101 Reasons to Breastfeed Video

This link is in youtube: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JcjKeDyTZP8

What a bother plus good experiences

In some ways I really like all my electronic gadgets (computer, palm pilot, cell phone), but in other ways they can be a bother. For some unknown reason my palm lost all my info and reverted to its original state. Fortunately I had backed it up, unfortunately it was several weeks ago (or was is several months). Anyway, I wasn't sure I had my updated work schedule in it. I called one of my coworkers and we both thought it was my turn to work, so I'll go in tomorrow.
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Last week I asked daughter #2 if she wanted to earn some money. She said yes, so I invited her to come and help me clean my dining room top to bottom. So we took down everything from the walls, washed the walls, cleaned all the pictures, frames and other gadgets that were on the walls and re-hung them. We polished with Old English everything made of wood, including the chairs and mom's old Singer sewing machine. We washed the curtains to the patio door, washed the patio door windows and then mopped and waxed the dining room floor. It took the two of us at least 5 hours (maybe more) to do all this. And I was really tuckered out when I was done too. But it feels nice to have it look so good. Now I need to move on to another room and do similar stuff. However, C has started school and will be busy studying and going to class, so she may not be able to help me as much. Oh well.
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Yesterday we went to SLC for my nephew's wedding in the SLC temple in the morning and we stayed in SLC until the evening so we could attend the reception in Holiday. I took my computer and went to the SLC library and worked on finishing getting my class ready for the new semester, which starts on Monday (tomorrow). Ken went to a farmer's market that is held in a park in SLC. He was hoping to find something that someone would trade a tree for, but he didn't see anything he wanted all that much.
The reception was at a friend of the bride and groom's house in Holiday. They had a beautifully landscaped yard with a little rock-lined stream running through it. They had pie and ice cream for refreshments--soft ice cream of course (my brother works at a place that sells and services soft ice cream machines). As always, I love visiting with my family.
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Today our regular Sunday meetings were cancelled and instead we attended the Oquirrah Mountain Utah Temple Dedication which was broadcast to our Stake Center. In order to go we had to have a special ticket to show that we are Temple worthy (in addition our Temple recommends). It was a good experience.

Skyline High 1969 class Reunion

We had our 40th year class reunion this past week. It was amazing how many people I did not recognize until I looked at the high school picture on their name tags. I was quite shy in my childhood and the people I knew the best were the ones in my ward. Only 2 people from my ward showed up on either Friday or Saturday. Oh well. I've managed to e-mail several friends from my ward when I was in high school. Their addresses were on the high school reunion website. It is fun to see how they are doing and basically get acquainted again.

The reunion was held on 2 days--Friday night and a Saturday picnic. They were both very nice. Friday we were at the Willow Creek Country Club in Sandy. It was a very nice place all the way from food to landscaping. We had choices of chicken or prime rib, rice pilaf or mashed potatoes, marinated veges, grilled veges and a green salad (I loved the veges). And of course a choice of chocolate cake or cheese cake. The food was really GOOD. I sat at a table where I didn't really recognize any of the people. However, we had a nice visit anyway. One of our classmates has been a motivational speaker for Franklin Covey and he spoke a little on Friday night. He also had a great story about him being the only sophomore in an auto mechanics class full of juniors and seniors. One of the seniors said he needed to connect the battery and asked Rory to ask the teacher for a fallopian tube. The teacher had him repeat the question and then told him he needed to take a health class.

The band at the park on Saturday played music from our era and it was fun to hear that music again. They were a bit loud and when they were playing you couldn't carry on much of a conversation. And I was told that what I heard was after they had been asked to tone it down. There was great food this day too. Fresh beef sliced right there and put on buns, potato salad and cole slaw, baked beans (the best I've ever tasted), and mud pie.

Meteors

We heard on the news this evening that there should be a good meteor shower tonight and tomorrow. Ken and I went outside at about 11 and talked and watched the north east sky for an hour. I saw 1 meteor and Ken didn't see any. It is now 1:15 and I am going to give it one more try. Kind of disappointing to stay up this late and not see at least a few. We can't decide if it is because we are out too early, or if the city lights in the distance are too bright for the "shooting stars" to show up.

I went out for another half hour and saw 3 shooting stars. It is a beautiful night to be out. It is just starting to feel sort of cool at 1:45. At midnight is was just pleasant. It was a nice night to lay in a hammock stare at the stars and talk to my sweetheart.

Empty nest parenting

I've been reading a book by Linda and Richard Eyre and their daughter Saren. It is called Empty Nest Parenting. It talks about different ways that parents and children interact and communicate once they (the children) leave the home. I think it is interesting to think about, so I am going to put some of the ideas they have in their book here. I would love your input.

One questions is "What do I need from my kids once they are gone?"
Here are some of the answers that I agree with. Each new quote is from a different person.

"You'll need them to keep needing you, but you're not going to be their prime source of everything anymore." (I know I quit being the prime source of everything a long time ago for all of you).

"I think there are three things I really need from my kids...First, I need information! The more I know about what they're doing, the less I worry--even if they are doing some worrisome things. I worry less than if I don't know. My imagination is always worse than reality. Second, I need appreciation. Not a whole lot of it, but just a thank you when appropriate and maybe even some retroactive thanks for things they now realize they didn't thank me for along the way. Third, I really need them to show they need me once in a while. It makes my day when one of my moved-away kids asks for my opinion or, better yet, my advice!" (I really identify with this response).

"I think it's reasonable to expect regular communication from your kids--e-mails, phone calls, whatever you decide together works best for you." (I really identify with this one too. More about phone calls below).

This is me speaking now. Since I don't hear well--and it seems to be even worse on the phone, I like phone calls if you speak up and don't get irritated when I have to have you repeat things. The grand kids seem to be especially hard to understand on the phone. If you call, I like for you to tell me things that are going on with you, without me having to dig for them. For some reason, I can't think of things to ask until after you hang up. I love to hear about everyday things that are happening, not just the big ones (although I want to know about the big ones too). I really wish I could be close enough to visit more regularly without it being so expensive. I love e-mails because I can read them multiple times and look back at them when I am feeling lonely. I love it when you write in your blogs because you all have a marvelous way of describing what is happening to you.

So tell me. What do you expect from me now that you are all moved away? How do you all like to communicate?

Another exciting day

Ken was originally scheduled to work on Saturday, so I signed up to help in the Church cannery canning green beans. Ken said things have been very slow at the store and he noticed that the Park City art show was on Saturday so he asked if he could have the day off and they said yes. So now, instead of me going to the cannery while Ken is at work, I go to the cannery while Ken goes to Park City--what is wrong with this picture?

Anyway, I haven't volunteered for a while there because I have had to work on the days our Stake was scheduled last time. And such STIMULATING work it was. My job was to make sure the salt water got into the cans before they went on to get lids on the cans. Since it is all automated, actually all I did was watch as they passed in front of me and jets of water filled the cans with the salt water. If the line of cans got stopped for some reason I got to turn off the water until the cans started moving again. What is that you said about mindless work Timber? I also got to help spray down some of the machinery after the shift was over. I managed to squirt myself in the face with a hose I obviously didn't have total control over. I also got to purchase a case of beans when I was done. I could have purchased up to 3 cases, but I didn't bring my checkbook, and I only had a little cash.

It was interesting to see how much of the work is automated. I was inside the cannery and didn't see in detail all of the work going on outside. I'm not sure who cuts the stems off of the beans, but they have machinery that washes, slices, blanches and moves the beans by conveyer belt past workers who sort out any leftover stems and bad-looking beans. Then it goes in a machine that tumbles the beans over the cans so the beans fill up and then workers make sure there aren't too many or too few beans in each can. Someone is continually weighing sample cans to make sure they have the proper amount in them. Then the cans have salt water put in (that's where I was) then they are heated again, the lid put on the cans and then processed in huge bins. I'm not sure if the bins are filled with hot water or with steam. They are constantly cleaning up beans that end up on the floor and all the machinery is cleaned real well at the end of each shift.

Can you imagine 8 hours of such fun? Boy I really love my job as Lactation Consultant!