Parade of Homes

Sunriver Parade of Homes outside design-across the street from model

Model home entrance-casita on the right in front

Casita for guests is elegant and separate from the house

Casita opens to front entry to house, lovely guest accommodations

Casita bathroom complete with shower, etc.

Chest of drawers for casita, love the decor.

Entrance to house from the garage.

Office with no papers, computers, books or mess!

Extra bathroom, love the browns and decor-no mess again!

Master bedroom opens to the patio outside

View from the back patio and master bedroom

Lovely place for an afternoon or evening meal with a view

Dining area with a dramatic flair

Kitchen in the great room that opens to the living area

Living room with tile floors and area rugs-no flat screen tv anywhere

Pine Valley mountains in the distance

Front entryway, this house can be yours for only $400,000+

Article #283 Your Stories Continue

Talented Marilyn Ball from St. George captures her family memories in poems about her youth. Poetry seems to condense experiences into their essence and captures in just a few words emotions and experiences to share. See if you can picture this chair from Marilyn’s home in the Uintah Basin and understand her mother’s many sacrifices on a remote ranch raising the family. 

THE GHOST OF A CHAIR

I can still feel the chair, 

smell its dusty rose brocade, 

see the pressure spot where 

Mother often laid her hand. 

For someone who traveled less

than fifty miles in seventeen years 

it was more than a luxury. 

It was tears and young days gone

orever, a symbol of good times, 

better cattle prices, the war’s  end. 

Now a companion in my kitchen 

it is like a vision blending 

with the other chairs. /

Somewhere back in my brain

tears begin; I see mother’s pride

in her one good piece of furniture

and the ghost of her in that chair makes

me sweat when I spend a dollar. 

            Another reader Sue Stevenson-Leth of St. George is a gifted writer who tells us about her grandmother HELEN VIOLA JACKSON KENT 1879-1971. Grandmother was 60 years old when I was born––which gives her diaries such great significance. A valuable source of information about her youth and early family life. At the age of sixty she seemed very young to me. I would guess her to be 5’2” or maybe I saw her as short because my grandfather was so tall and thin. From a child’s perspective she was warm, soft and offered protection. Always wore a clean apron and a few tendrils of hair trailed down the back of her neck from the bun on top of her head. Her clothes were moderate––solid colors, lace at the collar, a clean handkerchief always clasped in her hand. Her black shoes laced with moderate heels. She never wore polka-dots, even though her personality could afford it. Don’t you want to read more about this special grandmother?

Last call for stories about your grandparents, then we’re moving on to stories about your parents. Don’t let your grandparent or parent’s legacy be lost. Talk about them to your posterity, write their stories down and show their photos to your family. (Love to have my blog readers contribute-just leave your stories in a comment.) NEXT TIME: What’s Your Heritage?

Date with Hubby

We celebrated that the boat is epoxied, next is more sanding then a prime coat and the outside color-it will be white. Then the boat gets turned over and the work begins inside...

It took two weeks of constant work to cover two sides with 4 layers of epoxy!

Don't worry it will be covered with paint!

First time to try this most advertised place in town.

Busy place, lots of families here to eat lunch and retirees! 

A TV in the floor for customers to watch while waiting!

Never seen the Statue of Liberty with a hamburger...

Hubby without head had a burger with yummy fries.
I had crossant sandwich with sweet potato fries 

Double date with Caryn, Wayne, Allen and me-fun Valentines dinner

Out Valentines dinner, steak on a hot rock-cooks it just like you want.

Indexing AWARD

As a service project for my Mormon church, I've been indexing Italian birth records which are then made available for others researching in this area to find. I do about two batches or 30 names a day and enjoy the challenge as the records are in Italian. Our church is currently digitizing, used to be microfilming, records all over the world for genealogists to use in their research. I started out indexing the 1940 US census then got asked to help with Italian records. Now I've completed 1000 batches! Anyone can help see http://familysearch.org/indexing for more info.

Early SPRING in Dixie!

Believe it or not, daffodils are blooming in the desert now-67 degrees today and some fruit trees in bloom. Click to enlarge photo collage.

Article #282 Family Legacies

Another reader Gail Porritt from St. George tells us about My Grandfather, Thomas Hampton Porritt, lived in Idaho between 1869 and 1956. He was a colorful person. Only had a hit and miss elementary education because in those days, in rural Idaho, helping on the farm seemed more important than school. He could read and write, but that’s about all. I remember him well because I was 28 years old when he died. After he married Grandma, they moved around a lot getting work wherever he could find it. Grandma said they moved so often that whenever Grandpa would hitch up the wagon, the chickens would all lay down and cross their legs waiting to be tied up for the move.

Just from this brief excerpt I can feel the admiration for a grandfather and his personality that comes out in the details. Another humorous experience shows this grand parent’s attitude about new inventions…His sons bought Grandpa a used car, but they didn’t teach him how to drive it. On the first try, he drove into a ditch. Grandpa told his sons to come and get the blamed thing. He never tried to drive after that.

            Susie Hatch, a reader from Cleveland, Ohio tells us about Gladys Evans Thomas Holman…My grandmother was from Cornwall, England. Grandmother suffered from Rheumatic Fever as a child, before the advent of penicillin and was always frail, walking with a shortened leg. She was one so strong in many ways. Scared but obedient enough to travel to America to wed a Cornwallian man her parents had chosen. Wise enough to divorce him when their daughter was eight to end the drunken rages, the beatings and the abuse. Grandma went from being very wealthy to very poor. In the end, she married the man of her dreams, and needed for nothing else. She had three more children.
              The biggest lesson I learned from her was to never divulge anything that was said or done in our home. If an adult were to ask me a question about family, I was to say, “you will need to ask my mom that”. She taught her daughters and this I taught to my children. Grandma lived with us after widowhood, always had time to sit and tell a story from her childhood or listen to us talk and offering advice when asked. She never had unkind words to say about anyone. I miss her to this day! 

NEXT TIME: Your Stories Continue. 

Another day of FUN

We started at TJ Maxx-love their colored glassware

Fun displays catch your interest to look closer

Isn't this blue glass gorgeous? Mostly made in China...how come?

Fun whimsical glass animals, we just looked didn't buy-took photos!

Caryn checks out this blouse but we were mostly window shopping.

Great colors for suitcases at the airport baggage rack.

Lunch our favorite part-these french fries were the best!
At The Patio, good BLT and chicken sandwich too. 

CALLER ID

Can you believe I've never had CALLER ID on my phones except for my cell phone that does it automatically. Reason? It costs more money. But after being DRIVEN NUTS lately with nuisance calls, I bit the bullet and ordered caller ID. WHAT A RELIEF! Now my phone hardly rings and if it does I can look and see if it's a local call or SPAM call.

 I was getting AT LEAST one call a day that when I answered it was a recording that said "Jesse Cole, Jesse Cole, Jesse Cole, Jesse Cole." I tried tracing it with reverse phone lookup, BUT it wasn't identifiable. Now those calls as well as PROBLEMS with my CREDIT CARD, SALES and SURVEY calls have been eliminated. Any toll free calls I don't answer. FREEDOM for just a few extra dollars a month.

A continuing DIALOGUE within

Somedays the dialogue within is enough to bring craziness
          see, I told you, you have no talent as a writer or
          no one comes to the classes you organize or
          why even try, just give up and do nothing

Then something happens to prove all that idle chatter is wrong
         congratulations, five of your eight poems were selected
         by Mesquite artists as inspiration for their art works or
         I really enjoy your classes and your poems are excellent

Which voices do you listen to, usually it's the negative ones
that are the loudest and most believable...unfortunately
not sure why it is, but compliments seem too difficult to believe
while criticisms must be TRUE because they exist...right?

Valentine Boat

Guess what my hubby's doing for Valentine's-working on the boat, but we'll take a break to go out to dinner with our friends Caryn and Wayne-photos soon of our favorite restaurant experience at Anasazi Steak House-we met there last year. Same friends, same holiday!

Epoxying the other side-it's a two week process

About 6 layers of epoxy with sanding in between takes considerable work.
The blue tint help Allen see where he's painted last, when it all sanded the
outside will be painted white with natural finish inside for less maintenance.

Article #281 Don’t Forget Cousins

As an only child, my aunts and uncles who had children provided cousins that were cherished as playmates despite our varied age differences. The cousins enjoyed many happy family experiences when we got together with our shared grandparents and common background. Some of my relatives lived out of state. I saw them less frequently, only on special or important family occasions like: reunions, special holidays, weddings and funerals.

Uncle Norm, Aunt Esther, my Mom
& Aunt Ethel (still living at age 94)

I remember my Grandmother Johnson’s funeral because it was so unexpected. She was only 76 years old which seemed ancient in those days when I was younger, but isn’t now as I’ve grown older. Grandma was about to be released from the hospital after having pneumonia. She had just written a letter to one of her daughters saying: 

(Feb 14, 1967) Well here I am, came here yesterday. Rachel bought me. I had a better night last night and I am out of pain. Have no blood clots this time so I don't think I'll be here over a week so glad I came now. Don't you worry. I'm so much better here. Have the very best of care. Its the only place to be when you are sick. So by by all my love as ever Mother. (Feb 16, 1967) Dear ones, just a few lines to say. I'm doing fine. I think the Dr. will let me go home Sunday. Gee I hope so, its so noisy in here. You just can't think and it snowed again since I came. And is very cold hope you are both well. Love, Mother 

A few hours after this letter was written, Grandma died of a blood clot. It was a time of sadness for our family as we celebrated her life of loving and service to us all.

The cousins I lived closest to had a big influence on my life. My oldest cousin Jody was the person who took me to church. Later when she married, and was divorced with three little ones to raise, she became an example to me of carrying on as a single parent. I never realized that one day I would follow in her footsteps with the same challenges.

             Would love to hear your family stories about experiences that influenced who you are today. Just write a couple of paragraphs and I’ll help you with editing-spelling, grammar, etc. Sharing your stories can strengthen your family ties and leave a legacy. NEXT TIME: Family Legacies. 

Italian Indexing FHE

Our local LDS Family History Center had an Italian Indexing night

where families were invited to come and learn about this program.

I was invited as one of many indexers locally to  demonstrate how we index
information from digitized birth records from Italy 1785-1910. This is what
the record looks like, then we type in names, dates and places.

I've enjoyed doing this work since last January and have indexed
over 16,000 names since I started. About 2 batches a day.

All of this info is available free at www.familysearch.org for everyone
use in tracing their genealogy-it's pretty amazing and part of our church's
mission to "turn the hearts of the children to their fathers..."

More Fun with Caryn

Out to Kayenta-one of our favorite places-love these wind sculptures

Caryn examines this creative totem 

Details, it's made by a pottery artist

I like this whimsical jack rabbit sculpture 

So much fun art, lots to look at-we just window shopped... 

Clever sculpture of a horse made out of drift wood

Now we are the local Red Cliffs mall-loved the colors in the window display

Any one for a prom dress? Reminds me of some dance costumes in my past...