OOPS!!

Last night, Darla called to tell me that I owed her $700 in telephone calls. Oops! Darla graciously allows us to be on her cell phone account, and I'd checked with her concerning free long distance calls from Guam. Yes, she had free long distance, etc, etc. So, Dad and I had leisurely phone conversations as I watched geckos scurry along Marie's walls, Joan and I discussed quilts, etc. from the Honolulu Airport; Darla kept me royally entertained with Vale stories during my long layovers....Oops! Now, I have a debt to repay and our long-planned kitchen counter replacement project will have to be postponed.
I've been thinking about the Oopses that sometimes seem to pepper our lives. Although most of them aren't serious, many of our blunders affect our temperament for the day, our pocketbook, perhaps our friendships. Here are a few of my Oopses of late:
In a recent blog post, I stated that Spring had come to the Gorge. Almost every day since that post, it's snowed!! It's a piddling snow, a kind of I-didn't-really-want-to-do-this, but...kind of snow that blankets the earth but isn't serious enough to cause any problems for motorists or serious walkers. Frankly, we need the moisture of the snow, so we aren't faced with a summer of drought as we've had in the past.

Another Oops is the gorgeous poinsettias that filled our house at Christmas time. Vale bought me some Water Globes as a Christmas gift to help with the watering of the plants in the house, but the poinsettias dwindled down and down and and finally gave up the ghost when I abandoned them for the sunny climes of Guam and forgot to fill the globes. I should have taken them with me!!

In the same blog in which I mentioned springtime in the Gorge, I included a picture of the Gorge. Dad pointed out to me that the picture I posted is actually the view from Grandma Kennedy's house in Bremerton! Oops! If you look closely at the picture of Grandma and me on that blog, you'll see the same view out the window. So here are some pictures of the real Gorge in all its springtime brown-ness!!

I'm still working on Ethan's quilt. Quilting is, at its worst, a tedious business. Ethan's quilt is called a pieced quilt, in which hundreds of pieces, large and small, are sewn together to make the whole. Ethan's quilt is composed of hundreds of rectangles. The rectangles are 4.5" x 2.5." Once I sew the rectangles together, I have to "square up" the rows. I'm not sure my picture's clear enough, but, hopefully, you can see that I got a little carried away with my "squaring up!" Another Oops!

I have plenty of fabric, so I can replace these shortened rectangles and go on, but in the era of our grandmothers and great-grandmothers, fabric was very dear and hard to acquire, so such an Oops could have spelled disaster for a quilter. Most quilters call such mistakes as these--creative opportunities and find a way to re-design the quilt to hide the goof and go on!

When these Oopses stop me for brief times, I am reminded of my father's favorite saying: the AA motto called the Serenity Prayer: God grant me the serenity to accept the things I cannot change; courage to change the things I can, and the wisdom to know the difference. It is an imperative in one's life not to allow the Oopses to be blown up out of proportion and to become the means of paralyzing or ruining one's perspective.

Taking out some Oops stitches, Love, Mom

I've learned.. That everyone wants to live on top of the mountain, but all the happiness and growth occurs while you're climbing it. Andy Rooney

LIFE'S STUFF

"Anyone who imagines that bliss is normal is going to waste a lot of time running around shouting that he has been robbed. The fact is that most putts don’t drop, most beef is tough, most children grow up to be just like people, most successful marriages require a high degree of mutual toleration, and most jobs are more often dull than otherwise. Life is just like an old time rail journey ... delays, sidetracks, smoke, dust, cinders, and jolts, interspersed only occasionally by beautiful vistas and thrilling bursts of speed. The trick is to thank the Lord for letting you have the ride." — Gordon B. Hinckley

This has been a few weeks of just the normal, every day "stuff" of life. The delays, sidetracks, beautiful vistas of every day life. Hence, the title of my blog.


Grandma, who's heard various relatives talking about their blogs and facebook/youtube accounts, is introduced to the internet. Her conclusion: "I wasn't meant to live in this century!"
Spring is coming slowly to the Gorge. To me, the month of February is sort of the ugly duckling phase of life here. However, the days now are wonderful. After stewing inside for a few weeks due to a cold and the bad weather, Dad is in heaven--outside with his rocks, roses, and birds.

The Gorge is experiencing the same economic decline as the rest of the nation. A few months ago, the Columbia Gorge Hotel closed its doors, declaring bankruptcy and waffling out on paying their employees. The saddest sight is that the beautifully manicured grounds are already deteriorating!

We are still teaching our Institute class. This is the smallest group we've had all quarter. The two on the right are mother and daughter, and the young man is a security guard from Goldendale.

Grandma is hanging in there. As the cane in the background attests, she is having trouble moving around. Remember that she is quite confined to her little apartment. She would love a phone call, a card, a picture!!

Michelle says that this picture makes her want to throw up! I couldn't agree more!! The pilot of this Coast Guard boat is Steve!!

Dad and I have been attending some of the senior citizen luncheons to give our friend, Andre, some moral support. We're some of the youngest senior citizens there, and Dad is often asked to dance, so it's a kick for me to watch him squirm his way out of such invitations. The lady at the mike is singing a beautiful love song to her sweetheart on their 50th anniversary!

The little guys are Wyatt and Kahlil with their Grandma Niehoff. Tom tells me that the boys like costumes; hence, Kahlil's snowboarder googles and outfit and Wyatt's hockey jersey. In order to "play" being a snowboarder, Kahlil must don this full regalia and Wyatt does the same. Interestingly enough, I had a conversation about Kobe's need to don his Indiana Jones hat and whip in order to play Indiana Jones. Oh, does that bring back memories of their fathers doing exactly the same thing.

Life's "stuff" is what gives us subject matter for blogs, stories to share with others, inner comfort on a rainy day, and reminds us that President Hinckley is right--we must be thankful for the ride. I am! What a rich and wonderful life we have. Hope you're letting the "stuff" of your life give you pleasure and HOPE. Love, Mom

Mark Twain said, "There is never yet an uninteresting life. such a thing is an impossibility. Inside the dullest exterior, there is a drama, a comedy, and a tragedy."

A LIFE WELL-LIVED

I am not usually highly incensed or deeply offended any more by the vagaries of the liberal press, but when I read this comment recently on the msn.com website, I became highly incensed!! "When asked whom they admired enough to call their heroes, a cross-section of over 2,500 adult Americans mentioned President Barack Obama most often. Jesus Christ and Martin Luther King came in second and third, respectively." Perhaps I reacted to the banality of this poll and the stupidity of 3000 people who consider a politician their hero because a true hero just left this earth.

Etta Louise Smith departed this earth on February 18th at the age of ninety. She has well over 100 descendants--well over. As far as I know, Etta had very, very little of this earth's riches. She lived in a ramshackle little house, earned no real income, drove no car, wore no fancy clothes. She was a plain-looking, soft-spoken Southern lady. She will never make any of the world's fancy lists for hero-ship. Not many people outside our small community or her own family will even mourn that a 90 year old woman has passed from this earth, but Barak Obama, Bill Clinton, movie stars, and glitzy people of all stripes and sorts cannot hold a candle to Etta Louise Smith!

Etta was a true and wonderful Christian; she made her simple life count!! She knew no stranger--greeting everyone who came through the church door with a handshake or a hug. The tallest teenager, tiniest baby, or crippled senior deserved Etta's attention and ministrations. Although she had no college education, Etta knew the scriptures thoroughly and could tell Bible stories with great accuracy and minute detail. She often shared personal stories of her conversion and her struggles in life to uplift and encourage others. Her compassionate service knew no bounds; Etta could always be counted on for a casserole dish, a phone call, or a visit. Etta was devoted to her large family and lightened their burdens when she could. Every year she made treasured, beaded Christmas ornaments for her descendants. I, personally, loved to hear her laugh. Her laugh was infectious and from the depths of her loving soul. One young person said, "I never called her Mrs. Smith or Sister Smith; she was always Grandma Smith." Indeed, she was. She grandmothered us all, regardless of our age!

If someone asks me who my hero is, my hero will not be a politician or a movie star or even the world's richest man, it will be a salt-of-the-earth, come-sit-with-me-and-I'll-give-all-that-I-have saint like Etta Smith.

TRIPPING ALONG

The dream trip is ended, and on this lazy Friday I am suffering from jet lag, but, for those who asked and for the sake of my journal, here's a recap: Early am of February 9th, I was at the Portland airport, waiting to board the plane for Hawaii. On the Portland to Hawaii leg, I sat with a young father and his four-year old. The loving father of four was particularly tender with his little boy. On the Hawaii to Guam leg, I sat with a 20 something Guamanian girl and a little Guamanian seven year old who clued me in on life in Guam.

Ethan tells me he loves Plumeria Street where they live in Guam!! Well he should. Plumeria Street teems with kids, bikes, trikes, a few dogs, busy traffic, and a guard to keep all in order.

I certainly felt my mother's presence as I took in the beauty and aroma of the many beautiful blooming plants in Guam. These are, I believe, coleus in Marie's front lawn.

If you squint at the far left corner of the brown wall, you'll see a big cluster of green bananas!!

This hill is behind Marie's apartment, and I had the experience of climbing it a couple of times, chasing Ivan!!

Unlike the many varieties of palm trees we saw in California, these trees in Marie's backyard sport coconuts!

This was my greeting in Marie's dining room. "Hafa Adai," pronounced Half-a-day, is the welcome greeting in Guam. The joke is that mainlanders aren't sure if it's a greeting or a warning of how long one will be able to work in the hot sun of Guam. I had told Ethan to remind me to take a picture of this blackboard before I left, and, if you'll look closely in the bottom left hand corner, you'll see that he did just that!

Since there are so many Japanese tourists in Guam, most stores had bilingual signs.

I never could get a picture that really captured the color of the water in the bays and inlets in Guam. I think the color of the water is what gave birth to the term "aquamarine."

I read several accounts of the latte stones of Guam. Historians aren't sure of their use, but they are found all over the island. There are also many, many replicas as well. It is believed that the original stones were used as foundations for the Guamanian homes.

The history of Guam is greatly tied in with the affairs of the US during WWII; that's why it is a US possession today. Many bombing raids were launched from Guam to Japan and later to Viet nam. I'm not sure if Guam was ever bombed, but I assume so. This house looked like it had been bombed to me.

This picture was in the the area of Talafofo Falls. We drove all around a beautiful scenic area of Guam on a Sunday afternoon. Around the area of Talafofo Falls is a cave where a Japanese soldier by the name of Yokoi Soichi lived for 27 years. Soichi and two companions refused to surrender to the Americans and hid in the cave. Although the two companions died, Soichi kept himself alive and hidden until 1972!! He later became a popular television personality and advocate of frugal living, dying in 1997.

The buzz word in Guam is "boonie." Whenever someone wants to get rid of a car, he merely pushes it off to the side of the road and allows the jungle to swallow it. There are "boonie" dogs left abandoned by their owners who have been re-assigned to the mainland. "Boonie" homes were the saddest sight. Although the island is known as a resort island with huge resorts, casinos, massage parlors, girls who "look white," etc., there is great poverty as well. Some Guamanians live in "boonie houses that are plywood shacks, cardboard boxes, etc. I saw one "boonie" home which was an ancient rusted out boxcar with a brand new SUV parked in the driveway.

The main purpose of my visit was to visit with Marie's family, and I got in on several fun events. February is birthday month for Ben, Connor, and Ivan. There was also a special day for Girl Scouts for Harmony. I enjoyed so much all my time with the kids.

On my final day in Guam, we visited an open air market called the Chamarrow Village. What fun. We had been trying to spot an old man who walks his caribou along the main road in Guam every day, but never did spot him. However, we found this guy in the village. Connor really wanted me to try chicken on a stick. So, I did. I tried to get a picture of the imaginative hair do of the guy cooking our chicken. You can barely see him in the background.

Coconuts

Journey's over. Back in the Portland airport grinning for my sweetheart's too revealing camera. Wonderful time. Wonderful memories. Love You All, Mom

AQUARIANS, FAT BIRDS, AND SWEETHEARTS

My mind has turned once again to family--especially in February!! We have so many birthday babies on our calendar. Actually, my mind is almost always on family and friends.

Just a small tribute to my dad. He is the little boy on the left in this picture. The other two brothers are Cy in the middle and Jack. Daddy would have been 89 this year. Grandpa was an extremely sensitive man; he cried at the drop of hat. I still remember finding myself a seat where I could watch him watch the Friday night fights. His air punches, mouth-gyrations, and obscenities were far more entertaining than Cassius Clay! He was self-educated. Because of the great Depression, he never graduated, but he loved to read. I remember him reading few novels, but he read the newspaper, Readers Digest, etc. Although a shy man, he was, in the later years of his life, able to pursue a career he'd dreamed of as a barber.

Ivan turns 4. Ya gotta love that crooked little smile. Ivan is a Lego guy. He spends countless hours building his own creations or getting his big brothers to build them for him. He provides lots of fodder for his mama's blog through his entertaining antics.

Brenna will be 5 this year. Brenna is an artist, an imaginative, loving little girl. She asks lots of questions of her ever-patient mom.

Connor is our 7 year old. He's also a Lego guy, whose greatest goal is to work at Legoland someday. He's also a Cub Scout now--shown here on a fishing trip with fellow Scouts.

Ben is over-the-hill slightly. He's a career Navy man, a builder of Lego projects for the boys, a builder of his own projects as well. When I asked Marie what Ben would like for his birthday, she said, "A gift card for Home Depot!"

Nicole is not quite over the hill but chugging right along. She's so busy with her boys, her husband, part-time jobs, her herbs and garden, and her internship as a midwife that I wonder if she takes enough time for herself.

I can't believe Mark's age this year. I usually think of him as a little boy in a cowboy suit telling me the plot of "Freebie and the Bean!" He's still doing his writing and research in the vast desert of Saudi.

February is also the month of sweethearts and love, and I couldn't blog this week without paying tribute to my eternal sweetheart.

Dad and I have such a good time together. For the first time that I can remember, we aren't going to be together on Valentines' Day, so we'll celebrate early. We're taking advantage of our Christmas gift from Mark and Jennifer to have a nice dinner at the Columbia Gorge Hotel. But, we don't need fancy cards or dinners to remind us of our love for each other. I once had a locket that had Dad's picture in it, and a little girl in the ward would constantly ask if she could look in my locket at my bee-you-tiful husband. He is a bee-you-tiful man! Dad is such a thoughtful, protective, kind man that I'm told every minute of every day how much he loves and cherishes me by his every act and deed. In many, many ways our love has deepened as we've been able to spend so much time together in our retirement. We are so funny. We have this great big house, three televisions, our own "study/sewing rooms;" yet we spend every evening cuddled together on the love seat in the family room!! Ah love, ain't it grand??
I'm getting ready for my trip to Guam. I admit to being nervous about venturing out on my own. This is the longest I've ever been away from Dad and the longest distance I've ever gone. I'm apprehensive about layovers, Honolulu Airport, etc., but I won't miss this for the world. I'm anxious to see Marie and her family and to deliver all the goodies that await some grandkids. You see them here packed into my new blue duffle. Lest others are too jealous, this bag is full of items that Marie's requested that they can't get.

I'm working on Grandkid Quilt #5 for Mr. Ethan. Here's a small part of the quilt. It's a rainbow, crazy quilt where every row--forward, backward, up and down has the ROYGBIV colors of the rainbow. DeAnne, Harmony, and Ethan all have some of the same pieces of fabric in their quilts, many of them from Grandma Whitby's stash.

Dad has been doing mostly projects outside, but, most recently he installed a new shelf for the microwave above our new stove.
He's still feeding the birds. The quail are so fat they can barely waddle or fly, but, oh do they love Dad!!
All is well here. Happy Birthday to our Aquarians, Love and Kisses to my lover, and Bon Voyage to me. I'll blog when I get back. Love, Mom

"Never let the fear of striking out keep you from playing the game."

GRANDFATHER CUTS LOOSE THE PONIES

My thoughts have been on little boys today. What a pleasure it is to have children and grandchildren and a great-grand or two sprinkled in as well. I love all my grandchildren and think of them and pray for them constantly, but three of them have distinguished themselves this week in my reminiscences. The first is TJ--Thomas Jordan Jensen. TJ is ten, and he is becoming quite a wonderful young man. During my recent visit, I enjoyed TJ's quick wit, and I witnessed a sweet expression of TJ's compassion and sense of humor. I was at one end of the kitchen table clipping coupons, Toby, TJ's four year old brother, at the other building a lego airplane. (As you can see from the picture above, the Jensen men are gadget guys. The Eiffel Tower was built by dad, Eric.) TJ sat in the middle playing with his transformers. Toby was talking to me in a non-stop chattering that I was having a hard time following and responding to. TJ advised, "Just say um-huh and Yeah a few times, and he'll think you understand what he says." I wondered how many times TJ has had to say Um huh and Yeah as he's patiently listened to his little brother!! Suddenly, Toby burst into tears, having just discovered that Mom and Dad were gone, and he was alone with Grandma, who, at that point in our visit, was not his favorite person. No amount of hugs and kisses would persuade him that I was his friend! TJ tenderly took Toby's hand, leading him upstairs to the comfort of his favorite movie. Maturity and compassion in a ten year old!!

I thought of Vale, our twelve-year-old grandson, when we pulled into this mini-mart in Toppenish during a recent visit to my sister. The store is located on the Yakama Indian reservation and is rather non-descript when you approach it from this angle. When Vale was about three, he and I made a trip to Aunt Joan's and stopped at the Yakamart. Vale informed me that he'd been here before, but I was sure he'd been too little to remember any earlier trips. "No, no, Grandma," he stubbornly replied. "It wasn't a store then. I was here in my other life when I was an Indian warrior, and this was a field where I was taking care of my grandfather. He was the Indian chief, and he was dying. I fought for him." A lot to ponder, since Vale really had no way of knowing that this station is on the reservation.

As you drive around the Yakamart, the depictions of life among the Yakama Indians cover every wall of the building. Hmmm...On that particular trip, I took Vale to see this impressive monument:

According to an article in "The Oregonian" by Terry Richard, hundreds of drivers traveling on busy I-90, near the Vantage Bridge over the Columbia River, have seen the rusted steel, life-size sculpture of 15 wild horses (1989) on a ridge above the Columbia River. The 200-foot line of life-size charging horses captures a mystical spirit from a time when real wild horses roamed the steppes. However few realize the horses are only half the sculpture planned by the artist, 57-year-old David Govedare of Chewelah, Washington. Govedare had plans from his conception of the sculpture to add a "great basket" to illustrate his vision of Grandfather (the Great Spirit) spilling wild ponies out of the basket as a gift to the planet.

Vale proceeded to tell me all about these ponies. "They're spirit ponies--see they don't have all their bodies. Heavenly Father gave them to us so we would have their help." Wisdom from a three-year-old!!

We witnessed a winter dusting of frost on Satus Pass when we came home from Joan's. A reminder that it is not yet Spring, and Old Man Winter was warning us that he isn't through with us yet!! As I write this blog, a new winter storm is drifting our way in spurts and fits. I'm counting the days until I wing my way to Guam!!

We are well. Life is very comfortable for us at this point in our lives. We laugh a lot; cuddle a lot, and remind ourselves of all that we have at the hands of a Beneficent God. Hope all of you are counting the "spirit horses" God has given you. Cheers. Mom