MORNING MUSINGS

Every morning I arise very early, and put my iPod or MP3 player listener buds in my ears and listen to a podcast (usually about quilting, but I'm branching out) or a book on tape while I do Indexing (too long to explain) or answer e-mails (almost daily the first e-mail is to my sister Julia). This morning the podcast person was reviewing interesting books that she'd read recently and she reviewed one called Never Check E-mail in the Morning by Julie Morgenstern. Her advice is to do the most important thing you have to do that day first thing. E-mail can usually wait because if it's really important they will call you. I thought it was an interesting concept, but impractical in some ways. I guess it depends on when you get up!
However, that phrase "the most important thing you have to do stuck in my mind". I realize that I'm retired and I don't have a set schedule anymore. Most days, I do what I choose to do so I suppose I shouldn't be musing on the subject, but my mind went from there to a dozen other things all featuring that word "important".
My e-mails are important to me. This morning I had an e-mail from my sweet friend Cynthia about blogging and one from Julia about their safe return home from Portland last night. Hearing from friends and family keeps me grounded and if I want to read my e-mails in the morning, by gum, I will.
Stuff is important to me. You'll see a picture of the top of my computer desk where a good example of important "stuff" is located. Here's the list of what you'll see and why:

• a pencil holder/clock--a reminder of my years at Royal Middle School.
• a little picture of Great-Grandma and Grandpa Whitby in their prime
• a dusty, cracked, dust catching cherub from Susan's wedding reception which watches over me from her fancy perch. I often notice her tongue is pretty much imbedded in her cheek
• a picture of Tom, Julia, Garth and I at a high school class reunion which reminds me that, unlike many of our friends, we got and married the "best of the best"
• tiny framed pictures of Joe and Julirae which were precious to my dad and to remind me that children do grow up and become pretty nice adults
• a tiny glass bluebird which I purchased to give to my dear Mother on the day she died
• a picture of a toddler Marissa in the bathtub sucking her thumb
• a Jim Shore angel (each of my granddaughters have angels) which is the Angel of Persistence to help me keep "trucking"
• a kaleidoscope which Janeen and Greg made and gave us for Christmas many, many years ago and which still fills me with wonder when I look through it
• a framed picture of my two oldest daughters which I found in Melba's things
• a little cowboy twirling his lariat which makes me chuckle to think that old codger can still "twirl that rope"

These are the things which are important to me at this hour of the day. Like the ad, their price: priceless. Give yourself a break today Do something that will be priceless to someone else.

EVERYONE NEEDS A MARISSA AND A WHOLE LOT OF SNOW!

One of our constant joys is our sweet granddaughter Marissa. She is a "slam-bam, thank you ma'am" girl. She visits us often on school mornings with lots of information. Nothing is sacred to Marissa and she keeps us well-informed about all of the De la Rosa "secrets". She bursts through the door yelling "Grandma! Grandpa! Where are you?" as she's taking off her shoes. She stays until it's time for the bus. She has a $1, 000, ooo smile and a happy disposition. She has an aversion to anything that looks like work unless there's money involved. She's a doll.

I know everyone's tired of snow, but I took a couple of pictures. I kept intending to write a blog about how beautiful the snow is. One sunny day last week we drove by an orchard with a billion sparkles throughout. It was absolutely beautiful! But, after awhile, it just isn't so beautiful. You'll recognize our mail box, our driveway (where Garth piles the snow), and the other picture is none other than Mardon Lake frozen over.

HELLO BIRTHDAY, GOODBYE DIET

Today is Garth's 66th birthday and he looks great don't you think? This picture is your proof that he's changing some of his thinking in his old age. Please notice the walls in the family room--they are no longer white. This is quite a departure for us--especially Garth. We're going carpet hunting again tomorrow. This is a hard task for us because we're decorating savvy-challenged. Any input will be taken under advisement.

I've put in a little video of the birthday party. Beware it's loud! The candles are on a cake and a coconut cream pie..! We had a good time with lots of noise. The little girls--there were eight played Ring around the Rosies (???) and stomped their feet a lot because the family room was so echoy! Our diets were ruined because of coconut cream pie and cake!

THINGS ARE A-CHANGING

We've told everyone that we want to get some work done on our house before we leave it sitting for eighteen months and we've gotten a start. First we started with the garage:

My pictures didn't turn out too well. This is pantry with new shelves and old food thrown out. What a job!

This is the workbench area which really looks great especially since it's the workshop. I didn't take a picture of the other shed outside which Dad has cleaned up as well.

This next picture was taken at 11:30 last night because I wanted you to see our snow and the bright lights on the Community Hall. They were installed for liability purposes but everyone is complaining about them. They are very bright. I love it because they serve as a night light in our house, but David is really upset because they shine right in his room.

Now the final one is of the family room. Please note that the family room looks like it did on the night of Julirae's graduation so many years ago! Thanks to suggestions from Greg, our Christmas entourage (David, Jaime & Julirae), we're looking at some new and startling (for us old folks) changes for the room. You'll also notice that the TV and chair are still in the room. That's because that TV is the recording TV and the Nintendo TV which is also why the chair is still there!

We'll keep you posted as the work progresses. I'm excited, but we'll see if the two of us can get this done together. I tell Dad he's a "bossy" boss.

LIKE MOTHER, LIKE DAUGHTER

Our beautiful little girl Dawniella Joan Castleton was blessed today. (For those of you who are not LDS, a child is "presented" to the members of the congregation and given a blessing which will help them throughout their lives.) Julirae made her a beautiful dress as you can see in the picture--much more dress than baby. I made the little sweater--which I just barely finished this morning. Thank goodness, Church didn't start until 11:30! Julirae also made booties which you can't see which she was also frantically trying to get finished. Without comparing notes, we had chosen exactly the same yarn. Of course, Dawniella was pretty unconcerned by the whole event and had the good sense to spit up all over Kjerstin and didn't get a drop on her dress. She charmed the whole ward, including Grandpa who blessed her.

CLOSETED CHRISTMAS

Christmas is back in its closet tonight. Nicole, Sammie and I spent most of the day yesterday wrapping and packing things in boxes and totes. Above was the pile when we quit last night. I was convinced that everything would fit in the closet. This morning I carried stuff upstairs and shelved it. When Nicole and Meagan came over, I had this pile which I wasn't sure at all would fit in the already stuffed holiday closet--there is some other holiday stuff in it.After Nicole and Meagan arrived, we went to town first of all for snacks to sustain us and then set to work. With our three great brains and Nicole's eye for organization, the closet now looks like this:

Of course, Murphy's Law being what it is, we found one tote sitting in the front room after we had finished! I swore all the kids to secrecy, but we did admit to Grandpa that one tote was in the bedroom closet. We were proud of our work and celebrated by having a fun day with Jennie and her kids. We had one mishap provided by a football launching contraption called Mr. Quarterback (I couldn't get a good picture) which launched a football right into TJs mouth with a little help from Mr. Dylan. All TJ got was a fat lip and a lesson learned that it isn't wise to step in front of a high flyin' football!