Christmas blog

Well, here we are. Another year has come up and smacked us in the face.

I guess I will recap the last few months to get everyone up to date:

(Picture)

Elaine, Skip, Chris, Michele, Nia, Jesse, Andrew, Amy, Melissa & Tanner

In October we loaded up in the Cherokee 6 with Kara, Nate and Michelle and flew over to Seattle to attend Isabella Bigelow's blessing. It was a near perfect trip-good weather, etc.- and Darrel did a great job with the blessing. On Saturday we drove up the canyon aways and hiked up to Big 4 ice caves. Really cool. There is this big glacier back up against a huge rock wall. In the summer the bottom melts and forms a cave and the warm wind blowing up the canyon makes it bigger. It's a huge hole-20 feet high-that you could walk into, except for the fact that it has been known to collapse and crush people now and then. We stayed out.

Darrel and Latassa and the girls came here for Thanksgiving. John came up from Provo. Nate and Michele and Kara and Brandon attended also, along with John's old buddy Cory and his wife Melanie, and their baby, Bella. Elaine deligated all of the supporting dishes out to the kids and preceded to create a masterpiece of a turkey. We ate till we passed out.

Today we got back from spending the weekend with Jesse and Michele up in Moscow. We had Christmas with all the Cederquist kids here in Idaho. Amy and Melissa came down from Bonners. Carla, Jimmy, Shania, Chris and Adrianna came down from Post Falls. And of course, Keri and her guy CJ from right there in Moscow. We had just a fine time. Andrew and Tanner were a little on the sick side (croup, it turns out) but they soldiered on. I'm sure having Puck there helped keep their minds off things. We played Whacky 6 until the casualty count got out of hand and we had to quit. We enjoyed an amazing display of nativity sets at the Stake Center in Moscow. There must have been 500 nativities on display. They had one room set up for children with child friendly nativities and activities. It was very cozy with a fireplace, piano, puppet stage, and a lot of ambiance. Another room was set up as a "Live Nativity" with the manger scene and costumes. A photographer was on hand to snap a picture of each family group. Jesse was on duty, but we twisted his arm a little and he joined us for a photo session. The little boys were adorable little lambs.

We are so very thankful for each one of our children and grandchildren. Each one is so dear to us. Skip is now the Family History Consultant and is teaching the class in our ward. We are finally making some progress finding some of Skip's family. We are planning to go to a Family Reunion in Michigan at his sister's house this summer. Skip has contacted some of his cousins for family history information and has received some great information already.

Here's hoping everyone has a Merry Very Christmas and a Preposterous New Year

Hiya, Watha

It's been so long since I posted a blog I forgot how to log on. Had to reset my password. What a hassle.
Last weekend we finally got to ride the Hiawatha Trail. Google it to see details and what/where. Needles to say, a great time was had by all. Amy, Keri, Charlie, Melissa and Michele all came with, along with Jimmy, Jesse and the boys, and Adrianna. Ten of us in all. It was overcast and cool, but we never actually got rained on. Took about three hours to ride down, what with stopping to read all the markers, eat snacks, etc. Fantastic scenery, high scairy trestles and long scairier tunnels. They ain't kiddin' when they say bring a light. Those tunnels are blacker than the inside of a cow. And cold. And damp. The longest was 1.7 miles, which we had to go through twice. It was our high adventure for the year.
The first picture is Andrew and Tanner at the end of the ride. They'd had enough.
How about those legs, huh? Hey, I'm pale and I'm proud.

Graduation Squared

Last Saturday Elaine and the rest of us observed (from very good seats) the graduation from BSU of not one but two of her kids. Nate and Kara walked the walk, he with honors and she for the second time. It was a great event. Tom flew out from Cincinnati on Thursday and Latassa got here on Friday. John came up from Provo also, with his dad. Elaine got to see all here kids together and get some nice pictures. So where are they, you might ask. Floating around somewhere on a CD, I guess. I thought they were on my laptop hard drive but, evidently, not.
I also got the chance, finally, to fly my RC airplane. I figured out that it had been 35 years since last I'd thumbed the stick of a transmitter to fly an airplane. I was a little wired about doing it, hoping I wouldn't crash, but still fully expecting to auger. I even brought a crash bucket with me, to bring all the pieces home. No one was more surprised than me, when I managed to pull it off; not once, but twice! It was a perfect day, on a perfect field (a sod farm-RC heaven). I have to thank Elaine again for giving me such a great Christmas present. It was just what I wanted.
I'm in Montgomery, Alabama this week. I hope to get down to see Kevin, Amy and Chloe on Thursday. Looking forward to that, and hearing about Kevin's experiences finally getting to fly a whoptychopter. I will return and report.

Junior Missing

Time to catch up on the blog. This will be a brief report on the weekend at Bonners Ferry. We flew up on Saturday to attend the Junior Miss pagant. Amy J was one of the contestants, and a wonderful one she was too. The whole event was very well done, in my opinion. The level of preperation was evident in the musical numbers and I now fully appreciate the amount of time and effort the girls put in getting ready for that thing. I was enormously proud watching my littlest girl up there in the bright lights, comporting herself with grace and style.

We had a great time seeing all the kids and grandkids. And they were all there. Tanner is now the same size as Andrew, and the way he is growing he will soon be bigger than me. Kevin has all the pictures of the pagent and the get together. he is going to put them on a CD for distribution.

I am in Memphis this week. Here is me with the Peabody ducks. They are still here. Just like in the book.

The Birthday Extravaganza

The weekend of birthdays is finally over. And what a time it was.
The festivities started last Tuesday, when Kevin, Amy, Chloe and Keri arrived from Alabama. We got a chance to see that the little cutie pie has gotten even cuter, if that is possible. She got cuddled and smooched mercilessly by a platoon of grandparents and aunties. And speaking of grandparents, Carl and Joyce (Elaine's parents) arrived on Wednesday to help out with the cuddling and smooching.
On Thursday, Keri, Carl and I helped decorate the cultural hall for the Prom. Then, on Friday, I took the day off so we could spend some time with everyone, and get some yard projects finished up. We all went to the Prom that night, along with Kevin and Amy. Everybody danced. Some more than once. It was a great way to celebrate a birthday (mine). A good time, as they say, was had by all.
Saturday was planned as a relaxing day with no major projects, other than a barbecue in the evening. Elaine even let Kevin and I go to the airport. We had a kitchen pass until 5:00. So about three, Kev gets a text from Amy saying she needs him back at the house.
We get back to the house and I observe there are quite a few cars parked along the side curb. Funny. Must be a party somewhere. Well, guess where.
I walked in and there are about forty people standing in the family room singing and taking my picture. Now, I can count the number of surprise birthday parties I have had on one finger, but still, this had to be the best one anybody could ever have. It was a luau. Tiki torches, grass skirts, lai's, the whole nine yards. Elaine, Keri and Amy went all out. Great food and great company. My sister Carolyn came all the way out from Michigan to attend. Plus several of the couples from our empty nesters FHE group, and several of the couples from the singles group we get together with occasionally. And all our kids that are around locally. I am amazed that my wife would put together such a party for me and have it on HER BIRTHDAY! It's just one more confirmation that I married up-way up.
Check the next post for party pictures.

"Ha! Har yall dune?"

This post comes to you from a hotel room in Manchester, Tennessee. It's about an hour south of Nashville. I have a job here that started on Thursday. I was supposed to finish on Saturday and go home but I had some parts problems that can't be resolved until I get a FedEx delivery tomorrow. So I got to spend the weekend here.
It hasn't been too bad, except for the tornado. One touched down north of here and took out some houses, but all we got was horrific rain and wind. I was working in the hangar. The chief pilot came over from their little house next door and allowed as how they were evacuating the base, and suggested I do the same. I concurred. I got in my car and drove to Wal-Mart, which is one of the preferred places of refuge. By the time I got there the worst was over, so I went and had dinner instead.
We are enjoying reading the blogs some of you are posting. As for the rest of y'all, get on the blog wagon! We can't always get a hold of you on the phone to catch up on what you are doing, and besides, this is free. Our computer is standing by.

The News Drought Is Over

Well, it was quiet here until this morning. Yesterday was a typical Saturday for us: workout at the gym, work in the yard, dance in the evening. When we got home Elaine said her knee was bothering her, but she took a hot soak in the tub and went to bed. About 3:30 Puck started whining to go out. She got up to let him out but when she got to the kitchen her knee was really paining her. Now, we have learned that sometimes when Elaine experiences severe pain she gets sick and light headed. She felt that coming on so she sat down and went to put her head between her knees. The next thing she knew she was laying flat on the floor and Puck was licking her face. She was moaning and hollering loud enough to wake me up. I rushed in to the kitchen and found her laying there holding her head and saying her knee hurt something terrible.
I said "Honey, I can't see anything wrong with your knee but you have a HUGH cut over your right eye!"
She went "What?" and then kind of passed out.
In a few seconds she came back around and I told her,"I'm calling 911". She started to argue with me about that, but I had visions of Natasha Richardson in my head (she died, you know), so I called them. They got here right quick (it's nice to live a block from the fire station), took her vitals, noted with alarm her low BP and heart rate (which we assured them is quite normal for her), immobilized her head and neck, and packed her off to the ER, with me in hot pursuit.
The ER staff all tsk-tsked about her BP and slow pulse, which we again explained, and decided to do a CT scan, just in case. When that came back clear, the doc stitched up her head and we came home.
The knee is fine.
So now I guess we must acknowledge that we ARE getting all stove up and give out. At least a little. Hate to, though. We are having so much fun.
Elaine wanted to mention that we made a rubarb pie today and had Kara, Nate and Michelle over for dinner. The show, after all, must go on.

The News Drought Continues

It was a very quiet week here in Meridian, our home town. Work, sleep, repeat. We have had a few mildly warm days, just enough to give us spring fever. So today it is raining/snowing. Makes a body want to burrow back under the covers.
Elaine has been busy finishing an old quilt for one of her friends. It is the second one she's done. The first was a quilt her mother had started serveral years ago and never finished. It is quite a challenge because the makers of these tops didn't have today's modern labor saving gadgets for making the piece cutting faster and, as a side benefit, more accurate. They were done pretty much by eye. As a result they are, quite often, neither flat nor square. Makes quilting and binding a lot more difficult. I think she enjoys the challenge. It is probably similar to the charge I get from breathing new life into an old broken down piece of equipment. One of life's simple pleasures.
The next ward activity we have scheduled is Prom. The theme is "A Night To Remember". Now, doesn't that take you back? People are starting to get fired up about it. We are encouraging everyone to dress prom appropriate, for whatever era they came from. I can't wait to see what the come up with. The Bishop has Rock Band on his kid's X-Box so he wants to have a competition to see who's best. We are finding that there are quite a few who are willing to take up the challenge. Picture, if you will, a couple of fifty-something High Priests getting down to Led Zepplin. It will truly be a Night To Remember. Or try to forget.

Play Day

I had an install down in Laughlin, Nevada this last week. Got to enjoy a little sunny 70 degree weather and watch all the sunbirds gamble away their children's inheritance. I felt like a kid there; the only non-grey people were the hotel and casino staff. Not like Vegas. I spent one night there. It was jumping, like always. Not too much evidence of a recession on the Strip. Lots of people and lots of traffic.
Saturday dawned clear and cold here in the valley so we jumped at the chance to go cross country skiing. There was some pretty deep snow up above Idaho City and not much of a trail. The sun shining on the snow made it really sticky in spots. After slugging through it for a couple hours we'd had enough so we eased back down to the car and grabbed some lunch. We had just enough time after we got back home to take a shower and a quick nap, and then it was time to go dancing. Mambo this time. Needless to say, by nine-thirty we were pretty much thrashed. Life in the fast lane. We feel compelled to get as much of this kind of stuff done before we get all stove up and give out.

Dog Reasoning

Puck and I were home by ourselves the other night watching "Dog Whisperer" and there was a clip of a Golden Retriever catching a thrown tennis ball. We had been playing a rousing came of "catch Snoopy" with one of his favorite stuffed toys. When he saw the clip he promptly dropped Snoopy and went right over to the laundry room and stared at his tennis ball, which was in the throwing stick stuck up on the coat rack, and started whining. So not only is he aware of what is on the TV screen, but he makes the connection between the image and what goes on in his life. Cool, huh? We're going to try to get him into some AP classes next semester.
Elaine has been working 13 hour shifts the last three days. St Lukes is seriously understaffed and some people think that just because they are critically ill and can't breathe they have to go to the hospital. Pretty inconsiderate, if you ask me.
Kevin goes to SEER school tomorrow. That's where they drop 'em in the swamp and they have to survive on snakes and bugs for a couple of weeks, then they are "captured" and they spend a week as a POW. They are not allowed to talk about the experience, but most of them loose a bunch of weight. Check out their blog for a picture of an Alabama snow storm.
We heard last week that Darrel and Latassa are having another girl. When they told Emma, she folded her arms and declared that SHE wanted a baby bruver.

This is my first posting since my "hunny" unlocked the secret of the Blogs. Spring is poking her nose out through the clouds occasionally and making me long to get out the seeds for planting and dig in the dirt. Skip and I pruned the fruit trees Saturday. The clipping isn't so bad, but picking up all the sticks and trying to figure out what to do with all the debris is the biggy. We have come to the conclusion that the apple trees are far more work than they are worth for the amount of produce they bring, so we have decided to make one last pruning to the ground and plant a shade tree instead. With the work and the cost of spraying all summer, we figure we can buy a bushel of apples that are "worm free" and be money ahead.

Recipe of the day:

(this is really easy and good)

SOUTHWESTERN CHICKEN

2 cans (15 oz.) whole-kernal corn, drained

1 can (15 oz.) black beans, rinsed and drained

1 jar (16 oz.) chuncky salsa, divided

6 (I used 4 and cut them in 1/2) boneless skinless chicken breast halves

1 c. shredded cheddar cheese

In 5 Qt. slow cooker, combine corn, black beans, and 1/2 cup salsa. Top with chicken; pour remaining salsa over chicken. Cover and cook on high 3-4 hrs. or on low 7-8 hrs. or until meat juices un clear. Sprinkle with cheese, cover until cheese is melted, about 5 min. (Yield: 6 servings.)

Things I am thankful for today: butternut squash... so yummy. Just finished freezing the last of it from my garden last year.

Elaine

Ya, but it'a a damp cold.

It is a brisk 14 degrees here, high atop the Radisson Hotel in beautiful downtown Fargo. This place is flat. The highest thing between here and the Canadian border is a barb wire fence, and the way the wind was blowing this morning I think the top two strands are down. I am working on a helicopter that is inside a huge storage hangar. It has about ten airplanes in it. It is heated, but every time the temperature gets barely up to comfortable, the line guys have to open the door and move an airplane in or out. Like a dope I left all my long johns safely in my dresser drawer at home, so I spent a fruitless hour and a half today scouring the stores here in Fargo for a pair of thermal bottoms. Now, you would think in a town this size somebody would have a stock of long johns left. I mean, it's still WINTER here. But no. If I wanted a highwhyan floweredy shirt or a pair of shower shoes, they've got plenty of those. The only nice thing was driving the rental car. It is a new Mercury something or other and it has heated seats. Strange and wonderful. It's exactly like backing up to the wood stove, without having to stand up. I think I'll go drive around a little before bed.

Weakly blogcast

It was a quiet week in Meridian, our hometown. We both put in some overtime this week. Probably just as well, since the weather is too crappy to do much outside. We observed Valentine's Day saturday as Elaine works next weekend. So we started out in the morning by going to the temple. Then we had lunch at the Cheesecake Factory (great place!) and did a little shopping. After that we both got massages. On the way home we test drove a Lexus just for fun. That evening we went to the monthly ballroom dance and learned the Bolero (Sloooooow, quick, quick, sloooooow...)and then we danced until our feet gave out. It was a very nice day.
I talked to Carla and got updated on her birthday. She said she had 14 of her friends to her party. The day we talked she was teaching Adrianna and Shania how to shave their legs. I guess that is a rite of passage similar to teaching your son how to shoot.
Today Nate and Michelle, Kara and Branden, and Aislyn came over for roast beast and mashers. It was a wonderful meal, the kind that grandma used to try to make. Once again I am reminded that I am eating way above my station.
So, that's about it from this end of the empire. I enjoy your comments and we also get a kick out of the other blogs that some of you are doing. And the pictures are great (check out "dirty Chloe" on Kevin and Amy's).
Stay well and keep in touch.

Second First Entry

So Michele and Elaine have goaded me into attempting a blog again. I guess it's about time. It's only been eight months.

We flew down to Ft. Rucker last weekend for Chloe's blessing. Had much fun. She is without a doubt the prettiest baby I have seen recently. Of course, I was rather good looking at that age, but that was years ago. We had a fine time going to the Army Aviation Museum and playing Whacky 6. Kevin and Amy are making great daddy and mommy already, although last weekend they kept getting elbowed out of the way by everyone else.

Elaine is hunkered down in quilting mode, except when I can pry her loose to go dancing. What with here broken arm and my gallbladder deal, plus work and other things, we hadn't been out dancing for about six months. So when we got the chance a couple of weeks ago, we took it. Got in about five hours in one Saturday.

I have been waiting for the weather to warm up so I can fly the cool R/C airplane my wonderful wife got me for Christmas. It's been sitting here on the counter for a month, ready to go. I'm kinda wired up about flying it the first time. It has been about twenty years since I last had my thumbs on a transmitter. After the first crash the stress level will be lowered somewhat.

In kid news: not much change from the Christmas letter. Carla's birthday was friday but I haven't gotten a hold of here yet to see how it went. John blew out his knee again. We are hoping it is not too serious. Kevin is starting his next class tomorrow. He is glad to be doing something towards training instead of sitting home all day. Of course, I think Chloe and Amy make that a little easier to take. Kara has moved into here new apartment. We haven't gotten to see it yet but it sounds pretty nice. Amy J. is getting ready for Junior Miss, which is April 18th. She is pretty excited. Michele and Jesse are working away on their scrapping mail order business. It is moving right along, with lots of sales an lots of new things coming out.
We will try to get updates on the rest of the gang for the next entry. I will now attempt to post this without losing it.