Girlfriend

"I've got to get away," my girlhood friend Lyn Hooker told me on the phone.  She lives in San Leandro, CA with her hubby Jimmy, in a small condo.  The condo presently is made even smaller by the need to empty her balcony for repairs.  All was emptied into their living room, making for very little order or peace as the workers noised their way through extended days doing balcony repairs.  So we made plans for her visit.  She wavered over flying or driving and decided on the cheaper option of driving.  That should have been a 10 and one half hour drive, according to Google.  When she decided to take the driving option, traveling here alone, I knew she was very anxious to make the trip.  But I was pretty sure it would take her longer than the 10 and a half hours mentioned.  And it did.  She did fine for most of the trip, but struggled through the long and lonely drive through Oregon and got completely lost once she entered Idaho.  We drove out to find her and guide her home.  "Never again," she said.  "I'll never drive out here again."


                       Here's a selfie of Lyn and me, after enjoying lunch at Fred Meyer's.

She probably won't.  But having her here is a nice experience and I believe she is getting the rest and relaxation she needs.  Lyn and I met when we were in high school and, at the age of 15, we were both baptized into the Church together.  We went through college together and have remained friends through the years.  Our lives have been quite different, but here we are, still friends and still active in the Church.  It is interesting to listen to her thoughts and tune in to her ideas and feelings about life and plans for the future.  There is something that reaches deeper into me than normal when I spend time with a friend who knows me over such a long period of time.  Friendships here are so new; it is different and good to spend time with someone who knows my history.  I suppose I like the idea of lasting relationships; that history can be very nourishing.

Lyn came here for a little peace and quiet, away from the chaos of home improvements.  Its a bit funny then to mention that we are in the midst of some of our own home improvements.  The sale of our condo gave us a little extra money, so we are redoing some of our kitchen.  The counters presently are a combination of laminate and granite which has always seemed a bit odd to me.  So we are replacing the laminate with more granite and putting in a new sink and faucet.  The demolition began soon after Lyn's arrival.  The mess will be cleared up this Friday, a few days after she leaves.  Still, after the noise of the demolition, it is rather peaceful.  Messy, but peaceful.

This is the granite/laminate combination I mentioned.  The laminate will be replaced with granite that contrasts with what is already there.

Here's the old sink and faucet.  The new one will be an under mount stainless sink and faucet, surrounded by the new granite.

I've spent most of the week working on the house, cleaning and organizing things in preparation for the many guests that are due to arrive the end of this month and extending through July.  It promises to be a very busy time, filled with children and family.  I'm hoping to get things arranged to offer an enjoyable time for all.  Lynn leaves for home on Tuesday.  We'll have the rest of the week to get everything in shape.  Then, a wild but fun ride promises to emerge.

Celebrations

When I was young time seemed to stand still.  Or at least not move along as quickly as I often thought it should.  But once I had children, time really began to speed up.  Children change every day.  You can almost see them grow.  Time became measured by them, in my mind.  All too soon they were grown up and gone, but time never did stop speeding by.  This past Wednesday Layne and I celebrated 48 years of marriage!  Somehow it stands out this year.  48 years.  How could that possibly be?  My mind now connects its vast collection of memories over 71 years.  No wonder there is a lot of stuff I simply can't find in my mind now.

Since selling our California condo, we find ourselves with a little extra money.  So we made a list of projects that we can now accomplish and used most of Wednesday
to make arrangements for some.  We are going to replace the laminate countertops in the kitchen with granite, replace the kitchen sink and the faucet.  I'm so excited about this.  We got it rolling on Wednesday, then went out to dinner.  As it turns out, a beautiful full moon emerged on Wednesday night and smiled down upon us, as if to congratulate us on 48 years together.

Here is the full moon I mentioned, behind a selfie of the tops of our heads.  Not exactly a quality shot.

It has been a week of projects.  I've already expressed my enjoyment of projects.  Well, starting them anyhow.  I'm working on getting myself to finish them and worked on that this week.  I'm almost done with one in fact.  I began making scrapbooks of my children's lives quite some time ago and managed to finish 4 of the 5 collections, which I've passed on to each child.  Only Gerald's remains.  It will be finished by this coming week.  It is such a good feeling to be done with something; I really should do it more often!

We have been in Idaho for a year and a half now and I still haven't seen many of the lovely sites that surround us here.  Layne isn't interested in checking any of them out so I talked my buddy Phyllis into driving with me to visit two places I've wanted to see.  On Saturday we drove up into the hills to a skiing resort called Bogus Basin.  It's a strange name for a place, if you ask me.  Bogus is lit up at night in the winter and we can see the sparkle from our house.  But there is little action in the summer so it is a good time to visit.  We loved the drive and took in a beautiful view of the Boise valley from the top of the mountain.  The Boise River flows through the city and beyond.  There is a 25 mile river walk along its banks that I wanted to see. So we checked that out as well. At least a small part of it.  It made for a enjoyable Saturday, and now we know of two places to admire about this Treasure Valley.

                                     Bogus Basin, with a view of Boise below.

A goofy picture of Phyllis and me, a selfie taken atop Bogus Basin.  Our picture taking effort made us laugh.

Here is a small piece of the River Walk; 25 miles of a walking path along the Boise River.

On this Father's Day I choose to rejoice, that I had a father who loved me, and still does.  A father who cared for me, looked out for me, protected me and provided for me.  He taught me that men are good things to have in one's life.  And so I grew up a lover of men.  I married one who has proven to be another very good man, who loves me, protects me and provides for me.  Because of these two men, my life has been filled with peace, safety, love and happiness.  I am so grateful.  I'm happy too that my husband loves his children.  He thinks of them, prays for them and serves them in every way he knows how to do.  My sons (and daughters) fill my life with happiness.  So, once again, I am assured that the men in my life are great treasures.  I love them all.

Here is my father, Gerald Charles Kiser, when he was 30 years old, taken right after I was born.

Layne and me in another selfie.  One gets desperate when there is no one to take the picture for us.  Once again, there is something about this effort that is uncontrollably funny!

Traveling Solo

"Mom, come and see me," my Mongolian daughter, Brynn, asked me, several times of late.  Brynn lives in Tucson, AZ with her husband, Roy.  They just had their first baby, a beautiful son they named Eric Jansan Long.  They wanted me to come and talk to them about caring for a baby and, especially, to talk to them about educating him.  I have a system for educating young children at home that I worked on for years when my children were young.  I believe that I wound up with a plan that is simple and inspired.  I got excited at the idea of sharing it, and also at the idea of visiting Brynn and Roy.  So I began to make plans to do so.  The only time I could come and work around their upcoming company was to come this past week.  But we had just returned from our Colorado trip.  You may imagine how unexcited Layne was about doing yet another trip.  Besides, he was feeling tired and aspects of his cold were lingering.  So I invited him to stay home.

As it turns out, grandson Scott (son of Reed and Dorothy) was graduating from High School last Friday.  So I decided to combine trips, fly to Tucson for the first part of the week and fly to San Francisco for the second part, returning home on Saturday.  Its funny how quickly habits form.  I am so used to traveling with Layne, who takes care of all traveling arrangements.  I happily let him do this, depending upon him to get us wherever we are going at the time.  So I was a bit nervous about handling it all myself.  But it all turned out very nicely.

On Monday I flew into SFO and transferred to a flight into Tucson, where Roy met me.  Roy and Brynn live in a combination of two condos, next to each other, near the center of town.  They are older places, but they have one of them fixed up nicely to hold their little family.  The other one is used for company and Roy's Real Estate business.  So my space was very private and comfortable.  They wanted my educational plan first thing, so we discussed it all morning.  I brought them all sorts of materials, organized to support a couple of basic principles:  use Eric's wall space to teach simple concepts that will open his world; like letters and words, numbers, and colors for starters.  They teach him those things when it is easy for them--when they are changing diapers, at bed and nap time.  He then sees the reinforcing pictures in his room and they act like a review--the secret of memory.  As he grows older the pictures change to reinforce more complex information.  "Decorate to Educate" I call it.  I believe it to be a wonderful system and think I convinced them to try it.

They took me all over Tucson, showing me all sorts of sights and views of the desert.  I must say the desert has never appealed to me but I can see some of the beauty in it.  I still don't want to live there, but Roy and Brynn love it.  Even with the 100+ degree weather that the summer brings them.  The time with them passed pleasantly.

Roy and Brynn, on top of one of the surrounding mountains of Tucson, with a beautiful view behind them.

                                           Roy and Brynn's son, Eric Jansan Long.

I flew into SFO, rode BART to Pleasanton and on to Mountain House on Thursday morning.  Staying with Audrey and Cliff is always pleasant.  We visited and shopped a bit and on Friday Audrey dropped me off at Reed and Dorothy's to attend Scott's graduation.  He was one of some 600+ graduates, so they held it outside, on the football field.  Each graduate was allowed 10 visitors.  So you would think that it would be fairly easy to figure how how many people would be in attendance.  We arrived early but all bleacher seats were filled.  There were no other seats (why not put up folding chairs at one end of the football field you may ask--I did). With no other seating in sight, we settled ourselves on a small patch of grass that had no view of the proceedings.  Standing at the fence gave us a very distant view.  But, surprisingly, they had the whole proceedings online, so we watched it on my phone!  The good part about that was that I was able to get a pretty close up shot of Scott getting his diploma.  But generally I was underwhelmed.  But I surely am proud of my fine grandson, Scott.

                                      Reed and Audrey, after lunch on Friday.

                      James, Dorothy, Scott, Bruce, Reed, Vincent, and Timmy Galbraith.

                                           Scott and me on his graduation day.

I flew home on Saturday.  I was so happy to see Layne feeling perky once again.  I suppose I have to say that my absence was good for him.



 

The Colorado Stove

When Layne and I were early married we rented a cute little cottage in Millbrae, CA.  It was very near the SFO airport, where Layne began his flying career.  That little cottage had an old fashioned stove in the kitchen that I fell in love with.  It was half wood-burning and half gas-burning and was in beautiful condition.  The landlord wanted to install a new unit, so he offered us the stove.  We had no use for it at that time, or in the  many years that followed.  But I loved it and felt that surely we would eventually find a place for it.  So we stored it in the folks' barn in Cedaredge, CO.  For some 40 years!

After getting settled in our Idaho home, I determined that, at last, that little stove could find a home with us.  Outside our kitchen there is a covered patio with a gas outlet and an opening above for an exhaust pipe.  Perfect for that old stove.  I mentioned it to Layne but he wasn't very enthusiastic about it.  But with no shortage of conversation about how perfect the site was and how wonderful it would be to have it, he finally agreed that we could get it.  So I arranged a trip to retrieve it, and announced my plan to Layne.  Much to my delight, he went along with it.  I broke down the trip into short 6 hour drives, with a loading day in the middle of the week.  It turned out to be a lot of fun.

We drove to Kaysville to visit Layne's brother on our first day.  Lynn and Layne are twins.  Now my idea of family togetherness amounts to frequent conversation and regular visits, but it is not so with Galbraith men.  Layne and Lynn rarely see each other and speak, maybe, twice a year.  There is no ill will between them; on the contrary, they see themselves as "close."  I long to be close-er so I enclosed a visit with them on our journey.  What fun they are!  I would love to see them on a more regular basis.  As we discussed, our "biological clocks are ticking" and so, if we do want to spend more time together, we'd better get to it.  So we calendared another visit.  Maybe the Galbraiths will redefine close yet.


                                  Lynn and Layne, twins, with Lynn being 20 minutes older.

Lynn and wife Camille, in front of their home, built on the site of the older home they grew up in.

  Tuesday we headed to Colorado via Bob and Maryanne's for the keys needed to open the storage areas at the Ranch.  It was a hot drive in that truck.  We stayed with friends, Cliff and Elaine Conlon, in Grand Junction.  They were great hosts and provided us with a movie night that exposed us to the movie, The Impossible, about the tsunami off the Indian Ocean that killed between 230,000 and 280,000 people in 2004.  It was based on the true story of the survival of one family.  Fascinating.  So much so that neither of us could sleep that night.


Here we are with Cliff and Elaine (the redhead) and their friend Priscilla, a health food junkie.  We ate at an organic food restaurant which considered their food worth a great deal more money than ordinary places.

We drove into Cedaredge on Wednesday.  The town is spruced up with new sidewalks and street lights, but it appears to be dying.  Some of the businesses are closed and others are apparently struggling.  Going to Cedaredge with Mother gone is a bittersweet thing.  Our family has been in this little town for generations but now all are gone.  The Ranch looks much the same on the outside and Mom's collection of stuff still fills the barn and outbuildings.  The renters have filled the rest, especially the house, with enough stuff to flood out the doors.

As we began our search in the barn for my little stove, Steve and Sharon Palmer, Cedaredge friends for many years, arrived to help.  Del Bates, the man who rents the pasture, also arrived and helped.  That barn was filled even fuller than I remembered.  Guess where we found the stove?  In the corner furtherest from the door, of course.  There it was, dissembled, dirty and full of vermin, right next to the back wall of the barn.  Between it and the exit doorway stood three other stoves and piles of boxes and other assorted stuff all piled high.

Layne is quite a creative thinker.  He decided that the only reasonable way to get that stove out was to go through the back wall of the barn.  So he pried the boards next to the stove loose, removed them, and viola:  the stove stood within easy reach.  We drove the truck up to the stove and shoved it in.  Easy!  Del helped.  Layne and Del then replaced the boards and it was as if nothing has happened.  We packed up the stove and the box of parts, including the vintage instructions, and headed for the room behind the garage where I had stored some boxes of stuff of Mom's for me.  Then I remembered.  After making a special stop to get the key to that storage room, I left it in Grand Junction, an hours drive away.

But Layne is a creative thinker.  He and Steve cut through the latch to the door and we got in!  I found my boxes and loaded them in the truck.  We bought a new latch and lock and installed it as before.  So slick!

We went to lunch with Steve and Sharon after that and had a good visit.  Then back to Grand Junction and Conlon's for our last night there.  What fun to unite a trip for a stove with so much bonding.

                           Sharon and Steve Palmer, at lunch with us at the "Bakery."

Thursday morning we drove back to Salt Lake and an overnight with Bob and Maryanne.  Then we headed for home  on Friday morning.  Let me just say that riding in that truck was not the most comfortable ride I've had.  It is a faithful little pick-up but very basic and very old (1991).  No air conditioning--cooling by window only.  No charger for the phone.  Plastic seats that promote sweating.
Tight quarters.  But it got us home.  As soon are we drove into our driveway, Jim, our neighbor pulled up behind us.  What a guy.  He helped us unload and, especially, helped get that stove on the patio.  Now all we have to do is clean it, reassemble it and make it work.  Boy do I hope it does.

                  Bob and Maryanne in their kitchen Friday morning, cheerily sending us off.

Here is most of the stove on our patio.  Now don't judge her too harshly.  Think of this as a "before" picture.  When I've cleaned her and added her other parts, including legs she'll be a true jewel.  Well you can judge for yourselves; I'll show you another picture of her when her true beauty has emerged.

  

What's in a Vote?

There was a primary election here on Tuesday.  I waited patiently for our sample ballot to arrive, and a write-up on the candidates.  California was good at that.  They sent information out to every registered voter, in several languages.  But I waited in vain here.  Who is running?  What do they stand for?  Since no information was forthcoming, I asked around.  No one I asked knew any more than I did, and that was practically nothing.  We organized a political discussion at our Empty Nest Family Home Evening on Monday night.  No one there knew anything either.  I looked online for information and found very little about the candidates and no sample ballot.  I was so upset by this.  We did the best we could with the election, then I made some calls to the election board and the state rep over elections.  I told them what I thought about the lack of information.  How easy would it be to put a sample ballot along with candidate information and propositions online?  Little or no cost would be involved and voters could access the information easily.  I told them so.  They listened politely.  But I didn't feel that any changes would be made anytime soon.  I could be pleasantly surprised.  And that may partly explain why voter turnout is low.  At this critical time in our history, when so many rights are being lost, we need to speak up...and vote!

Our last singing performance was last Thursday.  It was much fun but by the last day we were feeling very done.  Part of the reason is that Layne caught a giant cold and was feeling pretty lousy.  He pushed himself through but Friday he absolutely crashed.  He sat around all day, staring off into space.  It was so "un-Layne-like."  Our neighbor came over that evening and massaged his feet.  I think he liked it.  Of course he was so out of it we could have done anything to him and he would tolerate it.  Poor baby.  He's on the mend now I'm happy to say and, today, feels just about normal.

Tomorrow we begin our drive to Colorado, via Salt Lake, where we will spend some time with Layne's twin, Lynn and his wife Camille.  On the way home we will check in with my sister Maryanne and hub Bob.  We will be driving Layne's old truck, which I'm not looking forward to.  But we need it to haul some stuff from the Colorado ranch.  I had to work over many days of suggesting and nagging to get Layne softened to the idea of driving to Colorado.  I'm grateful that he has finally agreed.  So I'll put up with the discomforts of truck travel.


I'm just about ready to leave for our addiction recovery meeting.  It is spring in the yard and so beautiful.

Our cat Cherry must be with us when we are in the yard.  Here she sits between me and friend Phyllis Salsedo, on the bench in our back yard.

Singing

Layne has been reminding me lately of the blessings of being in Idaho, for me.  He thinks I have had more opportunities for growth here than I've had for awhile.  I suppose he is right.  I've had a chance to speak at a woman's conference, we are serving a local mission that is different from anything we have ever done before and I belong to a singing group that is stretching me.  Singing has not been my strong suit. I often sang to my children and they often begged me to stop.  I sing in the Church choir under pressure from Layne.  Singing next to daughter Audrey (a beautiful and accurate alto) was my choir salvation in California.  I only sing in groups, never solo except in the shower.  I am not musically trained and only guess at reading music.  So it comes as somewhat of a surprise even to me, that I find myself singing a short solo with my community singing group, the Treble Clef Singers.  We are in the process of performing our annual spring concert all around the Treasure Valley to various senior centers.  It is a safe place to sing as the audience is always appreciative and not critical.  So I'm singing to them!  Layne continues to be the token man in our group, singing two solos himself.  He does a superb job and the ladies love him.  He tends to steal the show!  It is pretty all-consuming for the two weeks of performing but seems worth the investment as we are both doing things we've never done before with music.  Growth is joyful.  Even musical growth.  And I'm thinking, perhaps I can sing after all.  Passably at least.

                                                Layne singing part of "When I'm 64".

                                   Layne and me dancing and singing to "Sweet Violets."

Layne is quite taken up with yard work these days.  He loves his time outside, moving the dirt and planting the vegetable garden.  I feel happy that he has much on his "to do" list.  It is good to have productive things to do and he is all about being productive.  Since selling our condo, we are making some plans for home improvements that we can now afford to do.  I'm so excited about this.  I feel the encroachment of time.  It seems to me that whatever it is that I want to do in this life had better be addressed pretty soon.  Time ticks by at a frantic pace and I often feel that I'm not keeping up.

Primary elections here come up this week.  As this election got closer I expected to receive sample ballots in the mail as we always did in California.  But it isn't done here.  Where do we find out about the issues and the candidates you may ask?  I am certainly asking that question.  Still.  The election is somewhat of a mystery to me.  We can't seem to find a sample ballot, even online.  How then are we supposed to vote intelligently?  I wonder.

Breezes and thunder storms add to our warming days here.  We are surrounded by beauty.  I am filled with gratitude for it all, except for the lack of election information.  I'm a bit ticked by that.

   

Mother's Day in California

Our flight into San Francisco with Isaiah last Monday went as anticipated.  Wonderful.  I am regularly reminded of the wonder of life at this time with all of its luxuries.  I hope never to take any of it for granted.  We have spent this past week at Audrey and Cliff's in their new location called Mountain House.  Their housing development lies in the middle of farm country, near Tracy.  It is lovely here and the guest accommodations are the best of any of the local kids.  So we planted ourselves here.


Here is a goofy picture of Isaiah on his 16th birthday.  Homemade pizza was his dinner choice, which he actually ate instead of the other options he offers here.

California offers such a collection of family and friends.  I tried my best to connect with as many of them as possible.  Family for sure.  We spent time with Audrey and Cliff, Ben and Jes, Reed and Dorothy and all the babes.  There is really no substitute for being in another person's space.  I love to take in all that surrounds my precious family members.  Our family here seems to radiate steadiness and goodness.  I'm so happy to feel that in them.


We went to dinner with Ben and Jes.  Here they are eating dessert in a cookie and ice cream shop in Palo Alto.

Audrey had a piano recital at her house last night.  Here grandson Vincent plays his piece.

We sold our condo!  We signed the final papers for the sale this past week.  By Friday the money gleaned from the sale was in the bank.  Wow.  The opportunity to sell it seemed to emerge from nowhere, and proceeded with so little effort on our part.  I remain amazed.  Amazed and grateful as I can now happily announce that we are completely debt-free.

We connected with our Sunol neighbors, Bev and Ernie Trutner, as well as our foster daughter Michelle Montandon, and some other friends.  I love all of this bonding.  I feel full of their news and embrace of being in their presence. As the younger ones are maturing and blossoming, so are the older ones (my age!) beginning to show signs of wear and tear.  I sometimes lose track of the passage of time until I awaken to the condition of others.  I'm so used to seeing Layne and myself that our aging and coming physical decline is somehow less noticeable.  But coming it is.  When I calculate that in another 10 years I will be in my 80s, then another 10 will bring the 90s I cringe.  So little time is left to me it seems.  What am I to do with it?  What is the best use of it?  What do I not want to leave undone?  I've yet to fully figure it out.


Here is one of our foster daughters, Michelle, with her son Steadman.  Steadman is a "special needs" young man with a wonderful heart and a strong desire to do something good with his life.

Our time here is soon to end as we fly home tonight.  Mother's Day was celebrated yesterday and today.  How perfect to be with some of the kids at this special time.  One of the downsides to Idaho is the absence of family to celebrate with.  Holidays are the hardest time for me since the move.

Reed and Dorothy's oldest son, Scott, graduates from high school this year and plans to go on a ission sometime this summer.  He's a high achiever and filled with righteous ideals.

Scott's younger brother, James, is holding youngest sibling, Bruce.  James is a brilliant boy wiht a passion for basket ball.  He has a special bond with Bruce.

Me and my Mother's Day flowers.  The pink ones are from Ben and the red ones from Layne.

Life moves forward with a breathless rush.  Tomorrow we will be home and singing in the first of our two week concert series.






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