One Woman's life in T-Shirts

I have finally finished my t-shirt tribute to my sister, Fran. All of Fran's life seems to be memoralized by the t-shirts she wore and kept (actually, I think she never threw one away.) Before she died, she asked me to make a quilt out of the shirts she thought were most important -- sort of a fabric scrapbook. Family history and journaling were very important to her. Of course, I said yes, and then she died. Her wonderful Relief Society president cut out all of the shirt designs and ironed on interfacing. All I had to do was to put them together. Well of course I was going to do it by David's 18th birthday, then his high school graduation, and then his 19th birthday. Those all came and went. But I did get it done in time for him to sleep under it for a few days before he leaves on his mission.

This quilt shows the many sides of Fran, personally and professionally.

Theater and books -- the very essense of her life, after her family and the gospel.

Her travels.

The shows she worked over and over again.

My Personal Favorite:

Passport

It has been a long long long time since I blogged. There is really nothing interesting going on in my life right now. We went to Sun Valley - the whole family -- but Bob took all the pictures and I never got any of them downloaded. Kathleen and I just got back from Girls Camp -- it wasn't really girl's camp -- it was an overnighter in Huntsville. Our stake did a handcart trek and thought the maybe that could count as camp. So, I got to sleep in a bed and use flush toilets and have my Diet coke. That is my idea of camping.


The really exciting part of my summer was that I discovered that my passport had expired!! It was a good thing that I didn't need to go to any foreign countries in a hurray. I sent in the application form, having heard that it takes 12 weeks to get a new passport!! What if a fabulous trip came up in the meantime. Well, three weeks later, this came in the mail:

It doesn't look great, but it looks a whole lot better than this one!!

I think that if you don't look really awful, they make you take another picture. Thankfully, I only had to take one picture.

Is anyone up for a fabulous trip?

Memory

I got this off Rachel's blog. It is kind of fun. As a comment on my blog, leave one memory that you and I had together. It doesn't matter if you knew me a little or a lot, anything you remember! Next, re-post these instructions on your blog and see how many people leave a memory about you.It's actually pretty cool (and funny) to see the responses. If you leave a memory about me, I'll assume you're playing the game and I'll come to your blog and leave one about you. :)

I'll post again in a couple of days.

I've been tagged again!

I must be so Popular:

1. What was I doing 10 years ago? Summer of 1998 -- vacationing with family in Washington DC, Gettysburg, Oswego. We were all stuffed into a sedan, because our rental company had run out of vans. Rachel finally got on the phone and called several car places (mind you, she was 16) and found us a van. Her brain may have been swelling, but she wasn't losing any brain cells. Sarah had just had several surgeries for her heart/ankle/knee.

2. Five Snacks I love. What snacks don't I love.
a. 100 Calorie Hostess cupcakes
b. Carrots/celery/radishes & hummus
c. toast
d. mini-pretzles
e. Yoplait Cherry Orchard light yogurt

3. Five Things On My To Do List: Who has a to-do list? But if I did, the following would be on it:

a. File taxes before 10/15/08
b. Balance check book for the first time since 4/1/08
c. Weed the flower bed.
d. Get David's quilt finished.
e. Do my genealogy back to Adam/Charlemagne.

4. Things I would do if I were a billionaire: pay off all my debts. Buy a fabulous purse, get a hybrid car, totally remodel my house. do a huge vacation in England, France, Italy & Greece, & Turkey & Egypt and Petra & Australia, and then have money left over to just live on and support worthy causes. I would do all this after I paid my tithing, of course.

5. Five jobs that I have had.
a. Secretary for the air force
b. ironing
c. babysitting
d. teachingt assistant
e. Director of Research for Utah Public Employees Association

6. Five of my bad habits
a. watching tv when I should be sleeping
b. not taking my meds on a regular basis
c. watching tv when I should be working
d. Playing Jewel Quest I, II or Solitaire when I should be sleeping/working
e. starting projects and not finishing them.

7. Four places I have lived
a. Ogden, Utah
b. Salt Lake City, Utah
c. Seatle, Washington
d. Beavercreek Township, Ohio

8. Two People I Want to Get to Know Better -- Anyone & Don't know

9. 6 Random Things about me. 1) love to read; 2) afraid of flying; 3) love long car trips; 4) afraid of heights; 5) have only read the book of Mormon all the way through 2x [not counting the times we read with the kids]; and 6) never learned how to swim beyond the dog paddle.

Nothing to sing about!!

A few months ago, Menopause the Musical was playing in Salt Lake. People I know who saw it said it was hysterical. I'm not so sure what is funny about it. I was lying awake (laying awake?? I forget) one of those nights and all I could think about was how awful I felt and what I was going to post on my blog this last week. I'm not sure anyone really reads it so I am just going to write for myself.

As I lay awake, with the overhead fan, the air conditioning cranked up as high as it can go, the window open, a portable swamp cooler full of ice & water, a glass of icewater, a water bottle frozen solid so by morning I can have some cool water, and a squirt bottle just in case all of those other things don't cool me down. I should freeze the squirt bottle so I can hose myself off with ice water!! I take maximum strength estroven and hope that I can sleep a couple of hours before someone turns on the flame thrower that violently rocks me out of my slumber. If you ever wonder why old women look like dried up old prunes, it is because we are dehydrating from the inside out with our own personal blast furnace.

I am not sure I can live throught menopause. I was looking up symptoms and natural treatments (with Fran's death from breast cancer, I have chosen to avoid the Premarin, hormone replacement therapy route) and found the following quote: Given practical information, medical attention and a positive attitude, most women can expect to experience menopause as a time of change, challenge and new-found personal freedom. More and more women are finding the years of menopause and beyond are the best of their lives. I thought to myself, "What man came up with that idea?" Obviously no one who has ever lived through it. Anyway, this is found at the following website: http://www.jos-health-network.150m.com/menopause.html.

Down at the bottom of this page, after it has listed all of the symptoms, it also lists other medical conditions that have the same symptoms. Among them is Multiple Sclerosis. Lucky me, I got the double whammy.

Anyway, to get me through this terrible, hopefully wonderful, challenging, stage of life, Bob bought me a battery operated fan. He suggested I take it to church. He said no one would notice. I hope he's right. I'm going to be on the front row of church with my fan!

Cake Walk

I have found a new blog that I just love. It is my new favorite. Sorry Jones' and Porters. I still love yours. Every day, I check my email, Zions Bank to see how much money I don't have, log in my WW points (not so good these last few days/weeks), and then I check the blogs of the Jones girls, the Porter house, the less than optimistic Rob, and hopefully check Rachel's blog -- hopeful, because I keep thinking she will put something on it (zilch since Valentine's Day -- Perhaps her pictures from Disneyland will be posted, hint, hint.) Well now, this is where I go -- http://www.bakerella.blogspot.com/. It is so cool. She makes the cutest cakes you have ever seen. I am no baker, but I tried her Simple Sprite Cake and made it my own by turning the cake into cupcakes with pink icing. Here is what came of this experiment:

The cake uses an 8 oz. can of Sprite for the liquid with lots of eggs and oil, so don't expect health food. It is really tasty. I baked the cake for 15 minutes and that was not enough, so I baked for an additional 5. I think they would be more moist if I had only baked for 18 minutes total, but these lovely little pink confectionaries are still disappearing like hotcakes -- or cupcakes.

I found the blog by linking from somebody's link from one of the Jones girls or Amanda Porter. Thanks, friends. PS -- We had a great time tending Baby Dill Porter this week. It was so much fun.

Update

It has been forever since I have posted. Actually not too much has happened but I thought I had better say something (even if it isn't profound) before everyone stops coming to visit the blog.

Things that have happened since my birthday:

1. School's out -- Kathleen is out for a while. She has some summer work to do and has decided not to take dance (except for the adult classes). So she is taking some online classes to get stuff out of the way for next year, coming to the office to help me, and designing clothes (more of the latter and less of the former.)

2. Memorial Day, Father's Day, Rachel's birthday -- I think that these events are the cause of my weight loss downfall. Actually, poor choices are the result of my downfall which really isn't a downfall, I just keep hovering between .4 and 1.4 pounds short of a total of 50 lb weight loss. We eat out way too much and I make poor choices as though I am never going to eat again. Well, next week is Rob's birthday and then the summer celebrations are over until the 4th of July, 24th of July, etc. I love to make special meals for holidays and birthdays -- my inner Martha Stewart -- and Rachel specifically said "no Weight Watcher cake for my birthday"!

3. That's it. My life is so exciting.