~~OCTOBER OCCURANCES~~

To tell the truth, October was a blurrrrr! I ripped a cap out of my mouth with caramel popcorn and ended up with a $1200.00 implant !! I've been on pain pills for 2 weeks, so maybe that's why it is a blur.
Darwin has been working. He took two Fridays of vacation because he had to or lose the days. Nothing gets done when he is around. We just do puttering stuff. Not really, he works hard. He went and got two loads of firewood.
We gathered all of the yard decorations and tarped everything. Getting it all ready for the snow.
On Halloween, we deserted Delta. We went to Walmart in Payson, then wandered up to Lowes and got tile for a back splash in the kitchen. They say we had over 500 kids come around! We had a couple come after we got home around 9. Crazy !!
So....this is our October run down !!

~~BABY QUILTS~~

So--I have been looking for a baby quilt pattern and found a couple that I liked and was easy, or at least looked easy. I went to 'Mom's Fabric' to find the fabric for the quilt. Instead I found a panel, you know the pre-printed stuff. Someone had made a sample quilt, only it was a twin bed size. It was big ! I bought the panel, but didn't really like the layout of the squares. I decided to split them up. After all I only wanted the bigger middle one anyway. I got that quilt done and then didn't quite know what to do with the 4 smaller squares??? I fiddled around with them and this is what I came up with. Will Baby Thompson like them? That is the question???

~~LIFE IN DELTA--AUGUST 2009~~

It's hot and hotter. The plants are dying, the garden is not doing very good. The tomatoes are growing though and right now have a ton to freeze. Mom's neighbor told her to just wash and core them, then put in a bag and freeze! You can then take out the little frozen balls and run under water, the skins will come off. Add them to soup or sauces. This should work out great since I don't bottle anymore. (Can't do canning on the ceramic stove top).
The Asters and Zinnias are growing like weeds ! The Four-o-Clocks are doing good, they smell great. We dug up the grass and daisies around the light post out front, now we have dirt!
Darwin had Dutson's deliver me some more rocks to put around it. (The guy won't put rocks in Darwin's 'new' truck!!) LOL!
So, that is about all that is happening around here. It's a good time to sew and do lettering. I have some watches I want to do with the beads.....sometime.
I watch the kids go to school across the back road....if their Moms knew they stopped to throw rocks into the canal, they would have a hyssie fit. Things seem a little more relaxed around the neighborhood with the kids gone during the day. It's quiet again, kids are missed. Olivia doesn't get lost as often when Mikala is in school! She is 4 and wants to do what her big sister does. (Sound familiar?) We "mature" ladies sit at our computers and send hugs and hearts and pillows and such to each other and I mustn't forget the many e-mails!
Life is good !! Cannot complain !! Well, except we could use some rain !!

~~HAPPY BIRTHDAY SHAWN~~

Today, thirty six years ago, I became a mother!! It was the most exciting and scary day of my life.

Darwin was in the Navy, so we were based in San Diego, California. I was ssoooo sick in the beginning, I could not keep anything down. We went to the Balboa Naval Hospital for help, of course there is never a Doctor on duty when you need one. An Intern gave me something for the nausea and told me to come back the next morning to see the regular Doctor. We found out the Intern had given me something pregnant women should not take. The Doctor fixed that and slowly after three or four months, the nausea passed. As I sit here, I remember taking plastic bags with me everywhere !!

I had a friend I met in Church, she was a Primary teacher with me. Betty Hepworth was a great lady, she took me home one day with her and made me a maternity dress. It was pale blue with little dark blue and pink flowers. A sign it was going to be a boy!! We had a great ward there in National City. The Relief Society gave me a baby shower! Our neighbors here in Delta, the Panhorsts, La Dawna's parents were in that ward. Small world.

Back to Shawn. When I was seven or so months along, the Doctor did an ultra-sound. As I lay there with my BIG belly covered in that jelly stuff, in came a class of interns !! The Doctor/Teacher then asked if I cared if they observed? Dah! Kind of late to ask!! The Tech confirmed it wasn't twins, hallelujah! And, no, he would NOT tell what the baby was....it wasn't always what the Tech said it was. I guess that was how they protected themselves then, if they didn't tell you what they thought it was they wouldn't get in trouble and cause disappointment.

At eight months I went home to Riverton and lived with Mom & Dad until the baby came. Only Shawn had other ideas, he was 3 whole weeks late. This is where the Doctor told me it was the quality of the baby, not the quantity of time I carried him. Darwin would call every night to see when he should come home for the birth. To him, it seemed like forever !! Finally !! After 3 weeks, I was going to be induced. I called to let Darwin know and he drove to Riverton. Shawn had other ideas again, I went into labor the night before and 10 long hours later he was born !!

I remember as they wheeled me through the hall and past my parents, I told my Dad, Darwin was not going to touch me again !! He just laughed !!

We took little Shawn home to Mom's and after 3 days, Darwin went back to California. He had about 10 or 12 days left before his discharge date. I remember sitting and looking at Shawn for hours. It seemed so unreal and he was so perfect !

Have a Happy Birthday Shawny-brooke! Haven't called you that forever......

~~JUNE~~

Just some thoughts about June. ........I'm thinking.......It's the month we were married. It's the month of Father's Day. It's the month summer starts, and on the 21st is the LOONNGGEST day of the year. It's also when the earth comes completely alive !!! Gardens start to bloom and grow. Flowers are blooming all over the place and scents of summer are in the air. We have a Flowering Locust tree that has big magenta blooms and smell amazing. After the blossoms start to fade, the Honeysuckle starts to bloom little white flowers and it smells really sweet. Along the way the roses start to bloom and you can catch a whiff of rosy scents as you walk by. I'm looking forward to the Four-o-clocks to bloom next. They smell heavenly.
So I like June. Even though it starts getting HOT.
BTW--we were cleaning windows yesterday (23rd) and guess what was in the window well ?!!

~~THE WINDOW WELL~~

I was getting ready to clean the leaves and winter grunges out of the front window well. I got to remembering all the adventures of 'the window well'. Mainly I was thinking, "What am I going to find down there this time?" Many years ago we had a muskrat in there! Tara was maybe 12 years old, she was babysitting the Betensen (Jeff & Deann) kids. They were at our house and everyone was so excited and could not wait for their dads to get home so Darwin and Jeff could get this little muskrat out for them to 'play' with ! Well, the Dads did get home and the planning of how to get this critter out was on....No one was going to fit in the window well to grab the animal. So they came up with making a little lasso to get around the muskrat's head and then haul him up and put him in a box. Ya right. The lasso worked but it was like getting a cat into a box! After much wrestling with this scared to death rodent, they got him in the box. The guys took him down by the river and let him loose. Much talk went on after words, was It really a muskrat??? Or was it just a big RAT!
We also had countless toads in the well! Lyndsey Ingram would come to my aid and climb down and rescue the cute little darlings. Then Lyndsey grew-up and she went off to college. Most of the time we just left them in the window well to eat the bugs. One summer I remember I was trying to show Darwin where the little toad was. It looked like the gravel we had put in the bottom and he could not see it. I took a stone and was going to drop it near the toad (which was the size of a 1 1/2 inch ball) to show him where it was. I lined up the stone with my left eye to get it on target and let it drop !!! BAMMM ---right on the toad's little noggin!! Put him out cold, he stretched out on his belly and laid there for a minute. I thought I had killed him, but he started to come around and got back up on his little webbed feet. I swear he was shaking his head to clear it. Darwin laughed his head off and bet I couldn't do that again! He did see the toad!
We have had snakes and black widow spiders, who knows what else. Now we have Talula, who sleeps down in there on the leaves and junk sometimes. I think she keeps it pretty cleaned out for us.

~~HAPPY (LATE) BIRTHDAY TARA~~

On May 19, 1975 a little redheaded girl came into our lives. Of course it took an extra 28 days to get her here. The doctor told us it was the quality of the baby not the quantity of time it takes to get them here, whatever that means. Thinking back, the pregnancy went fairly smooth. Not any real problems. No toxemia or bed rest. Just a really
lllooonnnggg last month!! She was what the doctor called a 'floating' baby. And I think she was comfortable where she was!! Thank goodness she decided her life needed to start. Grandma Donna came and got Shawn that morning. I remember her coming in the bathroom and she told me I had better get to the hospital because I was bearing down and Tara was on her way. No fooling around for her! Once she decided to be born she was on her way!! We made it to the hospital and Darwin went to check us in, by the time he got to the maternity ward, I had had Tara! I think labor was all of 4 hours. Slick as a whistle as the saying goes! lol!!! Tara was not a happy baby, she had colic all of the time and cried a lot. She liked lying on her Dad's chest.
And spent her first couple of months sleeping there. Her little temper matched her bright red hair! When she wanted something it was now or else. Tara always liked to sleep wrapped tight in a blanket and she could lay absolutely content for hours. Needless to say we all survived and now she is a mother to her own little redhead!