Portrait of Sam

A couple of weeks ago, we went down to the California Poppy Reserve near Lancaster where my sister Kathryne lives. It was so windy that I didn't get any great pictures. But I did get a great picture of Sam trying to get a great picture. When I get a minute, I'll look through the pics he got and see if he got any good ones.

The night before we left, Meg's school had a dance recital. They have a guy that comes in and teaches each grade one ballroom and one hip hop dance. They had third graders tango-ing and fourth graders jitterbugging (or whatever you call that). Meg's class did a "Salsa". Here's a pic of Meghan with her partner, Christian.

Whew! That's over!

The house is still a mess and I have new bifocals that I'm trying to get used to, so the wedding pics are still not done yet. This girl's mom is the lady who cuts my hair, so I may be a long grey-haired hippie if I don't get them done. I refuse to call her until I can take her the pictures.

But, the taxes are done, and the Stake Women's Conference was this morning. My hands are permanently red from cutting up four flats of strawberries for cheesecake, then stirring up chicken and fruit with raspberry viniagrette dressing with my hands because the kitchen in our stake center NEVER has any utensils. It's not like we don't know this, and you'd think we'd remember to bring some. But, we never do. We have a whole list of stuff today that we're going to remember next year. Now that we've actually thought to do that (this is our fourth Women's Conference), we'll get released before we have to do it again.

It was a great conference (what I heard of it, spent a lot of time in the kitchen). Our keynote speaker talked about being "still". This seems to be a recurring theme this week. A scripture we read in Relief Society last week was in D&C 5:34 ..."Stop and stand still until I command thee, and I will provide means whereby thou mayest accomplish the thing which I have commanded thee." Our keynote speaker read the words to "Be Still My Soul", which is one of favorite hymns. There's a story with that....

The last time Sam was laid off, a couple of years ago, was when I was the ward RS President. Our Bishop at the time was a close friend of ours, and he kept asking if we were OK. I kept assuring him that we were, mostly because we had so many people in the ward who were much worse off than we were. But, I was worried for several reasons, which I won't go into. Suffice it to say, I wasn't getting much sleep, which just made my anxiety worse. In the middle of all this, we had a Stake RS training meeting and I was asked to provide prelude, etc. I was working as an accompanist for a children's choir at the time, and I had to rush straight to the church after that. I had forgotten my prelude books, so I was just playing hymns. I just opened the hymnal and started somewhere a couple of pages before "Be Still My Soul". As I turned the page to that hymn and started playing, I was kind of reading the words when I had this overwhelming sense of peace:

"Be still my soul: The Lord is on thy side. With patience bear thy cross of grief or pain. Leave to thy God to order and provide; in ev'ry change He faithful will remain."

So then, I was sitting there playing the piano in tears. Had everyone there pretty worried about me, which was ironic since I finally was OK. Layoffs are always hard for me, but I think I handled this last one much better. I think that I've finally learned that if we do all we can do, the Lord will come through. Took me dang close to fifty years to learn that. I'm a little dense sometimes. Hopefully, some of you are smarter and will learn younger.

Spring!!!!

I haven't posted in awhile. Taxes, a wedding we photographed, Stake Women's Conference, trying to get my house organized (really probably a lost cause...three ADD people should never live in one house without an OCD person, lol).

In the meantime, the lupine is blooming,
my iris are blooming, the swallows are back in their nests above my big windows,
my corn is just pushing up through the dirt, we have sunny warm weather, the croquet set out in the yard so Meg can beg daily to play.....just WAY too nice to be indoors. This is my favorite time of year here.




You should come before the June gloom of fog and cold sets in. Yes, I mean YOU!



(A visitor that was on my deck the other day....)

Sam, The Cow Whisperer

So....we're driving down this highway in the middle of nowhere....somewhere on a back road between Murphys, California and Fresno. It was a beautiful day, we had cool sky and nice green hills (only happens in the spring here) and lovely black cows doing their "cow" thing. Sam decided to pull over and take a couple of pictures. Because, that is what Sam does. Not that anyone who knows us very well needs to be told that, of course.

Mom and I were sitting in the car and the first thing we noticed is that when Sam crossed the road, all the cows looked up and were watching his every move. Every single cow within a few hundred yards stopped chewing their cud and stared at Sam. I'm not sure Sam noticed, but we did and got a bit of a chuckle out of it.

Then we started noticing that the cows near the road were kind of congregating right in front of Sam. All, about three feet from the fence line, all still staring at him. THEN, we saw cows from further away moving in, and kind of jostling for position there. We got a bigger chuckle. I think this is when Sam finally noticed that something weird was going on.

I decided to get a picture, because it made me laugh. I got out of the car with my camera and as I stood up, I noticed that the cows WAY out in the field (easily a quarter of a mile off) were all running towards the fence, full speed ahead. Soon, EVERY SINGLE COW in the entire field was (or were?) huddled, shoulder to shoulder, lined up in an imaginary line on the other side of the fence.

Sam decided that they clearly were expecting something, so he sang them a little opera. Mom and I laughed ourselves into an asthma attack, but I did get a few pictures. I sure wish I'd had a video camera, though.

Sam, the Cow Whisperer.

Gold Country Highway

We came home for a day to shoot a wedding and for Mom to rest up a bit. The next morning, we headed out on our way to Highway 49 in the Sierra foothills. It's beautiful country, lots of little gold rush towns, everything was blooming and the trees were that bright spring green. The first day we took our time, figuring we'd get up to Murphys in time for the last Mercer Caverns tour. We made it in time, but the tour was booked, so we found a hotel in Murphys and spent the night.



We went Saturday night and Sunday afternoon to Columbia State Park, which is a restored mining town with period shops and people dressed in costume. Meghan panned for gold and we ate a wonderful lunch in the old Columbia Hotel dining room. They were having a Birthday Ball on Saturday night, so there were lots more people dressed in period costumes then. We talked to a couple of interesting characters.



Sunday morning we went back to Mercer Caverns. They warned us that there were 230 steps up and about the same going down, but Mom said she was up to it. It was pretty cool, but they didn't tell you that those steps were more like climbing a ladder. We all made it, but I think Mom had some sore muscles. I was impressed though, she's tough!

Sequoia and Yosemite

I thought I'd post a few pics from our trip. This first slideshow is more Sequoia pics.



We went to Yosemite the next day. We hiked up to Bridal Veil Falls and Lower Yosemite Falls.

Spring Break

We decided to take a mini-trip for spring break this year. Sam only got a couple of days off and we had to photograph a wedding in the middle, so we had to come home for a day. We invited Grandma Bailey to come along, so we had to stick to within a couple of days of Bakersfield.

This picture was taken at Sequoia National Park. There was still snow on the ground, and it was absolutely beautiful. Unfortunately, us beach-living people don't own decent shoes for snow. Meg and I slid through a bit of it in our flip-flops, but Meg decided it was just too cold. But, then we had to make one trek through snow to get to a bathroom. Actually, it was not a terribly cold day and the snow was packed pretty good by previous passers. As long as you didn't break through to a hole, it wasn't bad at all. But, she was complaining about how her feet were just SO painful. I reminded her of the pioneer kids who trekked over mountains through the snow with just rags wrapped around their feet for shoes. She said, "Well at least they had RAGS! That would be better than flipflops!"

See, even at eleven they are still funny. I have a feeling twelve won't be near as amusing, though. And, we won't even talk about fourteen.

Mom and Sam at least had real shoes. This is them checking out a rather big tree.

Happy Easter!

Hanging with The Boys....

My sister Julie is here with her family and some friends this week. She's got two big teenaged boys and a daughter Meg's age. Her boys brought a couple of their friends, and all four of them are staying with me this week. They're all over six foot, so it feels like I'm walking around with my bodyguards. But, it's been a blast. We've shot off potato guns, visited the Aquarium, taken them surfing, played games and watched movies until all hours of the night, mini-golfed, went to the Last Chance Mercantile and bought some vinyl 70's Albums for 50 cents each (Bread, Jethro Tull, Journey, Yes) to listen to while we play cards, took the boys to Mutual to check out the local female wildlife, etc etc. With our family, Julie's family, her friend's family etc, we've been doing dinner for fifteen. Good thing Sam is such a good cook! :-)

Today, half the party wanted to go to Hearst Castle, but Julie and I didn't want to spend the day in the car, so we took the boys, one of her friend's daughters and my niece and and took them all to In N Out and went and to a movie . I love In N Out, especially when you're feeding big boys. No where else can you feed five teenagers, one kid, and three adults for under $30.

When this is all over, I'll need about a week to recuperate.

Which Movie Mom are You?

Which Movie Mom Are You?

My Result: My Big Fat Greek Wedding's Maria Portokalos

Maria Portokalos may not have been the focus of the movie, but that's the only way she would have had it. You, like Maria, are the backbone of your family, but you do it without ever wanting to be the center of attention. You know what we're talking about — your kids always seek out your well-thought-out and sincere advice, and your husband knows who really wears the pants in your house.

You consider motherhood a delicate balancing act — you're strong and tough when necessary, but it's tempered with love and respect. Fiercely loyal, you always act with your family's best interest at heart. And that's just the way you want it.

What are you?
http://web.tickle.com/jumpto?test=moviemomogt&c=50652

My niece Danesa had this on her blog and I thought it was cute. I think the results surprised me a little bit, but it was a fun quiz. They needed to let you pick multiple answers a couple of times, though.....

Just stuff...

A couple of updates on stuff. I'm still sick, although I feel better. Went to the doctor and he says I have a sinus/ear infection. Explains why both ears are totally plugged....I feel like I'm walking around with my head in a tin can. But, other than that, at least I'm not feeling like crap anymore...he gave me some antibiotics, etc.

Ward conferences are over finally. My home ward always starts asking Sam in about February if I've gone inactive. (We are a 80% military ward with a high turnover, so half of them probably weren't here last year this time). I ended up only having to speak once, because I conveniently got sick for the other time. I should plan it that way next year, too. :0) I enjoy visiting the other wards, just hate speaking.

We're starting work on our garden this morning. They have Sam tag-teaming a board right now, so he works evenings until midnight or so. So that gives us days to do other things. We got stuff to add a few raised garden beds, so we're going to try and get those set up and some seeds in the ground today. I'm excited, I always love having a garden, and we've not had the time to do anything about it the last two years.

We had Amanda and her kids for a day last week when they dropped Mom off and it was a blast. I love her kids, they're very sweet and a lot of fun and it was nice to visit with Amanda and Steve, even though it was short. Next time you guys come, we'll find you a real beach. :0) I'll get Sam to give me a couple of pics and I'll post them later.

When we took Mom back to Bakersfield on Saturday, Elvira had got us tickets for her symphony concert. It was wonderful, of course. We took Grandma Bailey and she said she really enjoyed it. Meghan even enjoyed it....I was worried about her capacity to sit still that long, but she enjoyed watching all the instrumentalists (we were on the third row) and the slides that they showed during "The Planets" by Holst.

My sister Julie and her crew are here Saturday for a week, and I'm excited. We don't get to spend near enough time together....if you don't count the daily phone calls, of course.

The weather is perfect this time of year...until about June-ish when the fog sets in. PERFECT time for visitors, hint, hint.

Good News and Bad News

Well, Sam's having a good time with his Mom. He took her into Monterey today and they did a couple of museums and a bit of shopping and got lunch.

I had to stay home, though, because I'm sick AGAIN. This is the third time since Christmas and it's getting REALLY old. I've been hibernating back in the bedroom so I don't give it to Grandma. So, I'm missing out on fun and dominoes and probably "Lost" tonight. (We'll TIVO it, but still). Sam's been very good about doing the grocery shopping and cooking, etc while I lay around like a slug.

The good news is that the guy that interviewed Sam on Monday called and gave him some contract work to start on tonight at a decent rate of pay. He's going to keep him on contract for awhile and if they're happy, they'll put him on as a direct employee, at which time we'll get insurance benefits. Hopefully that'll be before our old insurance benefits run out the end of April, but we don't know.

I feel a little better about our financial status now. I just wish I could be well enough to go celebrate or something.