Halley and the girls September 17, 2020

The grapes are ripe, 

and there are a lot of them.  Lincoln has been putting up 

juice and Halley decided to come over to put up some juice.  Halley, Aria, Evie, and Isabel arrived here about 3 pm.  The girls wanted to have a tea party so Grandma Tina had everything ready to go. 

Grandma Tina does such a great job with her tea parties. They so much fun.

Isabel wanted me to take her picture while she was eating her eclair.

Me and my cute hat!!

 

Aria knows just how to pose and so does Evie!

After we were through with the tea party Halley left to go pick grapes.  Isabel saw her leave and decided she could climb the steps also.  She did pretty well. I sure can't climb them. 

Tina and the girls decided to follow Isabel up and then they took a tour of the terraces. 

Just before Halley went home the girls asked me if we could do some snow cones. Chancy helped and we made some delicious flavors. Wished we had cones instead of bowls, but it worked. 

 

Isabel wanted her own bowl but wouldn\"t try it.  When her mother left she picked up her spoon and ate it by herself.  Little character. 

Senior Citizens September 8, 2020

 I guess Sid and I are considered senior citizens.  Being in our late 70's young people would consider us senior, even though my mind tells me I am 20. hehe

While we lived in Maryland we started to go to the senior citizens center for our lunches.  We would walk 2 to 3 miles and then go eat.  We met some really nice people there.

Now we live in Utah. There is a senior citizens center here also.  We haven't met any people yet because the center is closed.  They still fix meals and serve them to us senior citizens but in a different way.

This is the front of the senior citizens center.  All through May, June, July and August, this is where we received our meals.  We would drive our cars up on the walk and the women would come out to the car and give us our meals and we would take them home and eat them. 

This month they decided that we should drive our cars to the back of the building to receive our lunches. It made it easier to turn in and also not a traffic jam.

There were a few cars ahead of us today.  

The ladies are so sweet and friendly.  Sometimes they have fun things for us to do.  One day they had everyone sing or play their radios loud so they could hear our favorite songs.  Sid and I won a $5.00 Walmart card.

This lady always has on a different hat and mask. Sometimes even tells us corny jokes.

This is the lady that always hands us our lunch.  I hope someday to see her face.  She is a delight and always so cheerful.

Today being Tuesday (usually on Monday) being yesterday was a holiday, they loaded us up with free outdated food.  There was 1 dozen donuts, chicken wings, chicken salad, and 1 dozen rolls.

Lunch today: Rigatoni Pasta in meat sauce, Garden green salad, Fresh garlic roll, green beans, and little piece of cake with 1% carton of milk.

I am getting lazy because I don't have to cook everyday, except on Saturdays and we eat with Lincoln and Tina on Sundays. Its great being a SENIOR CITIZEN!!

Fire September 7, 2020

 When Sid and I moved from Maryland last year, May 2019, I thought with relief no more hurricanes, tornado warnings, no more hard rains.  Little did I know, and probably forgot, about the wild fires.

We have had high temperatures, fire, rain and snow in 24 hours. 

I looked out our window this morning, to the south,  to see how the fire was doing and saw that it had rained and snowed.  That helped put out the fire and the people that were evacuated, parts of Springville and Mapleton,  last night can go home by noon today.

This picture was taken by someone in Springville this morning. It was a good thing it rained, that mountain is really black.

This is  what I saw just before I went to bed last night, which I thought was the whole picture. But when I saw the pictures our friends took that live further up the hill I was mistaken.

A neighbor took this picture. She lives up higher on the hill that we do. She also took the next picture.

The news media called this the Ether Hollow Fire east of Springville.  It was up Hobble Creek canyon just by where we live and I hope it didn't burn the golf course. I know the news said it was headed there.

We didn't see any of this. 

This is our second fire living here in Springville.  I think the one last year was closer and on the mountain north of us.  We saw planes and helicopters dropping water on that fire.  One fire crew even hiked up the mountain in back of us to fight that blaze.  I know this won't be the last fire we will see and I hope we will be blessed not to have to be evacuated. 

Quilting

 I have always love to quilt.  In May of 2016 I had surgery for trigeminal neuralgia and was on some heavy drugs. It made it so I couldn't function very well.  When I got off the drugs I decided to see if I could quilt.  I went to my stash and found the red material I had made quilts out of for my granddaughters, joined a quilt club on Facebook.  The quilt I made was called Snowy Day Quilt Sampler. I learned quite a bit from making this quilt, it was a challenge. I downloaded a block a week.

I gave this quilt throw to Tiffany Bainter, Baxter's wife,  at her bridal shower in Utah.

When Noah Bainter became engaged I decided to make another throw quilt. I bought the material for this quilt throw and it was another sampler quilt.  It was harder and I learned quite a bit more.

I gifted this throw quilt to Olivia Bainter. I think it is called a Mystery quilt, I downloaded a block a week. 

My niece, Jennie Young in Texas asked me to make her a Mickey Mouse quilt.  It had been along time since I did a embroidery quilt but I said I would try.  Jennie drew the blocks and I free quilted them on my old Bernina, Sid bought it for me back in 1963. That was a big challenge, but so worth it.

Jennie's baby was born in October, but I didn't get the quilt done that soon.  

Halley had asked me to make her a queen sized quilt and I had made a log cabin quilt back in 1999.  It had some problems I had to fix but I got them fixed.  Then I decided to tie it.  

I don't have a finished picture of this quilt.  But it turned out really nice.  I hadn't hand tied a quilt for a long time.

Then I started a quilt for Kati Stevens, McKay's wife.  It is called trade winds. I bought the pattern and followed a you-tube video. It was fun to do, I made it out of Jelly Rolls, the first ever Jelly Roll quilt. 

I gifted this throw quilt to Kati in August 2020.  I think it is the most colorful quilt I have made and one of the easier ones.

I am now starting a quilt for Trudy.  She wanted a queen size made out of jelly rolls.  She picked her jelly rolls colors and the quilt is called Tea Time.  I have the blocks cut out, now just need to place them and sew.  

  

Morning walks

 This morning was cool and nice.  I was by myself and using my walking sticks so I wouldn't fall down.  The moon was so bright and beautiful, the picture doesn't do it justice.  Usually I walk with Tina, but Lincoln and her are at Snowbird for a few days.  It is a lot easier for me to walk with someone.  I get my miles in easier when I am not alone.  When Trudy was visiting, Tina, Trudy and I went walking, it was so fun, especially seeing places I hadn't walked before.  

This isn't flat country and it takes effort on my part to get out and walk. But it is sure worth it.

Anything in life worth doing takes effort and commitment.  That is something I need to remember.  Don't give up!!

Springville, Utah 

My Fish Tank September 1, 2020

Today I’m cleaning our fish tank. I have had it a good many years. I even moved it, and the fish,  from Maryland to Utah a year ago. I only lost 2 fish in the move. This past month I have lost all my fish. So I decided to clean it up and sell it. There just isn't a good spot where we can enjoy it all day. Maybe that is why the fish died. They were very sociable, they loved to come over and see us. Here they only were fed twice a day and never saw us. They died within days of each other. It is sad; I will miss them. I wonder if Heavenly father sometimes feels this way when we forget Him and don’t acknowledge his gifts to us, and just don’t remember to feed our spirits and say our prayers.