Winter Is Finally Here

Oooooh, what's a girl to do today? It's snowing like crazy out there. I took these photos of our street just a few minutes ago.


I'm just sitting here answering the phone for my mission and being the comic relief for these people calling in. I'm so glad they seem to like it when I chuckle along with them. This Mormon girl ain't dull for sure!

Anyway, I thought I'd do a blog since it seems to be a slow day for callers seeking help with FamilySearch. Just a few days ago I was complaining about the lack of "winter" around here. The first snow is natures assertiveness training and she's really dishing it out today, chicks. Love it!

So now I'm waiting to see these again in the spring.

Later on today I'll sit and do a little bit of this: reading.

I've already done some of this this morning.

And if the weather keeps up like this, then I'll be doing some more of these coffee filter roses to put in little pots around the house.

And I'm eating these at this very moment! Yum.

But if I go out today I'll definitely need one of these.

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Heydon Hall Doll House

Heydon Hall has one of the oldest doll houses in England. Queen Anne gave it to her goddaughter in 1696, so it is over 400 years old. I thought you might like to see it, especially if you're an admirer of doll houses or if you have one and love to play with it or furnish it as so many bloggers are doing. It really is quite darling and unique with its nine rooms. Well, just take a look at it and I'll keep quiet for once. ;-)

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I love seeing kids in school; it means they're not taking up road space or roaming around WalMart trying their best to be cute by shoving a 6' skinny male of 17 into a shopping cart and trying to be cool. Sigh...
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Okay, I'll now explain the comment from an earlier post about Mormon girls and casseroles.

Mormons are known for having a lot of children. There's a sound reason for that and I shan't go into it here, but I agree with the reason. Anyway, to make their budgets stretch they make a lot of casseroles. Don't misunderstand me; I love casseroles and there is nothing wrong with them. But young, strong men want meat, unless they happen to be vegetarians, which few are, at least that I've known.

The daughter of a friend of ours who was mother to 7 children served a lot of casseroles so that is what this daughter learned to cook. They were from Idaho. The daughter married a young man from California, who grew up on a cattle ranch. As a newlywed she served a lot of casseroles. One day after several months of marriage he asked her if they could have just meat and potatoes sometimes. She was flabbergasted as she hadn't had much meat with so many boys in her family.

I'm a convert to the Church so we ate meat at just about every meal. I do have vegetarian meals though, but not much, as my hubby also thinks meat is a staple. But I've never done a lot of casseroles to stretch a meal. This is what I meant: mormon girls from large families know how to stretch meals to go further. There was never any disparagement meant here. I am a Mormon.

My granddaughter is a vegetarian and her hubby is not. I know how to plan and cook for her. She'll eat anything I cook except meat, and the utensils I use for meat cannot touch her veggie burger or vegetables. My hubby—her loving indulgent grandfather once flipped her veggie burger with the same utensil as he flipped the meat and she looked at him in horror, and he promptly threw away the burger and got her a new one, put it on the "clean" side of the grill and cooked for her. No problem, He and I love this kid. (We're going to feed meat to Caroline and let her make the choice when she's older, but my grandson-in-law is very much a meat eater and loves for me to visit and cook.) I suspect Caroline will also love meat because she hasn't refused anything put in front of her so far. Gorgeous Granddaughter, GGD, (as we call her and will refer to her as such from here) will feed her baby food with some meat in it though. GGD made this choice when she was 5 years old! I was amazed. But she and I would go out to lunch at Emporium/Capwells' lunch room and, since I love vegetables, would order the steam veggies with cheese sauce. GGD, at 5 years old, would order the steamed veggie, Perrier and cheesecake. Get my drift here? We always knew she was going for high expectations in her life and she has not failed us.
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Dancin' Queen

Again, forgive me but Caroline loves dancing and, as her great grandmother, I love sharing a few funny things about her with y'all. Ballet to her is putting a leg in front of her with her toes pointed as you'll see in this video. She's done it better, but she is distracted from it by watching herself in the mirror, which is the only way our granddaughter can get her to stop grabbing for the camera. See:

Her usual cute face:

Caroline doing Ballet and Hip Hop! She has started this sniffing thing recently and sniffs everything and then puts her finger on her nose if it stinks to her and which you'll see towards the end of this video, the sniffing not the finger to her nose in this one. Weird kid I know but then she's in this family so what can I say? ;-)



Just a few Random Thoughts today:

I actually do visit some blogs; it's just I don't have much time to leave comments for a lot of them. I've seeing the profiles of a few and noticed that a lot of women are putting in their profile about books they like—the classic books. Now, I wonder if they just put that on there to sound—oh forgive me for lack of a better word and I truly don't mean this to sound like it is going to sound but highbrow. I don't like the classics at all. Give me a good trashy murder mystery or action packed thriller and I'm lovin' it. I truly don't like the old love stories. I'm asking: what do they really like about them? I read them in high school and college but found them truly boring.
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If you are not married to the guy, the answer should be NO and you know what I'm talking about. If he truly loves you, he won't ask and he would ask you to marry him. First hand knowledge here! :-)
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Another 24 and Jack Bauer comment: He once saved the world with duct tape. This is true.
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Every day I'm able to stir up endless possibilities in my paranoia pot that is forever boiling on my mental stove.
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Mormon girls serve casseroles...this comment will be explained in a later post!
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Pink Saturday for 1/14/2012

Welcome to Beverly's Pink Saturday once again. Just click on the logo and visit her blog to see what it is all about and visit all the other participants.

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While this isn't pink, it sure caught my eye when I saw these photos of gorgeous kitchens.

This one is very similar to a friend's kitchen. They have recently sold their house but I'm sure the new owners bought it because of that kitchen.

Also, the purple ruffled bedspread. My granddaughter's favorite color is purple so I'm showing her this one for sure.

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I'm a crafty and creative person so I thought I'd simply show you some of the things I've made for the last several years. I've sold most of the birdhouses, which is my favorite thing to do and will do more someday. I just need to find time to get the craft room in order and do them. Okay, let's face it; basically, I'm trying my best to be lazy. It's a contest between a friend of mine and me. I think I'm winning!

This is a clothespin bag. I have three of them in my laundry room just for eye candy. But actually, they do have clothes pins in them. Decorated and darling clothes pins.

This is one I sold. I do them with barkcloth and/or designer fabrics. They all had the same theme: roses. What else? I love rose fabrics and still have quite a stash of it.

They truly are adorable, and I put my heart into each one. I may have some for sale someday again. I'll show them here if I do.

I have picked up old suitcases for as little 50¢ and as high as only $2.00, which I consider quite a bargain. I then cover them with gorgeous fabric and place them on plant shelves around my living room.

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Okay, ready for some more of my thoughts on the television series 24 and Jack Bauer? Well, you're gonna get them anyway.

Why do they keep doubting Jack Bauer when he's "been there and done that" and is rarely, if ever, wrong.
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In the 8th season, the CTU (counter terrorism unit) one woman is trying to be a fashion model. No agent would walk like a runway model in high heels. Her clothing is so tight I can see her navel and stretch marks through the fabric!
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They are forever asking "Are you alright?" Sometimes I want to jump through my laptop screen and scream, "If I was alright with 3 bullets holes in my chest, a gash on my head gushing blood and a broken kneecap, I'd be sure and let you know!"
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Oooh, and the big one: "You're not leaving this room until you tell the the truth." Well, if that doesn't scare them into telling the truth, I don't know what will!
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Has anyone noticed how all the architecture is 1950s style. I mean the "residences". Then the doors in almost all the scenes are glass. I found that very odd. When questioning a suspect I'd think they'd want heavy wood doors. My guess is that they got a discount on those old looking doors. Simply the worst decor I've ever seen.
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Has anyone noticed none of them wear seat belts?! Horror!!! Just let me try that and see how fast the police pull me over.

In one season they had a "villain" who was from India, had long hair, a vertical soul patch, very short and was, frankly, about as threatening as a squishy banana.
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The satellites spying on us was, quite frankly, disconcerting. I hope that isn't true but something tells me it is. Wow! To be able to track me right down to my bathroom is not comforting, I tell ya!
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Yet...I'm still enthralled and loved that series.
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Just Sittin' Here Daydreaming

One of the things I love most about this mission for my Church is just being able to sit here taking calls while I blog! I'm so loving this. We all need to serve in some way and this is my small way in helping people.

Having been the highest paid woman in a very top Fortune 500 company, you would think this is beneath my capabilities. Noooo, it is not! When we serve our fellow man we are serving our God. I know it's hard to believe someone so humorous—ME—can be very religious, but I think God loves humor. After all, he gave us teenagers, didn't he? *Smirk*

Today, I give you more photos of English kitchens, which are very homey. I love the look of them and the coziness they exude. Isn't this window arrangement just lovely? I like the cheerfulness it brings.

I am a big devotee of mismatched chairs.

These next two photos are the same kitchen if you can believe it, huge by my standards, but just scrumptious.

I have a pantry but nothing near what this larder is.

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A group of us women had lunch together a couple of weeks ago and the subject of sociopaths came up. Yes, I know, it's a strange subject to come up but I had a question about something else—narcissism—and that segued right into sociopaths. One of my friends is a licensed psychologist so she was more than willing to answer a question. So I told them my first experience with a sociopath—and hopefully, my last!

Our decision to move to Idaho was a fluke caused by the 1989 earthquake in San Francisco. We arrived here and bought a small business and retained the one employee of that existing business. (This was a total lifestyle change for us, trust me.) That woman was the best salesperson I'd ever seen. If someone walked through the door, it was rare that she would not get the sale. She was that good. The problem was she was a sociopath as I found out later.

She never had access to our finances but she got around that in other ways. One was giving our product away at our cost. She apologized and we lost a great deal of money, but she was our employee so we bit the dust on that one.

Then she would lie and tell people in that small town that we were doing things we were absolutely not doing. She could look right at you and lie and you'd believe her before me. It was truly mind boggling. But she was so believable that it almost destroyed our reputation. Come to find out she had been in prison for embezzlement. Then one day the Secret Service showed up and asked us about her! She had been using a credit card belonging to a friend of hers in another state. That is a federal crime. Talk about shocked. While this woman wasn't a very attractive lady, if she had fixed herself up and dressed more stylish, she could have been a millionaire in selling.

At that time a new friend, whose husband was a psychologist, (Why have most of my friends or their husbands been in the mental health field?) and I were talking while sitting at a park one day and I told her the story. That's when I found out about sociopaths. She told me that's what sociopaths do. They have absolutely no conscience of right or wrong. It certainly enlightened me and I am much more guarded around people now. Our church excommunicated her and the leaders came to me and hubby and talked about it but we assured them she didn't have access to our finances. But it is kind of sad when someone with such a skill as selling does things like that when they could be so successful honestly.
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Just a few Random Thoughts for today:

Embarrassing moment: The other day I was on Skype with another missionary who was helping to train me doing this mission. I hadn't even combed my hair that morning as I wear a headset when sitting here taking the calls. I started picking my nose and several minutes later I realized we were on video chat! Talk about embarrassing. So be careful when you are skyping with someone. I have my preferences set so no one can video me without me clicking on Video. I screwed up that day for sure. I didn't know what to say. Deer in the headlights?! So quiet I could hear my brain cells dividing?! Yep, all of the above.
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Am I perfect because I'm a Christian? Nuuuuu, I am as imperfect as people come. I don't dance with the devil but he sure signs my dance card frequently!
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Next time I think I'll talk about padded bras.
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