Problems to Solve

Problem #1

Lately the name of this blog has been  bugging me.  It's pretty blah.

Some titles I have thought of:

Ha Ha Ha

Ramble On

Wait....What?

Sitting Here

Thinking Out Loud

Ready or Not

And Now

In My Opinion

So What?

Sitting In The Shade

Over, Around, and Through

Can You Believe It?

I can't stop thinking up names now where before I couldn't think of any.  The more I think of the harder it is to choose.  But I am definitely giving the blog a new name.

Problem# 2

Since retiring I find that I am getting lazy.  Don't want to get up in the morning.  Don't want to cook, do laundry, or clean.  I just want to play on the computer, watch TV, take naps, and crochet or sew.

Retirement didn't start out this way in February.  I was motivated to clean and de-clutter, cook and bake, and volunteer my time.  Now I just want to say "leave me alone."  But being a basically responsible person, I know that I will get back on track.  Maybe I am just tired of people telling me what I have to do because they employ me.  Now that I am not employed I am sort of acting like a kid off at camp.

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I think I will add a picture here because that is what I like to do with my blog.  If there is no picture it isn't as interesting to me.  And I will close for today.  We have been on vacation and I have a lot of pictures to upload, organize and share.

Weird building.  We have no idea what it is.  It is located up by Dead Indian Pass outside of Cody, WY.

We spent three nights and two days in Cody while the truck was being fixed.  It turned out really good because one of our young women from Slidell lives there with her husband and daughter.  It was so good to visit with Jacky and her family.  They are cute and generous.  

We accidentally found a great RV park and were very comfortable.  While there we toured the Buffalo Bill Cody museum for free thanks to Jacky's husband and also took this drive up Dead Indian Pass where Chief Joseph of the Nez Pierce were able to escape the military troops who were chasing them.

Last but not least here's a picture of an interesting couple we met at the pass.  They were traveling to Yellowstone from back East and then home again.  They were very nice and friendly and well, as I said, interesting.  

Yard and Garden

Just thought I would post pictures of my yard and garden. I'm getting a tan too as a bonus. We are really looking forward to that first bite of vine-ripened tomato, zucchini, crook-neck squash! I like the warmth, but hope my plants do too. It's a constant watering thing since we live in high desert.

I took these pictures a couple of weeks ago so the vegetables are a lot bigger with tomatoes and peppers on them or blossoms on the zucchini and squash. Yum!!
P.S. On a side note:  HAPPY CANADA DAY TO ALL MY CANADIAN FRIENDS!!

Baby Blankets

Last week I made three baby blankets and finished one crocheted baby blanket.  On Saturday or so I posted on Facebook a picture of the crocheted one.  Good responses.  Now to post it here on the blog.

I think it looks all sweet and girly and something along the lines of strawberry, vanilla, and chocolate.  Yum!!  My friend, Ginger, put in an order for two for her future twins!  Kori asked me to move closer! Others enjoyed the colors.  Rachele wants to trade bread-making classes for crochet classes.  I love barter!!

Monday - the MOST Dreaded Day of the Week

I have wondered if Monday gets depressed because it is the most dreaded day of the week.

I also wondered that after Sunday, a day of rest, why we should still be so tired on Monday.

Reasons I have personally dreaded Mondays.

1.  Not sleeping well on Sunday nights due to the dread of Monday mornings.
2.  Not being excited about going to employment on Monday where, even though I am an excellent employee,  being rated for job performance disturbs me.
3.  Not being happy that husband leaves the state often on Mondays to spend the next 3 to 4 days THERE instead of HERE.
4.  After having either 2-3 days to do whatever, I am faced with 4-5 days at the beck and call of someone else and the clock starting with Mondays.
5.  Still having to carry the whole load of housework, bill paying, child care, etc after working a 9 hour day outside the home and Monday was the day that started it all.

Poor Monday.  It really gets a bad rap.  I should be happy to have another day.  I should be happy to start a new week where hopefully I can always do better.

A large part of my issue with Monday is most possibly mental.  After retiring in February it took me a month or so to relax on Sunday nights when I started dreading Mondays.  Every single Sunday evening about 7 p.m., sometimes earlier, I would start feeling anxious.  But at least after retirement I could snap myself back to the reality that I did not have to go to work on Monday morning.

Still Monday Morning tends to be an issue.  Husband still leaves the state.  I still have to get up and going after sleeping later on the weekend.  Usually I mistakenly schedule appointments on Monday morning hoping to get things done and over with which I regret on Monday morning.

Oh well.

When you think about it, Monday is actually a stand-up guy.  He shows up every week right on time.  He takes the punches and keeps going.  If Monday didn't do it then Tuesday would have to and Tuesday doesn't strike me as being as strong as Monday.

So Monday, we may dread you, malign you, cry when you turn up, pull the covers up over our heads, but we're happy you are around.  After all, what would we do without you when we can't even get it all done with a 7 day week.  With 6 it would really be impossible.

Welcome Monday?  Today you are getting off to a sad start.  Husband is on a plane to California.  I could only exercise for 3/4 of the time I usually exercise because of the shower door installer coming at 8:00 - 9:00 a.m.  The shower door installer was an hour late.  The said shower door installer said this installation was going to take 3 hours instead of 2.  (If you do the math that means I am sitting here doing security on the bedroom floor while he works for at least 4 hours instead of 2.)  I got stressed and all ready drank a diet Pepsi.  I hope that the shower door installer really knows what he is talking about when he says this is only going to take 3 hours.  He is speaking Spanish but it seems that he is saying that there is a part missing or that he wonders about the measurements.  Oh dear!

Oops!  Up on a previous paragraph didn't I say I was happy to have Monday?  Repeat after me..... I love Monday, I love Monday, I love Monday.

Sigh.  Okay so that didn't really work.

Inheritances and New Knowledge

My Grandmother inherited what she called a Cocoa Pot from one of my great-great Grandmothers.  I am not exactly sure which one.  I had thought it was Selena Dworzin's but then Mom thought it was Nellie Mattingly's.  Either way, Grandmother inherited it.

Then at some point Grandmother gave it to Mom as it was to be hers anyway.  When Sara was born on Grandmother's birthday Mom decided that at some point in the future it would be Sara's.

When we were living in Louisiana, I inherited a china cabinet from my Grandma Dayhoff.  Once I had a place to safely keep the cocoa pot, Mom decided it was time for me to inherit it and keep it in safe keeping for Sara until she would inherit it.

In June we were camping down in Woodland Park, Colorado and took a day trip down to Cripple Creek.  It was a fun trip especially since all the museums were free that day.  I know there was a good reason why they were free but I don't remember why exactly.  But it was to our benefit.  It was even a good day for Nikki because she was allowed in the museum since she was a "polite pet".   See above.

Inside this particular museum you will not believe what I saw!  Well, maybe you will.  Anyway, there in a room set up as a parlor were three cocoa pots and I solved a little bit of the mystery I had felt around my own and Sara's set.

Now, my German Coffee set or "Mocha" set is not porcelain or special in any way except to me and my family and the family actually came to the United States prior to 1892 so it wasn't from this particular pottery.  But I think it has a connection at least to the type of pot it is.

Here are the ones I saw there:

And this is mine and Sara's.  What a nice discovery!

Patterns, Memories, and Dust

Yesterday I went through all the pattern boxes to determine which ones need to go and which ones I want to keep.  I came across this one.  It is the pattern we used for our Pep Rally uniforms my Junior year in high school.  We made the red one although in black and gold.  That was 40 years ago.  

I am not sure why I have kept it all these years because I never made it again.  There was never really any reason to get rid of it.

Another interesting aspect was the cost of the pattern.  $1.00  Now just plain old patterns are $12.95 or so.  Of course they seem to be on 50% off sale all the time though.  

I don't think I will ever lose my love and interest of sewing although I don't do nearly as much as I used to do.  I made many of the girls clothes when they were growing up.  It was/is harder to do boy clothes.  

When "jams" were the rage for boys I made Jared a pair.  He loved them but then when someone made fun of him at school because the jams were so long he stopped wearing them for a while.  I asked him why he was wearing jeans in sweaty Louisiana heat and so he told me about it.  I suggested that he look at the shrimpy kids who were making fun of him.  It wasn't so much that the jams were so long, it was that he was so tall that they had to be long to be correct.  And even more importantly those kids were little shrimps.  After that Jared wore his jams.  

I still remember the sewing class I took in 9th grade that started my garment construction adventures.  In high school I sewed many of my own clothes.  I have had sewing projects turn out really weird, kind of like the Bill Cosby show where the daughter sewed a shirt for Theo and it was ALL wrong.  Through the years I have come to the conclusion that I should sew basic garments and straight lines instead of really fancy stuff.  I've made blessing outfits for grandchildren.  They turned out well.

Here are some other patterns I found. I could never have convinced Bob to wear these clothes.  There were two things that I made for him. 1) a red down parka. He wore it for years.  2) a tan leisure suit.  Yep he wore it.  I wish I still had the pattern and I wish I could find a picture of him wearing it.

I made this dress for Leslie.  We were shopping one day and she found a dress that she liked.  I commented that I had made one just like it when I was a teenager.  She asked me why I didn't keep it.  Well..... I had no idea it would come back into style.

During the clean out yesterday I ended up with two paper cases full to over-flowing of patterns, memories, and dust!

Annual Motorcycle Trip

Each year we have gone on a 4 day motorcycle trip with friends.  Year one:  Mt. Rushmore in South Dakota.  Second Year:  Durango, CO.  This year: Moab, UT.  

This year we did over a thousand miles in 4 days.  Lots of fun, lots to see and do, lots of tired.  I fell and almost killed myself the first year at Rushmore.  Since then I have been VERY careful even with all the climbing.  The only issue for 2011 was the water weight gain that will take a few days to get rid of.

This is the entire group 2011.  Siebs, Redmons, Kings, and Ottleys.  Thank you nice tourist lady for offering to take our picture.

We decided the "boys" were an average of 11 years old when they got together.  John was the worst, then Robert.  I think Vaughn was happy that Cari didn't "allow" him to do all the crazy climbing because he really didn't want to do it that much.  She is an easy alibi.  Terry took it a little easy because he had a cold and also the one bad eye.  John really pushed the limits and Robert encouraged him.  Typical. This is a great picture of them in a calmer setting.

Robert climbed up to a corner of one of the Windows arches in Arches National Park.  Easy hike and great view.

Also at Windows Arches.  I think it's a good picture of us.  

Delicate Arch from a couple of miles away. I love telephoto lenses.  There is a .75 mile hike to take that is easy for viewing the arch and we didn't have to take a quart of water to drink either.  Although a bottle of water each was pretty much necessary.

In trying to be a little artsy I took this tree picture.  I might print it in black and white.  I aspire to be an Ansel Adams!

White Rim Canyon behind me.  Beautiful in person.  The canyon, I mean.  :)

Newspaper Rock with our traditional we-took-it-ourselves picture.

Holy Mackerel!  $6.50 a gallon with a minimum of $15 per credit card charge.  I learned that it actually against the law to put a minimum charge for credit cards.  Cari is writing a letter to Visa.  This was a rip-off place in the middle of no where outside of the Needles portion of Canyonlands.  They had us over a barrel.

The hotel was pretty bad but do-able.  We should have started getting reservations in January instead of May.  If we had had children with us it would have been REALLY bad because children get on the floor.  We, at least, keep our shoes on.  Also when the air conditioner compressor turned off it sounded like ice falling into the plastic container in the freezer.  Being Moab in summer the a/c was on all night.  So the ice cube tray noise went on ALL NIGHT.  Thank goodness we were exhausted and only heard it occasionally.  

I might post a few more pictures later if there are some interesting ones to view.

I am super happy to be home though.  I came home really anxious to get busy on the house some more.  

That's a good vacation!

Finished Project

Over the past week I have been pushing harder to finish projects.  I am still not moving fast enough for me.  But the family history organization is about organized and the pictures are moving into boxes fairly quickly.
Yesterday and today I sold 9 books from the ones we are not keeping.
Tonight I finished the scarf I started quite a while ago.  I really like it.  It's light and warm and also in every color.  I can wear it with anything I think.  I also started the afghan which I purchased the yarn for way back last year.  Have to move along.  Even though I will be able to take some with me in the RV I won't be able to take them ALL!

Office Explosion

Today I started working on the office again.

I worked all day.

I am not just cleaning.

I am getting rid of things.

There are too many things to look at.

There are too many things to think about keeping or giving to someone.

I hope I don't get to the point where I just throw things away and then I am sorry later.

Remind me to be better organized in my next location, house, condo, RV, etc.

This is crazy.  And so am I.

Thinking Thoughtfully

"You can tell if a man is clever by his answers.  You can tell if a man is wise by his questions."  Naguib Mahfouz

I cannot turn my brain off.   It is thinking and buzzing and whizzing through thoughts and ponderings and commentaries.  Sometimes my brain leaks out words through my mouth and I find myself talking out loud. That can be embarrassing when turning the corner and finding someone eavesdropping.  

A long time ago I read something about having a notebook by one's bed to capture the clear thoughts that seem to so easily come in the middle of the night.  Isn't it interesting how logical one seems then?  Unfortunately I usually don't wake up enough to write, hate to turn on the light and disturb Robert, or discount the thoughts because of the inability to write those words down coherently or finding that they didn't really make sense to begin with.

I would like to retrain my brain to slow down and think a little more thoughtfully.  

Once I sat on a big boulder in the California Sierra mountains, basking in the sunshine, breathing in the pine needle scent as they heated up, and feeling the cooling breeze on my face.  It was in 1971, I believe.  A memory to keep.  And now, so many years later, it seems to have been a wonderful location to think.  Too bad I don't remember what I was thinking.  But I do remember the day as if it was yesterday.  Where was that notebook then?

In the quest for thoughtful thinking this seems to be a key, finding a place where beauty, solitude, and warmth all run together, and the mind can relax.  In this place it seems that pondering slowly and repeating the thoughts until they gel into one occasion of thoughtful thinking that can be written down is my desire.  

This afternoon in a phone conversation with a niece we mentioned that we had not found a place to settle after retirement.  Now it seems that an important item to search for has been uncovered.

A place to do thoughtful thinking is desired.  How would that look on the list? 

1.  Large public rooms

2.  A study

3.  Lots of windows

4. A place to think

Definitely a qualification in our search and now I realize that in all my thinking about a retirement home I find that quiet porch, garden setting, sitting room, or bench by a fountain has been a prominent picture.

A place to think thoughtfully.

It's better to read the whole thing

I was invited to a graduation party.  My friend was invited too.  I thought the party was on Thursday.  My friend thought it was on Friday.  I checked the invitation.  It said Thursday so  told her.  She thanked me.

Today I looked at the invitation to get the address.  Guess what?!  The GRADUATION is Thursday.  The PARTY is Friday!

I tried to get hold of my friend.  Of course, I couldn't reach her.  So now I am very upset, worried, and humiliated.

The lesson learned from this one?  Read the entire document.  Pay attention to the details.

Oh Brother!  I hope she's still my friend.

Getting Back On Track

I started crocheting a scarf using sock yarn.  It's rainbow colors.  It's a simple double crochet until the edging which will be a scallop.    There were quite a few comments and nice complements.  My sister really liked it, the yarn especially.

I had gotten really far, almost finished the body portion.  Then I noticed that somehow I was losing stitches and the silly thing was getting narrower.  I tried to add stitches back in thinking that it would be less noticeable after the scalloped edge was added.

But the perfectionist in me couldn't handle it.  I knew that there would be some who would want to inspect it and I would not be happy with the comments then!  I ended up pulling out 3/4 of it.  :(

I was sad.  I am still sad because I have not been able to get going on it since we got home from camping.  And now, guess what?  I don't even know where the yarn is.  Oh wait!  I remember where it is!  That's great because I am ready to

GET BACK ON TRACK!!

I can't even bare to show you a picture of it right now.  Just give me a few days.

Then, my question is, "What else needs to get back on track?"  Whew! What a question.

Blocks

Creative Block, Writer's Block, Whatever Block, I've got it.

Is it because I squelched my thoughts down for so long that I can't get them out now?  There was an article I read that also made me think that I am too practical.

I was watching a show today and took notice of the jacket the star was wearing.  I could totally create something like that.  I think I see too many things that I can create.

Time to narrow it down to one or two things.

And I need to start playing.  That might help.  A Lot.

Happy Birthday Amanda!

Today is Amanda's birthday.  Happy Birthday!
Those moons ago when she was born it got me out of a talk in church.  


Amanda is a person who makes friends wherever she goes.  She is hard-working, cheerful, adventurous, and a really good person.  She is a good daughter.
We love her so much!  


Happy Birthday dear daughter.

Cleaning up my blog

I decided to clean up my blog and make it look a little bit springy.  Several links to blogs I read are closed except to invited readers, some are closed down.  So they are no longer listed.  If I deleted you and you don't want to be deleted then let me know.

Facebook might get a scrubbing too.

The Day I Stopped Sleeping

ZZZZZzzzzzz........
Yea right!
My mom tells me the story that when it was nap time that she would lay down and say that she needed me to keep her back warm.  So I would snuggle up against her back and we would go to sleep.  Mom says I was a GREAT napper.
I was never one to sleep really late in the mornings, probably because my mother would pretend to be playing revele if it got too late and she would want us to get up.  BUT, I did sleep well and I would awake pretty much refreshed.

Then I got married.  That was November 30, 1972.  I married a return missionary who was still waking up early and saying crazy things like, "I feel great!  I am ready for the day!" etc.  It might not have been so bad if I hadn't worked swing shift and didn't get off work until 1215 a.m.  Of course, I did ride the bus to work and so he was up until late to come to pick me up, but still!

He also snored, for 36 years until he stopped.

Then a year and a half after we got married I had a baby.  In fact, I had babies in 1974, 1975, 1976, 1980, 1983, and 1985.  You all know that when you have babies you don't sleep.  By the time the last baby came along Robert was off on assignment 5-6 days a week until late, and we had a budding teenager who didn't drive yet but had to get places.

There were also callings at Church that needed attention which often was done early morning or late at night.  Sewing, laundry, housecleaning, and even having fun sometimes.

Then the teenage years arrived in force.  Dances which ended late, football and basketball games, friends coming over, going to friends houses.  Slumber parties.  Luckily I nipped that one in the bud early and limited the number.

Here's a story.  One year it was Amanda's turn to have a slumber party for her birthday.  I think it was her 12th birthday.  We had a house full of pre-teen, hormonal girls.  They stayed up ALL NIGHT.  And so did I. They made noise and they argued, etc. etc.  Amanda's birthday is close to Mother's Day.  So after the girls finally all left Robert was taking me to the mall to find a dress which was our tradition at the time.  We stopped to get gas and I crawled to the back of the van to lay down.  I fell instantly asleep and probably had only been asleep for a minute or two when I woke up.  I was totally freaked out because I didn't know where I was, I didn't know where Robert was, and I thought I had been abandoned or something.  That's what happens to me when I stay up all night, I guess.

I also asked my mom what she did to get us around because she actually was awake all night during the week because she worked grave shift.  She said she would take us places and then wait in the car and sleep. She also took books with her to read.  So when the kids had appointments once I got them in and going.  I went back out to the car and had told them to let me know when the dentist wanted me to come in and see the results.  Instantly I was asleep and when the hygienist came out and got me I was also confused and it took me a minute to figure out what was going on.

Needless to say I didn't go sleep in the car anymore.

When seminary started (early morning seminary) we were up at 5 a.m. doing family scripture reading and breakfast.  If you do the years you will see that I did that from 1988 to 2003.  When I drove the kids I would walk around the church neighborhood and/or read in the car or sleep sometimes, but I was leary of it.

In 1992 I started a part time job.  Or it may have been 1991.  Anyway, that subtracted time from when I could do Church responsibilities and housework.  Hence less sleep.  Then I started working full time in 1995.  What was I thinking?  Every few months I would get home from work at 5, tell them all what they needed to do for dinner and crash.  Robert was still gone alot and alot fell to my shoulders.  Less Sleep.

When the kids were younger we had nap time on Sundays.  It was heaven.  We did have a few mishaps, like the time that Jared left the house when he was three years old on Sunday when we were all asleep.  When we woke up we didn't know how long he was gone.  Robert took off in the car and I stayed home with the girls and in case he came home.  I kept hoping that since we lived on an Air Force Base that the APs wouldn't let a little boy leave the facility by himself.  Then the phone rang and one of the sisters at church said that she had looked out her window and saw Jared.  She told her son she thought that was the little Ottley boy.  So they brought him in and Robert went to get him when he got home.  Of course, he was still freaked out because he didn't know what had transpired.

As the kids got older they didn't want to nap but they still had quiet time or we spread out a blanket on the living room floor and Robert told them stories while I slept on the couch.



Next stage is young adults living in the home.  They think that because they were off at school for a while that they don't have a curfew anymore.  So they were leaving at 8 p.m. and getting home at 4 a.m. I tried to convince them that it was't a good idea and that even though they were "adults" that I still worried and I still couldn't sleep.

Now they have all been out of the house for quite a while.  And they have started to reproduce.  15 now and 1 more on the way, plus four spouses.  Adult problems are worse than child problems. At least it has been so for me.  But adults lose jobs, have their family members have problems.  So many nights I am awake at 2 a.m. worrying about jobs, schooling, homes, sicknesses, and sadnesses of 19 more people than I started out with.  Somebody give me a pill!!!

Now I am getting old and I have aches and pains and restless leg syndrome and insomnia for no apparent reason.  There is also Facebook and this Blog which tend to keep me up.  At least I retired in February and if I absolutely need to I can at least lie down in the middle of the day.  But whomever thought that retirement meant having nothing to do but sit on the beach and nap never retired!

This hasn't been the best description of my lack of sleep.  And I know I have left out lots of activities that keep me awake.

Just please don't call me to teach early morning seminary.  I will stick with the Sunbeams, thank you very much!