When Grandma Was A Little Girl - #26

Story #26 - Sleeping on the roof – and it always rained!

Our house had a flat roof. We had a patio off the one end of our house. It had a patio wall that was six feet high that enclosed the patio. We had two arched doors at each end of the patio. Just outside the living room it led out into the patio. Inside the patio we had stairs that led up to the rooftop that was over the top of the living room. My father had built a three-foot high wall that surrounded the entire top of the house. It was so neat to be able to go up on the roof and sit and watch the stars or look down around the neighborhood. It was cool in the summer evenings. My parents put a double bed up on the roof. My brothers would sleep out there at night. It was hot in the house and much cooler up on the roof. It only took a few nights of sleeping up there and it would rain at night. My parents put heavy plastic over the top of the bed to keep my brothers dry. My twin brother and I would take turns to sleep up there too. I remember my first time up there I was scared! After the first two or three times I wasn’t so scared. When you think about it. I was safe up on the roof. When it was July 4th – Independence Day- we would go up on the roof and we could see all the fireworks people set off. We had a great view up there!

When I was little, we could get all kinds of fireworks. Today a lot of them are outlawed. I can see the reason why they are outlawed. Some of the fireworks are dangerous and people are hurt every year. But when you are small, all you think about is the 'bang' they make and the excitement!

David and Angela Guptill's Wedding

I am waiting for the photographer to post all the pictures on her website. We are so happy for David and Angela! It was a beautiful wedding! David said that it was the 'happiest day of his life!' We're so grateful for all those who took the time out of their busy lives to travel the distance to come and support David and Angela. They are honeymooning in Cancun!

I couldn't help hold back the tears of joy while he was standing next to the minister watching his beautiful bride walking next to her father up to the front. He was fighting back the tears and held his composure. I smiled through my tears! David was 'so handsome!' Angela was a breath of beauty and loveliness! She held her composure and smiled and was just gorgeous!

Of course, the little ring bearer and flower girls, my grandson Zachary Ward (Bob & Julie's son) and our granddaughters LaRue Newby (Jordan and Lisa's daughter; Brynnly Ward (Bob & Julie's daughter); and Lauren and McKenna Gleed (Chris and Michelle's daughters) were a hit! What cutie pies!

The bridesmaids were so elegant and the groomsmen were so handsome, especially David's brother Douglas,a soon-to-be groom in 2 1/2 weeks! Yes, we have another wedding! The boys are getting married 3 weeks apart! Douglas and Ashley are getting married August 29th back east. She's from Georgia! Then all our children will be married. We know Kirsten, who is our youngest (18 years old) at home and is special and due to her special needs, won't marry. Kirsten enjoyed all the wedding festivities. She so much enjoyed all our company we had at home!

We had a total of 21 people in our home. It was so much fun! I enjoyed every moment and now I'm sad that they have all gone to their own homes. Sniff! Sob! My three married daughters and their families stayed with us. Douglas' fiancee Ashley also stayed with us. We love our two new daughters-in-law and they are so sweet and we are so happy to have them as part of our family! They have wonderful families of their own and we look forward to knowing their parents and siblings and extended family!

When Grandma Was A Little Girl - #25

Story #25 - I had to have my tonsils out. My throat hurt!

Do you like being sick? It isn’t very much fun is it? You can’t play with friends or even go outside to play!

My brother Douglas and I had a lot of sore throats. I can remember having the mumps and that was not fun! I only had them on one side, and I can’t remember which side. I do remember not feeling great and my throat hurting. When I was little they did not have a vaccine for mumps. I also got other sore throats. I had huge tonsils. I had trouble swallowing food. I had to take small bites. If I took a big bite and did not chew thoroughly, I would choke on the food. It’s scary to be choking and not be able to breathe!

Douglas got strep throat a lot. He even had white puss on his tonsils. When I got a sore throat my tonsils would swell even bigger. They looked like a pair of marbles sitting at the back of my throat. Every winter you could count on Douglas and I being sick with sore throats. Well I was almost 13 years old and Douglas was 16. Doctor Klump, our family doctor in Tularosa, New Mexico, told my mom that ‘our tonsils had to come out!’ He would take out our adenoids and our tonsils. I can remember being sooo excited! I had never been to the hospital before. My brother wasn’t so excited. My mom took both of us to Ruidoso, about 40 minutes away. The hospital was really small. We stayed over night. I had a little red case, oblong shaped, with chrome trim. I packed my favorite things in it. I also took a teddy bear, my panda. I named him 'Snookie.' I couldn’t take my other teddy bear named 'Cookie'; he was too big. There was a television program every week called ‘The Virginian.’ An actor named James Drury was ‘The Virginian.’ They called him that name because he was from Virginia. Well I was ‘in love’ with James Drury! I had a picture taken from the cover of a magazine that had the cast of ‘The Virginian’ and I put that picture in my little red case.

It was late July and so there was no school and we had to get the surgery done before school started up again. I remember being wheeled into surgery, I went first and then Doug was after me. I can remember waking up from surgery and I couldn’t talk or swallow very well and my throat really hurt! Before I had the surgery my voice was always kind of deep. I would be embarrassed when I answered the phone and the person on the other end asked if I were one of my brothers. You could say I had an annoying loud voice, talking or laughing! This doesn’t sound very nice but my brothers called me ‘Fog Horn Annie’ because my voice was so loud! I didn’t like being called that at all! Well after surgery my voice went up an octave! I had a softer and higher sounding voice. That was pretty cool! My whole family noticed the change. I have to say, ‘for the better! I no longer sounded like one of my brothers nor did they call me that awful name ‘Fog Horn Annie!’

We went home later in the afternoon. My mom was told to give us ice packs for our throat and we could eat soup, jell-o or ice cream. My brother Doug felt worse than I did. The older you are the harder to recover from that surgery. My mom had 7-up for us to drink, but nothing tasted good. Water didn’t taste good. The 7-up stung our throat from the carbonation in it. We both felt miserable! She gave us Bayer aspirin for the pain, but it didn’t help much. She made jell-o and gave us some and it was okay. She gave us ice cream but that didn’t taste good and it make our throats feel yucky. We were spitting out blood and ice cream being a milk product combined with blood, the ice cream tasted awful! Then she gave us pudding and that didn’t taste good either for the same reason the ice cream didn’t taste good. My mom told both Douglas and I we were being picky and not very grateful. She spent food budget money on treats for us to make us comfortable and we didn’t show any appreciation. Well, we were sorry but our throats hurt too much and nothing tasted good. She finally ended up just giving us Chicken Noodle Soup. That tasted good. We did get to have Popsicles and they were good and it made our throats feel better.

I was up and around in 3 days but my brother Doug was down for a week! He was not feeling good at all. It took him over a week to be up and about again. Both of us were so much healthier after our tonsils were gone. We rarely got sick with sore throats after surgery. We didn’t miss as much school during the winter months like we used to. It was so great not to be sick every single winter! I remember the best part of having my tonsils out; one-I wasn’t sick hardly at all anymore in the winter; two-my voice was higher and softer and I wasn’t called ‘Fog Hog Annie’ anymore!

When my daughter Lisa was 3 years old she had her tonsils and adenoids removed. She had very big tonsils just like her mom, me! We had to be very careful if we left her with anyone to baby sit. We told the babysitter to be careful when Lisa ate so she wouldn’t choke. It made people so nervous that they would never let her eat anything. She could drink whatever she liked, but they did not let her eat. She was always hungry when we got back.

We were visiting my parents in New Mexico and Lisa choked on a lemon drop. She wasn’t allowed to have hard candy but somehow she snuck one from the candy dish and the next thing we knew she was chocking. It got caught in her throat and she started choking. Her face turned blue and then purple. We gave her the Heimlich maneuver and it did not help. We had her bend over and slapped the middle of her back and that didn’t work. We gave her warm water to drink and that didn’t work. This all happened in less than half a minute. She was still purple and couldn’t breathe. Her dad, your grandpa, turned her upside down and ‘shook her’ and then turned her right side up. I put my index finger in her mouth and felt the lemon drop. It was trapped behind her right tonsil. I hooked my finger around it and ‘yanked it out!’ The lemon drop scratched her throat and she spit up a little bit of blood. She gasped for air and could breathe again. What a relief! That scared us to death! What I should have done when Neil shook her upside down, while she was still upside down that’s when I should have checked her throat and then pulled the lemon drop out. By having her right side up again the lemon drop could have slid back down her throat again. When we got back to Oregon (we lived in Redland, Oregon about 8 minutes from Oregon City) we made an appointment and she had her tonsils out! No more choking! Her doctor told us that the lemon drop probably was down to her larynx and was blocking the air passage to her lungs. He said if we had not got the lemon drop out she would have had to have a tracheotomy or she would have died from not breathing. That’s where you cut a vertical slit on the outside of the hollow of the throat in your neck. I’m so glad we didn’t have to do that!

Here's A Funny Story :o)

‘The Rock’ – Wood fired pizza

Here’s a funny story…

This past Monday my Visiting Teachers had us all meet for a luncheon. They like to do this in the summer sometimes. It’s fun to get together. They asked me if I had a suggestion where to eat in Covington, WA., that’s where we live. I love good New England Clam Chowder! I suggested that we eat at ‘The Rock’ and I told them about the luncheon bar where you can eat all you want for about $9.00 (It’s actually $9.59). None of them had ever been there so we all met there. I’d been there several times.

Now I forgot to mention one little thing to these sisters (ages 50 to 74)- the atmosphere and music. This is the funny part of the story. Kirsten and I are the first to arrive and then one by one the other 4 arrive. Well it was bright and sunny outside and when you first enter ‘The Rock’ it’s lighting is more subdued (not like a bar-not that I’ve been in a bar! The Rock has a bar but it’s separate from the dining area.). ‘The Rock’ is about rock music and artists. Each of their menus has a different rock star on them, Van Halen, etc. The music is soft to medium rock music, nothing hardcore. And, it’s a little loud. The motif is brick walls. The first time I went, my son David took me and I thought ‘The Rock’ meant Alcatraz, as the décor was bleak and dreary. Then David said, “No mom, its rock stars and music.” I said, "Oh.” All these things I ‘forgot’ to mention to these sisters. I had a one-track mind, the food was great! We all got to our table and we’re seated and the 74 year old says, “I can’t see to read the menu, it’s a little dark!” (After a few minutes your eyes adjust and you see fine.) The late 50’s sister said, “Man the music is a little loud in here. I don’t know if I like this or not.” Then I said, “Oh, I guess I forgot to mention the atmosphere and music, but the food is really great! I took Ginger Milam here for lunch one day and she loved it!” Ginger is 61! She’s a high school math teacher and she’s cool too! You’d never guess she’s 61! I love her and she’s so sweet! Then I also added, “You know I just have a way of ‘tuning out’ what I don’t want to hear, whether it is music, conversation, etc. and it doesn’t bother me.”

About this time, they are looking questioningly at me and they said, “Sis. Guptill I had no idea you frequented places like this!” They said it good-naturedly. Well not to be deterred by their comment I said, “Well, now sisters, you can go home and tell your families ‘you’ve been to The Rock!’ Now that’s living!” Then before we got up to get our food, I said I would offer the blessing on the food. The music was a little loud but not too loud so you really had to listen to hear the prayer, we didn’t want to be too obvious. Ha! Ha! Ha! Not be noticed! Five middle-aged women in ‘The Rock’ with a young girl, my daughter Kirsten… Anyway…halfway through the prayer it got really quiet and for half a minute after the prayer ended. The one sister said, “Wasn’t that nice, they turned the music down so we could pray.” The other sister said, “Oh, I don’t think they turned the music down, I just think the song ended.” Then another sister said, “Oh we asked ahead if they would turn the music down.” Then we all laughed! Once we all got settled and got our food and yummy clam chowder and were talking, things went well. After awhile one sister said, ‘You know I guess I don’t mind the music so much and it didn’t bother me after all. Then we looked up and over one of the exit signs was a red neon sign with an arrow that said,” stairway to heaven” The one gal said, “To which heaven, up or down!” She laughed and we all laughed!

Here’s the kicker...we were all talking about seeing the movie “Emma” which most of us had seen. It’s really good. It gives you a whole different perspective about Emma Smith. Then we got off on polygamy, which we know today is NOT practiced and forbidden by the church. However, we talked about how Emma didn’t like it. Well I told the sisters, “Sign me up!” They looked at me and said, “I’ve never heard anyone that was for that! You like it?” I said, “Think about it logically, you get to divide up the work and these younger ones can do the ‘bedroom stuff’ they are young and and oh well, you know.” We all had a good laugh! The one sister said, ‘Well, I guess being in here we really have become little devils! We all laughed. I wondered as we went outside what the ‘young 20 something’ waitresses were thinking! I laughed even harder! I’m sure the next time these gals, my friends, go to the Post office and look across the street at ‘The Rock’ they will always remember what it is! A pizza place for young people and ‘middle-aged!’ :o) Honestly it really is a nice place to take your family.

TAG! I'M IT!

I am only doing this because ‘I love Michelle!’
I have to ask myself—Why do I dislike doing the ‘Tag’ thing???
Hmmm. I could only come up with two good reasons. Just the two.
The answer: It takes time! It also means that you have to be personal and reveal things about yourself! That’s what makes it so interesting. It gets others to know you on a personal level. Sad that I would think ‘time’ and ‘being personal’ are factors. I can certainly spend lots of ‘time’ on the computer and reading ‘other blogs about other people.’ So I climbed down off my private little perch and here goes…

What Was I Doing 10 years Ago?
Let’s see, brush through the cobwebs in my brain…
The year 1998. We were living in Hawaii, two of my children had left the nest and four were still at home. I was serving in the YW as 2nd Cnslr. and teaching the Mia Maids and loved it! A year later I was the YW President. I loved the girls and they were so awesome! Kirsten was 8 years old and health-wise was doing very well!

What Is On My To-Do List Today?
Well I’ll tell you what I did yesterday!
-It only took 2 ½ hours to clean my house from top to bottom, vacuum, sweep, mop, dust, clean bathrooms, and wipe down kitchen. It’s such a breeze with half your stuff in storage!
-I went to a VT luncheon with my Visiting Teachers. We went to ‘The Rock’ a pizza place and the food is great! Now that’s a funny story-middle aged women going to a pizza place with rock music!
-I mailed some letters.
-I returned a book to the library. I decided I did not want to read it; it was dry and not too interesting.
-I went to Costco and did shopping.
-I went to Wal-Mart and did more shopping.
-I came home and put everything away from shopping.
-Doug and Ashley arrived from Utah.
-We chatted until 1AM!

What Are 3 Habits of Mine?
-I’m a clean freak! I don’t like messes.
-I have ‘an inquiring mind and curiosity’ – I like to learn and search out answers!
-I tend to be ‘impatient’ and want those answers now!

3 Things You Might Not Know About Me
-I hate salesmen! I especially do not like it when they call on the phone! Don’t call me, I’ll call you-which will be never!
-I love ‘fairytale & happily ever after’ movies!
-Someday I’m going to own my own l968 or something Mustang and I also want a Vespa, it’s moped-scooter!

4 TV Shows/Movies That I love
-#1 Shenandoah
-#2 The Slipper and the Rose
-#3 Jane Austin movies-Sense & Sensibility & Much ado About Nothing
-#4 The Work and the Glory movies and also Emma
-Okay I have to add all the Harry Potter movies too and Little Women with Winona Ryder! :o)

4 Books That I Love
-#1 Little Women by Louisa May Alcott
-#2 All the Harry Potter Books by JK Rowling
-#3 The Ant and The Elephant by Bill Peet (I loved reading this book to my kids!)
-#4 A Heart Like His by Virginia Pearce
(My first love of reading is 'the scriptures and doctrine!')



4 Jobs That I Have Had
-I worked at a Tastee Freeze
-I worked as a cashier at Tularosa Drug Store
-I worked as a teller at Security Bank & Trust in Alamogordo, NM
-I worked as a secretary in a branch of US Bank in Oak Grove, Oregon
My very first job was a papergirl. I delivered the Alamogordo Daily Newspaper.

5 Places I Have Lived
-Tularosa, New Mexico
-Oregon City, Oregon
-Clackamas, Oregon
-Kailua, Hawaii
-Covington, Washington

5 Of My Favorite Foods
-#1 I love to eat all kinds of salads, green, oriental, fruit, etc.!
-I love all kinds of muffins!
-I love a turkey dinner with all the trimmings!
-I love canned sweet peas. I love to eat them cold, not warm and they are good in green salads!
-I love chocolate, candy, ice cream, etc.!

I DON'T TAG ANYONE! :o)

When Grandmas Was A Little Girl - #23

Story #23 - Christmas tree cutting and hot chocolate-Cloudcroft
Do you like to go and pick out your family Christmas tree? Do you get all excited?

When I was growing up we drove up to Cloudcroft, about half an hour away, and would go cut down our Christmas tree. My dad had a friend who lived up in Cloudcroft and he would invite our family up to cut our Christmas tree. We always looked forward to this special trip! I can’t remember my dad’s friend’s first name. I only remember them as Mr. and Mrs. Mitchell. My mom would have us all bundle up in warm clothes and she would bring blankets and several thermoses of hot chocolate. Most of the time when we made the trip there was snow on the ground. Mr. Mitchell had a tree rope that hung from a tall fir tree not too far from his house. You could swing out far and it was so much fun! His home was on a hillside so there was a slope to the ground. You would hang onto the thick rope and then push off from the ground and swing out over the slope and then come back to the to the top of the mound of ground where you pushed off. We would then tramp through the snow up into the forest to find just the ‘perfect tree.’ My brother Geoffrey was not afraid of heights and he always looked for the best treetop. Then he or Douglas would climb up with the saw and cut the treetop off. They always made sure it was at least six feet tall! My mom would also have us cut sugar pine branches. She loved to decorate with the branches of long sugar pine.

One year when we went to get our tree from the Mitchells, it was really cold and the snow was deep and hard to tramp through. The snow came up to our knees. My dad and brothers finally found a suitable tree. Doug climbed up the tree and cut off the treetop. It was so cold; he just fell out of the tree onto the snow. He was so cold. He tried to warm up with hot cocoa but he didn’t really warm up until we got home and he had a hot bath!

My mom loved to decorate and she was very artistic and creative. She would put the branch swags of sugar pine on the top of the fireplace mantel. It was always so pretty. She would add pine cones to it as well. One year she bought several rolls of red velvet wrapping paper and covered the living room doors and used gold Christmas decorations and made a beautiful door arrangement onto the red velvet doors. It was beautiful! My mom would also have centerpieces on the coffee table in the family room. She always made it look so pretty at Christmas time.

When your grandpa and I lived in Hawaii while my kids were young I liked to decorate my front door with wrapping paper and a wreath and decorate the wreath. Our front door always looked pretty. I put lots of strings of small clear white Christmas lights under the edge of the overhang of the roof. I would put garland around the mailbox and post and would put a big red velvet bow on top of the mailbox. I had to throw the garland away every year because the dogs that walked by liked to ‘mark’ the mailbox post! We had Areca Palms along the side of the garage. They grew quite bushy. I intertwined lots of strings of clear white Christmas lights in those. When the wind blew softy the palm branches swayed so gracefully and the little clear white lights looked so beautiful. People that lived in Aikahi Park, where we lived, would walk by at night and always loved our decorations. I guess I took after my mom I that I love to decorate for Christmas!

(This story should be #23- I posted one a few days ago as #23 about a 'finitisimal bite' and that should have been story #24-oops. I corrected that one as story #24-not that anybody would know the difference!)

Have you solved the riddles yet???

Solving the riddles!

Riddle #1 - $100 and 100 animals
Solution-
94 chickens - $47.00
1 cow - $ 3.00
5 horses - $50.00

100 animals
$100.00


Riddle #2 - The farmer, the fox, chicken and grain
Solution
Step 1 -Take the chicken across and leave the fox with the grain, he won't eat it. Step 2 -Come back and get the fox and the grain will be left.
Step 3 -When you take the fox across bring the chicken back with you and the fox will be by itself.
Step 4 -When you bring back the chicken leave it off and take the grain back across to the fox.
Step 5 -Come back for the chicken and take it back across.
Now you have all 3 on the other side of the river.