I  guess I was about 12 when our ward participated in the Stake Road Show.  We did a farm scene and we all dressed up as vegetables. I was one of the tomatoes and we wore red round costumes with green hats and our faces were painted green. We danced on stage when it was our turn to the tune of the Sugar Plum Fairies. Once all the vegetables had gotten on stage we talked about how we all wanted to be picked (specially chosen) for the veggies of the day. Off stage we heard a tired "Ho Ho Ho", then one of the smallest boys our age came on stage dressed as the Jolly Green Giant. One of the veggies asked, "What's the matter Green Giant?"  He answered, " I've been sick..."  The audience laughed a lot. Then we proceeded on with the show and danced and sang and had our 10 to 15 minutes of fame.  We had a good time performing and I can remember the Pea section singing "Peas, Peas, Peas, Peas, Plump and Tender Peas?" Ah, wish they had Road Shows today, or even Stake Plays, but alas, those are bygone days.  We are lucky if they even have a talent show any more. I guess that is why I am glad we have a talent show at our reunions. It reminds me of when my brothers and sisters would put on a show at family gatherings, and of when I was in shows in my youth. 
Just a walk down memory lane.

The dogs I knew and loved

When I was a very little girl, many, many years ago my family had a border collie named Friskie. She was a great dog. She loved peanut butter sandwiches and made funny faces as she tried to lick the peanut butter from the roof of her mouth. Friskie was a great companion and listened intently as I confided in her all the things a wee one can confide while sitting on the front stoop.  She guarded me as I played in the front yard and stood by me when others would pass by.  I loved her so very much.
I do not know what happened to her. I suppose she went to  doggy heaven, but children were not kept up to breast of things such as that, at least not in my family.

We then had a little black dog with white feet called Boots. Boots was a sweet little pup and I can not honestly say if Boots was a he or a she, but a great friend none-the-less. Boots was so little I could hold 'him' on my lap and frazzle 'his' fur and then comb it back down with my hands. Then one day after Dad went fishing he brought in this huge stray dog that he found down by the river, a boxer. Dad said the dog had fish hooks stuck in his lips and look so hungry. Mother said the dog was so big and did not follow commands. So Dad fed the dog and made arrangements to take him to obedient school, but I think the dog was like me and had trouble learning things.

Duke was so big that we could ride him. My brother would go to the back door and I would get on Duke by the front door. My brother would call Duke to go out the back and then just as we got close, my brother shut the door. Then I would run to the front door and by brother would sit on Duke for the ride back. I would open the front door and call for Duke to go out and off the dog would galumph through the house. We rode from the front door, through the entry way, through the open kitchen door, and to the back alcove. It was a grand ride. At least until Mother would yell at us asking "what on earth are you two doing?" We promptly stopped our shenanigans and answered, "nothing".

Boots was Duke's little pal. Then one day Boots was no more and we only had Duke. He was strictly an outside dog and played in the fenced back yard until the  neighborhood kids started running sticks along the fence and yelling at him. Duke jumped the fence a few times and chased the kids. Then there was no more Duke.

It wasn't until I was married and lived in Middlebury that I got the next dog. It was a puppy and my oldest daughter said "pop-eye" meaning to say puppy.  So Pop-Eye lived with us for a while. The children would play outside on the swing set and Pop-Eye would be their protector, just as Friskie was to me.  Pop-Eye barked and barked one day alerting us to the snake that came into the yard and had bitten the thing in half to protect the children.
I believe Pop-Eye's life ended with us when he ran down the road and got hit by a car.

When we moved to Bristol we had a dog named Half-pint  that was a German Shepard-Collie mix. She had a litter of pups and was such a great watch dog. No one came near the children, or the house for that matter, that wasn't announced by barking, growling, and showing of teeth.

I would have loved to have kept Half-pint but we were moving to a rental house that did not allow pets. So she was given to a woman in a wheel chair that needed a good watch dog.

Once we bought the rental house I got care of a Shitzsu. His "parents" were in the service over-seas. He was my protector and my friend. Puppy Chow followed me everywhere. He slept at my feet on top of the covers. He was even a surrogate mother for an orphaned kitten we inherited from the neighbor lady. Puppy Chow would lick and groom the kitten, and even let the kitten snuggle up with him to sleep. I do not know if that made him more protective and aggressive, but his end of living with us was when my husband came near me to give me a greeting kiss and got bit on the ankle by the dog. The owners could not take him back and hence Puppy Chow was given to another to care for.

Since that time we have had grand-dogs that have come into our lives. One grand-dog, Otis, even stayed with us for a while when his family was transitioning into our area and stayed with us for a bit.

The only puppy now that I have in my home is a little mechanical pup that sleeps all the time in his bed. It is a little Lab pup. If I put batteries in him it looks like he is breathing as his chest rises and falls . No mess, no fuss, but furry and can be held (which one little grand daughter especially likes to do) and brushed.

I won't say I will never have a dog again. It will probably be a little furry lap dog, and I will feed him and love him and take care of him and he will be the best dog ever.

story Easter Surprise! by Leone Castell Anderson

As usual, Mrs McGillicuddy is so absentminded that her Easter gifts turn out to be bigger surprises than she means them to be. The missing words from this story are listed below. Copy them onto slips of paper, mix them up, and put them in a pile. Then as you read the story, fill in each blank with a word picked at random from the pile.

rubber boots   
a mustache and beard
potato peelings
long pink ears
flannel  underwear
feather grass
green foil wrapping paper
dandelion greens
a dab of perfume
old nylon stockings
her yellow Easter dress
a bag of cracker crumbs
her flowered bonnet
walnut shells
a striped umbrella
onion skins
marshmallows
a fat duck
Dutchman's breeches


It was the day before Easter and Mrs. Aloysius McGillicuddy had been busy, busy, busy as usual, making Easter dinner for all her friends. Suddenly she stopped. There was something else she had meant to do.  "Oh, thumpnoodle!" she said, thumping her forehead with her finger to clear her thoughts. "Now I remember," she declared. "I must dye some eggs."  So she set some eggs to boil.
"Now what can I use to dye the eggs some absolutely scrumptious colors?" she asked herself. "Oh,  thumpnoodle!" she said and rummaged about in her pantry and cupboards and closets and back yard. She set four pots of water on to boil. Into one she stirred ________. "That will make a beautiful dye," she said.
Into the next pot she threw ___________. "Bubble, bubble, " she saing.  "I can just see how lovely the eggs will look dipped in that color."
Into the third pot she put ___________. "Now there's something that will turn out pretty eggs," said Mrs McGillicuddy.
And when the last pot was boiling she tossed in ________. "What an elegant color that will make," she said beaming.
Mrs McGillicuddy finished dyeing her eggs. Then she decorated the eggs extra nice for each of her friends.
For little Martha Mathilda, she drew a face on the egg and added ____________. She glued __________Jeremiah Jones' egg. "That'll tickle him," she chuckled.
She wanted the eggs for the Terwiliger twins to look especially pretty, so she spent some time wrapping them in ____________. "Now they're really handsome." she declared.
There were so many eggs for all the members of the Frazzlefrump family--severn boys, six girls, four dogs, ten cats, two gerbils, and a tarantula spider in a glass jar--that she put their eggs int ________so they wouldn't crack. "That will keep them safe," she said.
By this time she was running short of eggs, and she still had friends to remember. "Oh, thumpnoodle!"  she exclaimed as she began a search through her cupboards. "Ah, just the thing," she said and added ______________ to another family's basket. "I just hope they don't eat too much of it and get a stomachache," she said with a worried frown.
Mrs McGillicuddy thought a long time before she came up with an idea for Sam Snoof. She decided to make something different for him. She put together _____________ and  stuffed it with ____________. He'll enjoy that, she thought happily, particularly when he knows I made  it with my own hands.
To Sam's parrot Goof who always cried out, "Arrrrr, you goofed!" she decided to give ___________.  Maybe he'll stop saying I goofed, she thought.
Then at the last minute Mrs McGillicuddy remembered the family down the street and quickly filled a bowl with ___________. That will look nice on their dining  room table, she decided.
The next morning Mrs McGillicuddy hurried to dress and join her friends on their way to Sunday School. All the fussing and preparing the day before had left Mrs McGillicuddy so flustery and breathy that she didn't pay much attention to how she dressed, for that was Mrs McGillicuddy's way.
First she put on _____________. That will keep me warm, she decided.
Then she donned _____________. "For I do want to look pretty!" she declared. She decided to add
_________________ behind her ears.  There! Now I feel like spring, she thought.
And at last she put on _______________. "So I will look like spring," she said. She decided to carry
______________. "For you never know when it might rain," she said.
Just as Mrs McGillicuddy was going out the door, she exclaimed, "Oh, thumpnoodle!" and hurried back in and pulled on ______________ over her shoes. For I do want to keep my feet dry, she told herself.
She thought she looked as pretty as a speckled pup and she joined all her friends marching down the street in their bright spring clothes. But no one really cared what she wore, for everyone loved Mrs McGillicuddy.

UGH!

Here I thought I was tough. Guess it is just a front. So I am publicly admitting that I am a wimp. I wish I was all healed and pain free, and not sleep deprived. I just want it to all go away. Is that too much to ask?
Let me see....Have I had to endure tough times before? YES. Did I get through them? YES. So what makes me whine this time? Beats me. I just know I want to be all better.
Whew! Thanks for letting me vent. Now that I have that all out of my system perhaps I can focus on a year from now when all this will just be a memory. I am strong, I am basically healthy, I have faith that I am being helped through this, and many are rooting for me.
Thanks for the prayers, kind thoughts, and well-wishes.
Now back to life!

Memories of Christmas Past

Dad would take us to get a tree. It was always a HUGE tree. It stood in the corner of the living room. We all helped to decorate it. The needles always stung me when I tried to put on the pretty things. We had bulb lights, and bubble lights. We had glass balls in many colors, and one usually got broken. We had stars and tinsle and garlands and whatever we had made in school and anything else they could find to put on it. It seemed to me that once we were done, you could not even see the green from the tree any more. The tree topper was a star with a picture of Jesus in it.

Aunt Nonny made our big flannel stockings with our names on them. We hung them on the mantle. They stayed emptied until Christmas morning. Then we found them filled with candy, oranges, and nuts. Sometimes we would find pencils, erasers, a hankie, etc. in them too.

Bud made candles that we used to decorate the room and placed some on the mantle. He also made a sign that stood on the porch roof that glistened in the wind and said MERRY CHRISTMAS.

Glenda painted a winter scene on the picture window on the porch. She did one every year. Then she had to scrape it off after the holidays.

Mother put up the many-pieced Nativity. It took up the whole table. Sheep, cattle, horses, many people, The Holy Family, a stable, fences, shepherds, wise men, camels, and angels. I loved to look at the scene when she was done.

On Christmas Eve Mother would make hot chocolate, light a fire, and tell the Christmas Story from the bible. We would watch the fire sparkle as she told us about the birth of the Savior. Later we went to church, as a most families did back then. The older kids took part in the presentation with hymns and speaking parts. I was an angel and had to stand very still. I looked so cute with my shiny halo and wings.

We we got home we went to bed. Then the older kids would awaken my brother and I very early in the morning. We would sneak into our parents bedroom. One of the older kids would count to 3, then my brother and I Jumped on the bed and we all yelled " Merry Christmas".
We headed down the stairs and I remember the first look of the lit tree as I rounded the landing. The tree was stuffed with presents under it. We gathered around the tree and the presents were handed out and then began the frenzy of wrapping papper flying and ohs and ahs being heard.

We ate stuff from our stocking and played with our new toys until the grandparents and aunts, uncles, and cousins came. We had a huge meal for lunch. Boy, it was great. We had skits and games,etc.

The tree was the finishing touch. After it was bare, it was chopped up and we burned it in the fireplace. The house smelled so nice. It gave it's life so we could have a nice holiday. Kinda like the Savior...giving His life so I could have such a nice one. Thank you and Happy Birthday!

I must be getting older

Since my trip this summer things just are not bouncing back like they usually do. And I HAVE to get better. I have more trips coming up. GRRRR.

I have only missed a few days of work and the rest I manage to plug through. I end up resting a lot and taking pain meds the rest of the time. The chiropractor and the massage therapist are getting me able to work and that indeed is a blessing. I have a "real" doctor appt in Jan. and suppose if I am not all better by then she will give me an earfull.

So as one of my daughters recently reminded me...I CAN do hard things. Sometimes I feel like crying because the pain is so bad, but I do not give in. Besides there is no one home to comfort me. (sigh)

When my hubby is home, he spoils me rotten. He does the dishes and tells me to rest and go lie down. He tolerates the noise from the massage machine while he is watching tv. He doesn't mind my tossing and turning to try to get comfortable, nor the up and down in bed for pain cream applications or pain med. What a guy!

So with that all being whined about... I am grateful for good health and know that I will enjoy it again. After all, it could be worse. I know that Heavenly Father loves me and will give me the guidance I need to get better. Oh, and don't forget...I believe in miracles.

5 Random Things

The Challenge: Post 5 things that people do not already know about you.

1. I am shy.

2. I have many fears.

3. I am quick to anger.

4. I have to force myself to read.

5. I like the sunshine even though I am a night owl.