Family Shenanigans

So a long time ago my dad bought a picture from a street artist. I’m not sure where. I don’t think he was even married to my mom at the time. I need to ask him. I think he said he paid $50.00 for it. Anyway, it’s never been hung in the house before, not officially anyway. My mom won’t allow it and I don’t blame her. I wouldn’t want it in my house either. When we were kids we used to think it was so cool.  The key is embossed and we used to like touching it and feeling it stand out. It was hidden in the garage for years and then a few years ago dad built a shed in the back corner of the garden and we took it out there for him. He always says he loves that picture but I think it’s mostly to annoy my mom.

Dads favorite picture, Moms headache

When they moved mom was ready to put it in the trash so my sister and I came up with the idea to sneak it out of the shed and home with one of us. We thought we were so funny. It ended up in my garage for a couple months. My mom noticed it wasn’t with any of the trash and told us she better not see it again.

My parents just had the porch on their new house turned into a sun room and my dad’s desk got moved out there so we figured it was time to hang up his picture. We had the grandkids keep watch while I snuck it into the house. Unfortunately, we didn’t have any wire to hang it so we stole a piece of yarn. The whole thing was a riot to us, of course. The yarn stretched and the picture didn’t even fit where we tried to hang it so we ended up just setting it on dad’s printer.

This ended up on FB

Anyway, the kids thought it was hilarious and we thought it was funny and I told my dad to smile and I took a picture and put it on Facebook. And my mom walked in and out of the sunroom at least 6 different times and never even noticed which really made the kids laugh.

Mom never did see it that night. We went home and she turned off all the lights and locked the doors, oblivious to the whole thing. Of course the next morning while I was at work, I got a voicemail from her telling me to tell my sister (yeah, that’s right, Amy got blamed, not me) that she had 24 hours to get that picture out of her house.  I understand it now has a place of honor in my sister’s garage. I say better her than me.

We get that painting out every few years and do something with it just to tease my mom. It’s a fun family activity.

The Weekend

It was a beautiful weekend. Saturday morning I got up early to go walking. I was wearing a fleece pullover and fleece pants and had my earmuffs with me because I thought it might be a little chilly that early. Oh my gosh, that canyon wind was cold! It took my breath away. I froze the first part of my walk but once I got a couple blocks south and out of the wind I was fine. Then as I was headed back it was getting lighter and warmer but I hit that section with the breeze and it was cold again. I should say it was invigorating. And the cold wind definitely gave me motivation to walk faster and get out of it.

I had my niece for a sleepover Saturday night. Sunday afternoon we ended up walking along the Ogden River parkway. We packed a lunch and were outside for a couple hours. Stupid me didn’t even think about sunscreen and I am burnt. My arms are pink and the front and back of my neck is burnt into the shape of my v-neck t-shirt. I didn’t plan to be outdoors that long but I won’t make that mistake again. We had fun though. My niece threw rocks into the river and played at the playground. She was so tired by the time we got back to the car.

Reading Mary Stewart

I’ve become a huge fan of Mary Stewart in the last couple of years. I swear that I would have read her books when I was a teenager, but I don’t remember any of them and usually I can pick up on and remember the details if I have read a book before.  I read a ton of gothics by Jill Tattersall, Phyllis Whitney, Barbara Michaels (aka Elizabeth Peters), Dorothy Eden, Madeline Brent, M.M. Kaye, etc. Maybe I was just too busy with the other authors to pick up Mary Stewart. I know her  Arthur/Merlin series never appealed to me so maybe I just wrote her off completely.

I recently read Madam, Will You Talk? and I absolutely adored it. As soon as Charity and Richard met, I knew it was going to be a great book.

I’ve found, so far, that MS heroines are not the fainting doormats that some of the gothic heroines are. They may not be super girl, but they are smart and capable and deal with whatever mess they find themselves in.  I deplore insta-love (or usually more aptly insta-lust) in most books but for some reason in the gothic/romantic suspense genres I just let it go and I can deal with it pretty well. I kind of just know it’s supposed to be there and I can suspend my disbelief and just pretend that life will be good for them even if they get married after they’ve known each other for 13 days (I’m looking at you, Charity and Richard).

I also love the fact that they are dated and the slang and manners and attitudes towards a lot of things are different. It doesn’t bother me. I expect it to be different from now. That’s one of the reasons I’m reading the book in the first place. It may not be right and I may not agree with it, but that doesn’t detract from the story.

Anyway, I’ve amassed a collection of her books and I’m looking forward to whichever one I decide to read next.

So far my favorites have been: Madam, Will You Talk?, Airs Above the Ground, and Nine Coaches Waiting.

A Day Late...

I tend to feel a day late and a dollar short a lot. I’m always behind on something. Ha ha… although ask me if I truly care. My tv watching these days is entirely streaming so I am always seasons behind or find out about a show I like when it’s over. I can have a celebrity crush and just know that they’ve already moved on and don’t look like that anymore, or are years older. Recently I heard one of those 80’s ballads that were so popular back then and I had never heard it before. Evidently it’s pretty famous. I had no idea. Sometimes I wonder how I really could have missed it but whatever.

I do try to keep up on current events to an extent, but other than that I’ve recently tried to limit my social media. I’ve decided I’m happier when I don’t get on Facebook very often and I still haven’t figured out the point of Twitter. Some of the people that pop up in the news, I don’t even know how they got famous and I really don’t care.

I went to visit a lady in my ward the other day. She had just celebrated a birthday and is 93. I didn’t know much about her but it sounds like she has done some fun things in her life with traveling and her kids and grandkids. And the things she’s experienced! She told us she looks back on her life and it’s been a good one and she’s very happy even if she’s not going as fast as she used to. I think she’s amazing and how wonderful it is to be getting to the end of your life and look back on it and see how good it was. Truly, the things that are important are not things. I was thinking that’s how I want to feel when I come to the end of my life.

I just celebrated my own birthday and realized (again!) that I am truly blessed. I’ve had a great time with “birthday shopping month” and I’ve spent time with friends and family and on my birthday even had friends and family show up at my door to bring me treats or sing to me.

Life is good even with the problems and even if I can’t keep up with everything. I know what’s important so I’ll just concentrate on that.

Winter Blues

It's been a bit of a blah week. The inversion has kicked in so the air quality is bad and I haven't seen blue sky or sunshine for days. That's winter in Utah for you.


I tackled a filing project at work and have gotten quite a bit done. Usually I'm just dealing with HR problems and don't see a lot to show for it. This week I can see a real change in my office. It's kind of nice.


In other news, it's birthday shopping month. :) I've pretty much spent too much money on myself on shoes, clothes, perfume, a bracelet, piano music, and makeup. Notice there are NO books on that list! I already spent my book allowance for the quarter. And yes, I realize the quarter is not even halfway over.


Oddly enough, my book reading has been sporadic lately. I have bookmarks in at least 5 books right now and none of them are wowing me enough to dig in and just read. Instead I've been watching Jane Austen movies. Can't go wrong with a little Anne and Captain Wentworth or the Dashwood sisters.

Foggy Morning and a Valentine

I love the concept of fog. I love it when I’m inside looking out at it. It’s that whole gothic, sprawling mansion, coastal cliffs, girl in danger thing. Yeah, I probably read too many books.  I don’t like driving in it and the tricks it plays on your vision.

Today’s commute to work was one of the most stressful I’ve had in a while. I’d rather drive with snow on the roads; at least I can see. We had a stretch of heavy fog all the way from my house to work. Usually, it’s just patchy and lets up so you can see and your eyes go back to normal. This was 30 minutes of heavy fog. I made it off the freeway to the intersection where I turn onto the highway where work is and I just sat there for a bit. I couldn’t see more than a few feet in front of me and I had to make a left turn onto the highway. I just prayed and looked as hard as I could, and pulled out into the road. Not a fun morning.

I had to go to our relief society activity last night. Ha ha… I say had to like it’s killing me. I’ll be the first to admit that I don’t like RS activities in general. I made the decision when I became the RS president that we were only going to have them every other month, so 6 a year. I go to them because I want to support my counselor in charge of the activities. She does a great job with her committee. This one was just a kind of getting to know you night and we played a little game with those valentine candy hearts. Then we did another game where we wrote down something nice about everybody in the room on strips of paper and then everybody had a number and a valentine’s bag and put the paper in the corresponding bag. So I had 20 people say something nice about me and I got to take the bag home and read them.

I should know by now that I need an attitude adjustment. I seem to never learn. It was just a really nice evening and I got to talk to a few people that I don’t normally have a lot of chance to talk to. I think the sisters that came had a good time and hopefully they enjoyed reading all the nice things that were said about them. I know I did. Life is good and I am truly blessed, in spite of a crummy week and a foggy morning.

Star Wars

I’m not going to lie; it’s been a pretty bad week. Between not feeling that great and dealing with a few issues at work, I’ve kind of had it and I’m glad the week is almost over.

Last night after work I went home and hurried and did everything that needed to be done and then I went to the movies. I finally saw Star Wars: The Force Awakens. It hasn’t been high on my priority list but I’ve wanted to watch some sci-fi movies ever since I finished reading Illuminae a few weeks ago.

I’ve got to say I liked, but didn’t love it. I swear I’ve seen it before. It’s almost the same movie as the original Star Wars. I guess that’s why fans love it. I loved Rey, but putting in a female character like that almost has to be done nowadays. It’s like the anti-Bella Swan. I loved seeing Han Solo, Chewy, and the Millennium Falcon again. And General Hux was a great bad guy because he was scarily dedicated to his cause. The rest was good but nothing I’m really excited about.

It was a fun movie, and exactly what I needed last night, but I think I’d rather go re-watch Avatar. Now there’s a movie that I unapologetically love. :)