate reporter. It's sad to me that statement is considered unusual for reporters. It should be just the opposite. He also made it a point to say they weren't recognizing me because I always write positive stories about the commission because I didn't! It was funny.

They recognized one of their biologists for diving into the Gulf of Mexico to rescue a bear that was drowning after being hit by a tranquilizer dart.

Then I drove to Gainesville for a second meeting and spent the night at a Hilton. I LOVE nice hotels and this one was fairly nice. The housekeeping, however, left a lot to be desired. Even after I had them come back upstairs and clean the tub they still missed someone else's nasty shampoo bottle sticker that was sitting on top of the tub. Yuk. Plus there was something all over the bathroom door.

Got home tonight by 9 p.m.

Thank goodness my friend gave me the Mama Mia CD. I've REALLY been enjoying it.  I started buying Christmas presents this week.

Monday, September 15

So today I tried to write a story I've been putting off for months. Sometimes it's so hard to get started. The day started off with me actually walking five laps around the parking lot at church while Rosie was in seminary. It was lovely. I walked with Jonna Green and we had a nice chat. The moon was late in setting and was absolutely gorgeous.

I also got to talk about my faith today with an acquaintance in DeLand. That always strengthens me a little more and certainly warms my heart.

Washington DC

So I went to Washington on sunday Sept 7. It was awesome. I stayed at the Hotel Monaco, where the bed was like sinking into a cloud of cotton. Outstanding! I slept 9 hours both night. The hotel is a historic landmark and the ceilings were so tall. My favorite amenity in nice hotels besides the bed and bed linens? Glass glasses in the bathroom.

Monday was spent with the Grantham Prize awards ceremonies, where all the special merit recipients and the winners made presentations. That was really fun. We had a lovely cocktail reception, dinner and then engaging global warming discussion with some of the leading experts in their fields, including the CEO of Duke Energy, who was fascinating. I got to spend an hour in the Newseum, where they have a traveling exhibit on Gmen and the media. They have the actual Unabomber's cabin, which I found completely fascinating.





I spent a couple of hours one day in the National Portrait Gallery and loved it. Then on Tuesday morning I was fortunate to have enough time to walk down to the Smithsonian's Natural History Museum and see several traveling exhibits, including one on ocean photography and one on the Father of Ethnobotany, Robert Schultes, who spent 12 years in the Amazon in the 1940s and 50s. You can read more about him in a book called "Lost in the Amazon."

I had a meltdown the night before I left, it's overwhelming to me sometimes how much Heavenly Father has blessed this little girl who grew up on a farm in Chiefland. How thankful I am.

Tropical Storms

So I haven't written in a month. Think I'll try to start back and keep it up.

Everyone knows I'm a hurricane junkie but I'll be just fine if Hanna passes us by. If we get any more rain I'm afraid life as we know it in DeBary is going to dissolve. It's already too crazy here.

So far the models seem to indicate it will likely head north to Savannah or Charleston. Not that I'd wish any harm on those beautiful old cities! Maybe it will just fall apart.

We took a ride today and went to our son's ward for the church, then rode over to Lakeland. I had to get away from the storm stuff, including the computer.

When we came home I went a little nuts in the kitchen. We had country fried steak, mashed potatoes, sour cream gravy, fried okra, black eyed peas and sauteed portabello mushrooms. Back on the diet tomorrow.

Flowers

Here's a few closeups from vacation:

Flowers

Back at work

So the first day back at work wasn't bad at all. Everyone kept saying I looked rested and relaxed. So that was kind of fun.
I didn't realize it but I'd asked to be off until tomorrow, so technically I went back to work a day early. Just couldn't wait for the fun to start.

And I found out something today I wish I could broadcast to everyone who ever drives in Florida. It is indeed illegal to drive on the road with your flashers going so all the dipwads who turn on their flashers and slow down when it's raining should stop!

Meanwhile, as the tired mother of a 15-year-old, may I say I'm glad I never have to be 15 again and I'm glad I don't have to be the mother of a teenager ever again!

Weekend July 26 and 27

So Saturday we drove down into Ohio. Tried to go to the Cincinnati Zoo but we were only going to have an hour and a half so we skipped it.

Drove on south into Kentucky, where we drove into Lexington and had dinner at a place called Ramsey's Diner. Yum! They had a veggie plate, which thrilled Steve, with things like fried okra, fried green tomatoes and yellow squash with onions. Definitely worth a stop if you ever find yourself there.

We turned in early at about 11 p.m. but still wound up sleeping late Sunday morning. We drove into Knoxville, TN and visited with Steve's nephew Matt and his wife Karen and their two great kids. That was really fun. They have a beautiful garden in their backyard and a beautiful two story home on a cul-de-sac. We were thrilled to see they are so happy and doing well.

From there we decided to drive through Great Smoky Mountain National Park to visit with my cousin Patsy and her daughter Ruth, who have a home in Cherokee, North Carolina. They're putting it up for rent, so if you know anyone ... They surprised us by fixing a great lunch, even though they were hard at work packing things up. It was the best meal of the trip, with roast beef, rice, squash, fried okra and sliced tomatoes. Double yum!!

On the trip over, we saw the weirdest phenomena. There were all of these swallowtail butterflies swarming everywhere. They were sitting in the dirt, flying over the road. It was crazy. There must have been thousands.

We decided to leave Cherokee and go ahead and head for home so we'd be home earlier Monday, but once we got on the road, we wound up driving straight through. We stopped twice at rest areas to nap and arrived home about 10:30 and fell into bed.

Lots to unpack and clean up but overall great to be home. Trip was truly wonderful and we're so blessed everything went so smoothly.






This butterfly is a Pipevine Swallowtail (Battus philenor)

Friday July 25

Today we drove south and started heading toward home. We drove to Milwaukee and had dinner at Mader's, a 102-year-old German restaurant. It was expensive but fabulous. We had a very nice time. The waitresses all dress in vintage German outfits. And one of the guests just stood up and burst into song to salute a woman at his table. That was fun too.
We drove through Dorr County Wisconsin and saw the farms, they were beautiful. We bought cheese in Gibbsville and then we had frozen custard. We loved it.
Then we drove to Chicago so we'd get there after dark and see all the lights. We drove around quite a bit downtown but did not get to spend as much time as I would have liked. We started looking for a hotel on the outskirts of Chicago but we should have done that on the north side instead of the south side because we couldn't find any rooms. We wound up driving all the way to Lafayette Indiana in the middle of the night. We finally found a Hampton Inn and it was really wonderful. We swam in the pool this morning and sat in the jacuzzi and it's all very relaxing. Best beds of the trip.









Did I say I really love Wisconsin!

Thursday July 24

Today was the best day of the trip. We took a 2.5 hour boat trip along the Pictured Rocks National Lakeshore. Wow. It was truly gorgeous.
The water in Lake Superior is unbelievably clear and you can see straight down 30 or 40 feet. It looks just like spring water. And the rocks along the lakeshore are cool, several stories high with all sorts of mineral seepage making intriguing patterns on the rock. Two of the formations were arches. We thought the boat captain was going to sail right into one.
But I learned a lesson. I didn't think we could get sunburned up here, since we're pretty tan already and so far north but boy was I wrong. Rosie and I are fried.
We stopped at a place called Muldoons in Munising and ate pasties, (short a sound, not like the decorations strippers wear!) Steve and I thought they were great. It's like a beef pot pie without gravy that you hold in your hand. Rosie was less impressed.
We visited Munising Falls and then we drove over to Seney National Wildlife Refuge where at long last we think we finally saw a beaver, two beavers actually. It's one of the mammals I've never seen in the wild. We still did not see a bear or a moose so we're sad. Tomorrow we're headed south out of the Peninsula, where our chances of seeing a bear drop to almost nil. We did see tons of trumpeter swans, Canada geese and loons. The oldest pair of loons at the refuge are 21. They've been together 12 years. We also saw several deer, who were not very afraid of us.
The facilities at all of the refuges here are much more elaborate than the facilities at the refuges in Florida. I wonder what gives with funding?

Gasoline!

Several people had asked about gas. So far, we've spent less than $450 in gas. We lost track of the very first one. This week, we've been getting about 26 miles to the gallon.

Wednesday, July 23

We've hit the halfway point.
We visited Bayfield Apple Orchard and picked three pints of raspberries. That was really fun. The views from the farms high above Lake Superior were stunning. What a beautiful place to grow fruits and vegetables. We all had fun picking the berries but it did get pretty warm. From there, we drove south along the lake to Marquette, Michigan after taking a detour to look (unsuccessfully) for moose. We also hiked to another waterfall on our way.

Tuesday, July 22

We woke up before 9 to take a hike up to another waterfall. We realized we didn't make plans for breakfast so granola bars were the choice of the morning! Then we drove down the North Shore. I think it took us 6 hours to make a three hour drive because we kept stopping to hike to an overlook. In Two Harbors we stopped at a place Lorelei had recommended and ate pie and "broasted" chicken at Betty's Pies. They had a waiting list at 2:30 on a Monday afternoon. Isn't that amazing? We enjoyed it. The girl who waited on us is LDS and leaves for BYU in a month, so it was fun talking to her.


We left there and drove into Wisconsin, state #6!! We drove through beautiful farms and rolling hills and more hay bales than you could imagine. But haven't seen the first dairy yet. We stopped by the Apostle Islands NP visitors center to get our passport stamped. Had nice conversations with a retired couple from Florida who were on a 32 day trip around Lake Superior. And the park ranger is also a Florida retiree who just works here three months in the summer with his wife.
We hoped to take the sunset cruise of the islands but it started at 5:45 so we missed it. We decided to call it a night early and found a lovely AmericInn with an indoor water park! So Steve and Rosie enjoyed the heated water slides and I enjoyed the pool. I tried the mildest slide and was terrified. My throat is sore because I screamed so much. What a chicken. But seeing the video of Jim Cantore in Texas, I'd give anything to be standing on a beach in a hurricane! Go figure ...

Monday, July 21

On Monday we got up from camping in the tent, packed our things and drove back out to Voyageurs National Park to take a look around. Most of that park is accessible by water only so we decided we have to come back someday. It's quite beautiful.
We stocked up on groceries, buying locally made bratworst and cheese, more stuff for trail mix and hit the road again. This time we decided to try to see a moose by taking the scenic route through southern Ontario over to Thunder Bay. The drive was gorgeous, we got 27 miles to the gallon and stopped at a lot of pretty scenic overlooks but no moose. About 4 hours later we drove into Thunder Bay which sounded prettier than the city looked. It's about the size of Daytona but it had spectacular views of the bay.
From there, we drove through rolling hills of farmland and re entered the USA at Grand Portage. The border agents at either station couldn't believe we were just driving around. It seemed like they thought we were a little crazy. Imagine that?
The falls in Grand Portage on the northern point of Minnesota were about a mile hike, but they are the highest falls in Minnesota and they were beautiful. From there we headed south along the North Shore. This part wasn't in our original plans, but one of the paper's ad reps, Lorelei Johnson, convinced me we had to make the drive and wow. It was really incredibly gorgeous. I liked it better than coastal Maine. Lots of hills, spectacular views, rock filled streams.






We camped at a state park and grilled our bratwurst and hot dogs over charcoal. They were great. For the second night in a row, we saw lightning bugs!

Sunday, July 20

On Sunday we went to church in tiny Detroit Lakes, Minnesota. The members there were thrilled to have us and it was fun to fellowship with people who were so excited about our crazy trip.
When we left Detroit Lakes, we headed north toward International Falls, Minnesota, stopping at the Tamarac National Wildlife Refuge and going for a couple of short hikes, plus an auto trail. We were hoping for moose but didn't see any. Instead we saw lots of birds including this flock of baby ducks.





We also visited Itasca State Park, which is the site of the stream where the Mississippi River begins. That was totally cool! We went wading in it. Here's a picture of it below.

We drove on up to International Falls, rode out to see what we could of the landward side of Voyaageur's national Park. Wow. It's really a gorgeous place -- all of that clear water and those islands.

The great drive continues

After several days of no connectivity, we're back online -- at least for the night! (Why do hotels advertise they have wi-fi but never give you a room where the wireless network reaches? It's very annoying.)

On Saturday we were so tired that we didn't wake up until 10 their time, which was 11 our time, so no hotel breakfast in Omaha. Instead we headed for a local joint called Petrow's that's been in operation for more than 60 years. We had prime rib from Nebraska! I had it on a salad and Steve had his with mashed potatoes and vegetables. Then we tried slices of their amazing looking pies. (They looked better than they tasted.) We headed north out of Omaha and saw the sign for the Mormon Trail Center, so we were off the freeway again. It was really neat to see where the Mormons spent the winter after being forced out of Nauvoo Illinois. There were lots of exhibits with pioneer memorabilia and a temple built across the street.





The farmland throughout Nebraska and South Dakota was amazing. Fields and fields of corn and soybeans. We just found it particularly beautiful. Especially South Dakota. We got to watch a storm roll across the fields and then a rainbow. It was gorgeous. We were hoping for a tornado, they even had a tornado warning, but we weren't that lucky naturally. It was still cool to see it. We took a short hike of about a mile at the Waubay National Wildlife Refuge in South Dakota. Wow. There were birds everywhere and it was really beautiful. Lots of water. When we got into North Dakota we started calling for a hotel but couldn't find a SINGLE ROOM. They had some sort of wrestling event underway and all the rooms were booked. We wound up skipping North Dakota all together and driving on into Minnesota where we found a room at a lakefront Holiday Inn in Detroit Lakes. Not too bad, but another long day of driving.

Friday July 18

What a day! We knew it would be the worst day for driving and it was! We left Tennessee in the morning and headed through Kentucky and Illinois. Stopped by the National Quilt Museum in Paducah, which was incredible! The quilts were breathtaking. Truly beautiful.

Then we stopped by the Crab Orchard National Wildlife Refuge and took a hike back to a small lake where there were no alligators surprise surprise. Rosie said she'd be willing to kayak there!

We drove through Missouri which seemed to take a very long time. We ate cherries, boiled peanuts, trail mix and turkey sandwiches and of course our standard Triscuits and Cheese. David and Aaron know all about that!

In Missouri, we drove by the arch and drove over the bridge so we could say we'd been to Kansas. Then we headed north in Missouri to visit some church historic sites, including the Liberty Jail, Far West and Adam ondi Ahman. We didn't get to see inside the visitor's center for the jail because it was closed. But the feeling that you get when you walk where Joseph Smith walked is wonderful.

We decided to head on to Omaha because we couldn't find hotel rooms. We finally rolled into a Comfort Inn with a bed at about 4:30!!!! So we slept til 11. Anyway today we'll explore Nebraska and the Dakotas. We plan to spend the night in Fargo!

Friday July 18, 2008

Hah! Even though we left at 4, we made it all the way to Clarksville, Tennessee before I got too tired to drive. That was at about 3:30 our time, but 2:30 local time. We're just 4 miles south of the Kentucky border. We got gas twice. The first time we paid $3.99 and the next time $3.89. Not too bad!! Although we did see places where it was $4.20.
So I had five hours of sleep and we're getting ready to hit the road again. Hoping to make it to Omaha, Nebraska today but we'll see what happens ...

Vacation

We're setting off on a 4,400 mile trip. Check back for trip details.

Blogosphere

As if I don't have enough writing to do, I'll try maintaining a separate blog with my thoughts and observations on life.