I did it…..sort of… and country roots rise again!

In keeping with the “theme” of my last few posts, about getting out in the fresh air (in an open, moving vehicle) and belting out familiar tunes from my youth, I made a feeble attempt this last weekend to fulfill that desire.

My sister Linda and I drove to Preston to visit our Aunt Mardene  who was recovering from cataract surgery (and our sister Diane).  Mardene lives alone, but is such a determined and independent person.  She needed a little help putting all the eye drops in, but other than that she was doing great.

We decided to take her for a country ride.  It is sort of a tradition in our family to drive around Cache Valley and look at all the pretty places.  We drool over some of the hidden farms nestled against the hills and always fall madly in love with any aging barn.  If the farm has a white fence around it we can’t get enough of it.

We headed a few miles east to the “town” of Franklin, located right on the Utah-Idaho border.   (In our world, a small community is called a town and a creek is called a river.)  Franklin was the very first settlement in Idaho and you can see the 1860 on the mountain.  The town is also famous for La Tienda, the service station/restaurant/convenience store that sells lottery tickets (to all the Utah people).

This is the little mountain we climbed every Easter along with all our cousins.  We would hike up to the cave at the top and then roll our Easter eggs down the mountain.

(That could have been a lot of deviled eggs instead!)

 

This lovely place is for sale!

Wouldn’t it be a nice spot to live?

However, this one is more in my budget!

Don’t you love the variety of the scenery?

 

Here are a few more shots.

 

It is kind of a sad scenario that instead of a riding in an open Mustang convertible we had to settle for an old mini van with the door wide open, but Linda did a good job hanging out to take pictures.

We might or might not have sung any Beetles songs.

Still, it was a good day!

JoAnn

 

A blast from the past and some more spring color

 

I’m excited to say that  I have indeed enjoyed some reflective moments this weekend listening to some old, familiar songs from my teenage years

and

I have taken a few new pictures, too.

I haven’t managed the wild free ride in an open car part, yet.

(If you are wondering how the two things connect- they  really don’t, except that they both make me happy.)

You can listen to the music as you scroll down the post.

Remember his concert, Barbara? 

We were so excited to tag along with her brother.

 

(This one is just a sampler-you don’t get the whole song and some of this music is not my favorite.)

 

 

 

But first, Happy Birthday, Linda!

 

We had a fun birthday party last night!

 

I just love these flowers against the white fence,

 

and these flowers climbing the rocks.

More tulips…

The weekend isn’t over yet…..

stay tuned!

JoAnn

A Little Bit of Nothing….and some pretty tulips

 

It’s such a beautiful time of year.

Everywhere I go I see colorful blossoms and early spring flowers.

Trees are covered with explosions of pink and white.

The weather is not too cold-and not too hot.

(It’s my personal comfort zone of 70-74 degrees!)

Our grass is GREEN!

It’s perfect.

I should be giddy with excitement.

Unfortunately,

I can’t think of one single thing to blog about.

We’re testing at school and the days are long.

I’d rather be working in my yard.

This weekend, I think I will take a little drive, armed with my camera (and maybe some 60’s music).

Too bad we don’t have our old Mustang convertible any more.

I’ll enjoy some:

Bobby Vinton

Herman’s Hermits

Beatles

Herb Alpert

The Monkees

The Rolling Stones

The Mama’s and the Papa’s

The Beach Boys

 

Any other suggestions?

I hope it works!

JoAnn

 

P.S.  I will miss Dick Clark and his forever young attitude!

(The man never aged.)

I think I’m still alive….

Spring Break did not disappoint.

It wasn’t exciting and thrilling to document,

but it was productive

and we had some fun, too.

First off, our crab-apple tree decided to time its grand entrance for this week.

This tree really makes me happy right now!

At the end of the summer all those pink blossoms become little apples that fall.  Then- not so much.

It is a price I’m willing to pay.

Our painting job is coming along.

Some of you expressed concern that we were headed in a boring brown direction, but we had it red for around ten years and we needed a change.  (I still love red.)  This room opens up to three other rooms and  that involves a lot of color matching, so we needed something kind of neutral.

We had quite a debate about what to do with the wooden shelves.

Nobody loved the color of the stain so we decided to paint.

(These permanent decisions are too stressful!)

 

I had wanted to paint the backs the wall color, but after another debate we decided it made all the decorations disappear and  blend in too much.

(My good husband did a lot of extra work to allow me to “see for myself”.)

We are slowing getting things finished and I can’t wait for all the messes to be cleaned up.

Half of the bookcase is now finished..

We are pleased with how it turned out.

We also  enjoyed a fun family Easter party in Idaho.  There was lots of food and plenty of cousins.

Easter eggs were created.

The weather cooperated and we had an outdoor egg/candy hunt.

The Easter Bunny even made an appearance.

The worst part of Spring Break…..

It didn’t last long enough!

JoAnn

 

Conference, painting decisions, and a new chair….

 

Conference weekend was the perfect beginning to a greatly anticipated Spring Break!

Conference is one of my favorite spiritual feasts.  Twice a year we get to listen to wonderful messages from our church leaders, and all from the comfort of our own homes (and in our pajamas if we want to)!

General Conference is broadcast from the Conference Center in Salt Lake City, Utah to all parts of the world.

I enjoyed all of the many messages and realized how each one pertained to me.  (Yes, I have a lot of weaknesses!)

Some of my favorite ideas include: 

(Thanks to www.SpirituallyThinking.blogspot.com for the following.)

This thought was from our Prophet, Thomas S. Monson.

This advice came from Elder Jeffrey R. Holland.

Check out his wonderful talk  here. 

President Uchtdorf always gives wonderful messages. You can listen to him here.

and

This message from  Elder Ronald A. Rasband was  both touching and comforting  for anyone with a special needs family member.  You can watch it here.  It made us cry.

WHAT A BLESSING IT HAS BEEN TO LISTEN AND LEARN FROM THESE SPIRITUAL GIANTS!

* * * * * *

After a lot of debating, pondering, uncertainty,

and gnashing of teeth (mine), we decided to change our “red” family room to a “brown” family room.

As the dark chocolate paint went on the walls I was ready to immediately abort the whole project, but my husband refused to stop painting until I could see the whole effect.

I only  hated him for two days, but his strategy paid off in the end.  (Sorry, Ken!)  It does look much better now that it doesn’t touch other colors.

Another big decision we made was to paint the book cases and mantle a creamy white.

I’m still holding my breath on that one.

I’ll post some pictures soon.

* * * * * * *

Do you like our new chair?

Phewww…..

My very long post is now finished! 

I’ve got some pansies that need to find a new home in my flower beds.  Guess I’d better get some work done!

JoAnn

P.S.  Does anybody know how to spell “phew”?

Is it a real word?