St. Patrick's Day weekend

March 15, 16, 17, and 18 were quite eventful at our house. First of all, the peach and plum trees were blooming – early, I might add.

(photo by Sarah)

Huh? You ask? According to my pruning book, one does not prune these trees until they are blooming. But, on top of this project were a WHOLE LOT more tasks for that weekend. First of all, Friday night was the annual dinner that the stake presidency gives the bishops and branch presidents and their wives. So, Thursday night had the stake presidency wives decorating the Primary room in the stake center for the event.
this is part of the table decor.....

Friday was spent making food for that night AND setting up the cultural hall in the stake center for the BIG stake Relief Society event scheduled for Saturday afternoon. The big event that I was in charge of and that we had been planning for several months and that involved many people teaching classes on emergency preparedness and supervising humanitarian aid projects.


here is a class on sprouting



women threading ties in baby booties to donate to needy families.



women making greeting cards to send to troops which they can then send to their loved ones.

I am happy to report that the afternoon went very well, we had over 200 sisters participate, and many people had only nice things to say. I must say, if it weren’t for the missionaries, set up and take down would have been daunting! They were fantastic.


In addition to all the hub bub going on at the church, Emily and Noah and Lucy came into town to visit and to celebrate St. Patrick’s day. Here we are enjoying traditional corned beef and cabbage dinner.


That is Genny Dazet, Emily’s good friend, joining us (next to Tamara)

These are some black and white cookies that Beckie made for the meal.


So, amid all the craziness of that weekend, guess where I was early Saturday morning? Yup – pruning

March in review

The next couple of blog posts will be a review of March. We have had record-breaking warm weather and everything has burst into bloom weeks before they normally do.

The month started with Tamara’s birthday celebration.

Check out the amazing veggie dish that Beckie made for her special dinner!

Later that month, it was “pie day” (3.14) and Sarah made seafood pot pies to celebrate. (because she is not eating sweets or desserts for Lent, we decided a dessert pie was probably not a good idea). My gluten-free pie is the one with the cute little dough-ball on the top. Mmmmm.

As mentioned in last blog, Central Methodist University spring break was the second week of March. One of my projects was to straighten the bridge of one of the school cellos. Here is how crooked it was.

And, the straightening process is quite surprising. I took the bridge off and got a small pot of water to boil. Once boiling, I took the pot off the heat, dropped the crooked bridge into water, covered it, and waited five minutes. Ta Da – the bridge is not crooked any longer.

Pretty amazing.

We had our Russian puppy friends ((Stohli and Nikko - he is the smaller one) over for a little visit this month. Here they are with Max begging for treats.

Max gets fancy in his begging.

Not solid little Sadie, though. Nikko and Stohli are so lively that she pretty much backs off and stays in the background.

Not really spring break

It is spring break week – for Columbia Independent School. However, it was spring break two weeks ago, too – for Central Methodist University. Which means I really don’t get a full spring break. Waa waa. But, having a partial break from my 30-hour work week two times in March was actually not too bad. I took the hours that I would have been traveling/teaching at CMU to make the final push on my 2011 photo book. Those long hours hunched over the computer paid off and I am done! This week, I am going to take the morning hours that I would be teaching orchestra at CIS and work in the yard. With our unseasonably warm spring, every plant has just leapt out of the ground and my fingers are itching to dig in the dirt. So much to plant – my three little blueberry bushes, the broccoli, cauliflower, and Brussels sprouts seedlings I started indoors under a grow-light. So much to transplant. So many flower beds to clean out.

I do love plants. I took some pictures of the little miniature worlds I have created with plants.

see my little turtle?

Continuing with the miniature motif, I also took photos of the two doll houses I am working on.

Notice all the little dogs in them! Ya, I even have too many pets in my pretend worlds. Sarah was sorting through one of her childhood treasure boxes and came across all the little dogs she collected and she kindly donated them to my doll houses.

Finally, Steve is currently in Utah visiting his family and his mother. He left Tuesday and will return this Wednesday. So, while he has been away, I have been entertaining myself with DVDs. I saw Limitless on Wednesday – quite thought provoking. On Friday, while making pizza, I watched Persuasion and Mansfield Park – from my personal Jane Austin DVD collection. Last night, while making tamales for Beckie’s birthday dinner tonight, I watched Kate and Leopold (a recent purchase because I am such a Hugh Jackman fan). Then, because my back was tired, I went downstairs and watched The Big Year – which I thought was great. I was not sure what to expect – not as funny but certainly had a great message and it was about birds! But, I don’t think I could ever do a big year – too much money and too much memory on bird calls and recognition. Earlier in the month, after I finally finished Emma, the book, I watched two versions of Emma on DVD (Gweneth Paltrow version and Romola Garai version – both from my collection). Steve and I watched Hoosiers in honor of March Madness and another time we saw an old Bob Hope flick called Casinova’s Big Night – it reminded me a little of The Court Jester. And, also earlier in the month on my own I watched Hugo – I loved it - Real Steel – surprisingly good and it had Hugh Jackman, and Insidious – eee, too scary for me.

Remembrance

The above obituary is for the mother of my oldest best friend. Jamie Kaye and I were born 6 months apart and we lived next door to each other in El Paso. She appears in my family photos and I in hers from the time we were toddlers. We played with each other practically every day. I thought her mother was the most beautiful woman I ever saw. And, I loved her name – Arnolda Edwina – it was so exotic. She and Jamie’s dad divorced sometime when we were in grade school so Arnolda had to go to work and she started as a school secretary at Ross Jr. High where Jamie and I attended 6^th grade together. It was so cool to have connections with the school office. My family moved from El Paso right when I started 7^th grade and I didn’t see Arnolda again until about six years ago when my sister, Juli, and I took a road trip to El Paso and down memory lane. Arnolda was, by then, a little frail but she was still able to walk and talk and live a relatively normal life. Sadly, her health started to decline and she has spent the last four (maybe five) years in a hospital bed in the house she and Jamie moved into after the old neighborhood started to decline (my old house is now a drug-runner’s home – complete with high fence and concertina wire! The beautiful yard my mother worked so hard to keep is now a cement parking lot). Jamie has cared for her mother at home this whole time and, while it is a beautiful release for Arnolda to go home to join her mother and father, it has left a huge hole in the life and heart of my friend. So, I want to remember Arnolda here and to pay loving tribute to the tireless sacrifices of my dear friend, Jamie Kaye.