No Complaints

I take back all the complaining from the previous post. Apparentely the people of China (earthquake), Missouri (tornados) and Chile (volcanic erruption) had a worse mother's day than I did. Kinda puts it all in perspective doesn't it?

I Feel Strongly Both Ways

There is a fine line between reporting the facts and sounding like a bitter old woman. So I am starting with the things I truly love about Mother’s Day, followed by a list of the things I hate. I do love more things about it. Here’s to ambivalence.

Things I Loved About Mother’s Day:

1. I love being a Mom. It is the best job a woman could have and I would never trade it for anything in the world.

2. The adorable Primary Children. Singing songs in Sacrament Meeting about Mother’s while waving hand-made crepe paper flowers is the best! I miss those little gifts from Primary.

3. Sarah making a fabulous dinner of whatever I wanted, Rachel making cake, and Rob cleaning up after it all.

4. Bob bought me shirts at Cabella’s. They don’t fit. He over estimated how much weight I have lost, plus women’s sizings are so random so it is a bit of a crap shoot to buy clothes for women. In men’s sizes a 40" waist is 40"; in women’s clothes a L can range anywhere from a M to a XL, not to mention what 2, 4, 6, etc. are really from one brand to another. But that’s OK. I can return them and get something else. It is the thought that counts.

5. Sarah brought me flowers – I love day lilies. Kathleen gave me the necklace she bought for herself. It is adorable; I think she should keep it.

6. The girls all came to church with me. It was so nice to sit in Sacrament meeting with almost all my children. I really missed Robbie.

Things I Hate about Mother’s Day:

1. I miss my own mother terribly. I always felt that Mother’s day was for her, not me. Mom died when I still had really little kids and one on the way. Now, there is no one to ask about all those menopause questions I have and I ask my doctor about and he says "well, what was your mother’s experience" and I say, "I don’t know because she’s dead!!"

2. Aunt Stella died on Mother’s day 1991, ruining it forever (if it ever really was OK). Stella never married so was always really sad on Mother’s Day. We always had to make a big fuss over her so her sadness wouldn’t take over. Her sister, my grandmother (who died much too young also – probably one of the reasons my Mom hated MD), always felt that if you can’t be nice to me the other 364 days a year, don’t go thinking a big fuss one day will make up for it. Anyway, in her 101st year, Aunt Stella passed away. I always think about that every MD.

3. I don’t enjoy sitting in Sacrament listening to men tell stories of their beloved sainted mothers – even if I knew the women and they were truly saints. If you want me to have a great day, let me go home an hour early – or better yet, start an hour later. An extra hour of sleep would be one of the greatest MD presents a woman could get. However, Sacrament meeting did have a little comic relief when Bob forgot to announce the choir number and Elder Dave Stanley called out, "Bob, did you want the choir to sing?" Bob was just testing them to see if they were paying attention. And besides he is the new guy.

4. I had to clean up dog pee!! But how is that different than any other day. I hate that dog.

5. The morning after MD. I hate my dishwasher. It was really full and we rinse the dishes pretty well, and as usual while I wait for Kathleen to come down for school, I empty it. About 1/3 of the dishes were not really clean. Earlier this morning, Bob called after he left for tennis – I thought "Holy Crap!! Who is calling at this ungodly hour of 6 am!!!" It is never good news. Apparently, the wind knocked over the garbage can and it appeared as though some random animal dragged bags out of the can and spread it all over the parking strip. Bob told me to get Rob up to do it, but I can’t seem to do that. I’d rather do it myself and have something to bitch about all day long than make my kids do something. I deserve all my troubles. Kathleen did get to school on time today though.

Well, only 364 days until I have to do this again. There is my birthday on the 25th. Being 53 is always something to celebrate.

I'm Much Too Young for This

I am the mother of another college graduate.

Robbie graduated last week from the University of Utah with not one, but TWO degrees -- Linguistics and Middle East Studies:Arabic!! I know he thinks I was not paying attention when he told me that he had a double major, but in my defense, I didn't really know what he was talking about. I thought he meant the Arabic/Linguistic thing was one degree with an emphasis in something like Middle East Studies. Was I ever surprised when I saw his name in the program twice and it wasn't a typo!! Anyway, it was a great day. It almost slipped past us, which would have suited Rob fine. He really didn't want to walk, but as a mother I get very few paychecks for doing a really spectacular (or even a really crappy) job and watching my children graduate from college is one of those paychecks that I intend to cash!!


Rob was so low key about it, I didn't make him order graduation announcements or anything. When Rachel was getting ready for graduation, she was in France and I had to do a lot to get her stuff done and when Sarah was graduating, we sold her condo and had to move all her stuff to SLC, so there was a lot going on to remind me of graduation. I'm just glad we didn't miss it all though it seems that a lot of people did. The U had over 7000 graduates and I am sure that only about 3500 participated. The commencement speaker was Mario Cappechi (sp??), Nobel Laureate in Medicine and Genetics for 2007. Most people never remember who their commencement speaker was -- I think we will always remember this one.

If you look really close, you can see Robbie right in the middle of these shots


I'm very proud of my son!! What a great boy!!


3 Down, 1 to go. Will post again in 5 years!!

Help, please

I have just finished my books and am looking for more to read. I loved The Thirteenth Tale (for the second time). It is a book for people who love to read. I read Buckingham Palace Gardens (by Anne Perry) about a murder in Buckingham Palace, solved by Thomas Pitt and his spunky housekeeper, Gracy. I love Anne Perry's period novels. They are quite good. I also finished Pillars of the Earth, and while it is really good, it is really graphic. I think that everybody in middle ages was just awful. Too much pillaging and raping of peasants, too much consensual sex in most graphic and vulgar terms. All this about building a cathedral. Still, it was compelling.

So here I am trying to figure out what to read next. I would love suggestions from anyone about what I should check out. I am always a little leery of contempory fiction because it is so often salacious, simply for shock value. I was going to read Memory Keeper's Daughter until I saw that it was made into a Lifetime Movie of the Week. That is when I was sure I wouldn't like it. Other than that, I'm not real picky. It just has to be good. I've read the new Richard Patterson (7th Heaven -- good) and the new Patricia Cornwell (Book of the Dead -- not good).

Please, help me out. Make suggestions.

Good Morning, NYC

I’m not sure what it is about my memory, but I can’t seem to remember that the red eye to JFK is not the best way to start out a trip. The last time I flew overnight to New York it was for a whirlwind 24 hour visit to the Big Apple. I flew with Sarah and Emily for just a day. We went to the Manhattan Temple at 6:00 am (because it is the only thing open that early). Afterwards, we found a small deli/café and changed out of our dresses in the bathroom. I left my skirt in the trash, because I didn’t really like it and didn’t want to carry it all day. We then went to Canal street and bought purses, saw Ground Zero, wandered through the shops on 5th Avenue and finally dragged ourselves to Rockefeller Center where we decided that we would rather sit in the airport for 4 hours than try to make ourselves do anything else. At that point, I swore I would never do such a crazy thing again. Well, I haven’t, but I did take another red eye to JFK.

On Thursday April 17th (OK, just barely Thursday; it was 12:30 am) Sarah, Stacy, Kathleen and I flew to JFK. I was sure that I would be able to sleep since the plane wasn’t crowded and I had the window seat. That wasn’t going to happen. Kathleen managed to curl up with her head in my lap and sleep most of the way. I was left with trying to read in the dark and watch the map and flight info switch back and forth from English to Espanol. When you are watching, it seems that 5 hours is a really long time. I now know how to read about altitude, ground speed, tale wind, and air temperature in Spanish. El fin – we are at the end of the flight.

Since we are basically cheapskates, we took the train/subway into the city. While I thought I was booking us into the Time Square Courtyard by Marriot, which is a pretty swanky hotel, I was actually getting us into the 5th Avenue Courtyard, which was OK. We got off the subway too soon and dragged our suitcases 13 blocks down 5th Avenue to 40th Street. We later discovered that Grand Central Station was only a couple of blocks away. Anyway, we checked into the hotel, but could not get into a room until 2 pm. So being the righteous young women (and old) that we are, we went to the Temple and did baptisms for the dead. The Manhattan Temple is a marvel. It must be the cleanest, most serene, blessed place in the entire city. You leave all the hustle and bustle and noise and troubles at the door. It was great to be there.

Afterwards, we still had time to kill so we went to the Natural History Museum and went to a star show. I don’t remember what it was about because we all fell asleep. Back to the hotel, take a nap, get a shower and head out for Mary Poppins. Great stuff.

This was a fast trip – in the remaining 3 days we did the Empire State Building, the Guggenheim, the Metropolitan Museum of Art, Moma, Chinatown, Ground Zero, 5th Avenue shopping, stake conference, and a fabulous Harbor Tour at night. We walked 100 miles and got caught up in the circus that was the visit of El Grande Papa (the Holy Father Benedict XVI not la grande papa - the big potato). We discovered Century 21, a department store that is like Big Lots for designer goods. Lots of fun. Kathleen had to see designer stores so she could figure out how to make the clothes at a lower cost. Really, a $6,000 dress with matching shoes for $1,950!!

Finally, Sunday arrived and we flew home on the longest flight I seem to remember. It is probably because we started out so tired and just never stopped.

I love NY!! But, there’s no place like home, there’s no place like home, there’s no place like home. Oh, and like before, I left some personal items behind in the trash -- my black dress shoes. They have holes in them. Maybe I should have bought those $1,900 ones.

P.S. This is strumpet Hello Kitty most appropriately found in Times Square (at the Sanrio shop)

Watch This Movie!!

My picture disappeared, but it is for the movie -- On clear day!!

This movie is so great. It is very funny, like only the Brits can be, but also very tender and poignant. I wonder if all Brits are as funny as these guys. Actually, they are supposed to be Scots. The main guy gets "made redundant" as loses his job at the shipyard in Glasgow. To over come his depression, he decides to swim the English Channel. It also helps him get over the loss of his son in a drowning accident many years before and reconcile with the son he still has. I laughed myself silly, and then cried and then went back and watched it all again. If you watch any BBC or PBS dramas, you'll recognize some of these actors and there is the Hobbit, Pippin.

Our New Neighbor

This past weekend, we were up in HV for just overnight and a day so we could listen to General Conference without any distractions. I always look forward to this time. When I am in SLC, there is always yard work, laundry, stuff like that to keep me away from the wonderful messages. I always tell myself I'll get back to them on the dvr, but I never do. Anyway, great conference, wonderful spirit, President Monson has stepped up so beautifully. He even sounds different, more prophetly.

Anyway, the really exciting thing is that we finally found the culprit for the bird doodoo on the garbage can and all the pellets full of mouse bones. And here he is (actually, this is from Google images, because the picture Bob took is too dark to see and his camera is in his office and he has clients in there). He is a great horned owl, growing to the huge size of 18" tall with a

wing span of 4 feet. His name is Stanton

Now the owl pellets are even more interesting. Owls don't seem to digest the bones of their prey (mice, small rodents, cats, skunks, and an occaisional bat). They just seem to collect them in their gut and then urp them up in a nice little ball of feathers and bones and stuff that I don't know what it is and am not going to ask. (for a picture of them, go to www.owlpellets.com/uploads/images/lb.jpg) You know, there are sites where you can buy them for $5.00+. Maybe I should collect them and make a small fortune. We seem to have an unending supply.

I wish he would move so my garbage can is not such a mess. I guess I'll have to move the can.

Welcome to the neighborhood, Stanton.