The girls practice their new knitting skills learned from Grammy (or mom)

Thanksgiving. A time to be together. Alison and her family visited and we laughed, ate, expressed gratitude, worshiped, and the girls learned to knit. We missed Katie and her sweet family.

I found this pic in an old album today. I'm guessing I was six or seven here. The girl is Janice Carter and the picture was taken at Carpinteria.

                             What would September be without a Farmington Peach?

Carpinteria - 2008

It's September 1st and I'm back. It's my mother's 83rd birthday today. I think she's holding up rather well, don't you?




This post is dedicated to my mom. Our new bishop was in our home for a few minutes last month when she was visiting for Dave's wedding. She of course wasted no time in telling him a story or two, and then launched in to how she feels about Barack Obama (hates him and everything he's done so far). "He's giving away our country, and just why does he have to go all over the world apologizing to everybody?", she said. " WE DON'T OWE ANYBODY AN APOLOGY!" The bishop looked at Cristie and I and said, "She tends to have strong opinions, doesn't she?"

My mother has had strong opinions as long as I can remember and comes from a long line of colorfuls that didn't mince words when it came to politics, religion, weight gain or loss, and general misfortune (ever met her sisters?). Some of my fondest memories are of the spirited card games with extended family up at the family cabin on the eastern slope of the Sierra Nevada mountains. Before I was old enough to be included, I'd lay up in the loft listening to the name calling, accusations and exclamations, all in full color, wishing I was down below in the middle of it all with my parents, aunts and uncles, grandparents and cousins. My mother hated the mountains, but loved the family time. The altitude, dirt, fish, and lack of a shower every day didn't agree with her. She's always felt much more comfortable at sea level.

As she's aged she's become less flexible in her views and more flexible about how often she repeats them. As my kids know well, she'll ask you if she's told you about something or somebody, and when you answer in the affirmative, she tells it to you again. I've heard the same story sometimes three times in the same day. She says she dosen't cuss anymore and then swears; says she never watches TV and then asks you if you saw a recent program. But with all of that, she's a great listener (well, she can hardly hear anymore, but she's very inquisitive), and is more compassionate than about anybody I know. She's been a wonderful mother, an inspiration, with high expectations. She's been my big fan and also a precise critic and I love her and am grateful Heavenly Father gave me her as my mother.


My mom is not a blog reader. Please, don't anybody call her and read this post to her. I don't mean it to be critical at all, wouldn't think of it, but she might take some of it that way and I would NEVER want to hurt her feelings.

On Summer hiatus. See you in the fall.

Old



New


When we lived in Denver in the 80's, I used to travel to New Mexico almost every month on business. I have fond memories of working in that state. I'm drawn to Native American culture, and there it blends with Latinos and the whites and becomes a "Land of Enchantment." I loved traveling among it's vistas and deserts, shopping for pots, rugs and jewelry made by the Navajo, Zuni, Hopi, and several other pueblo Indian tribes. I visited ruins left by the cliff dwelling Anazasis and enjoyed Tony Hillerman mystery novels set on the Navajo reservation. I've always preferred the state to it's bigger, more populated and in my opinion more glitzy neighbor, Arizona.

I don't know how new it is, but last week I saw the latest New Mexico license plate with "USA" printed on it at the bottom. I guessed that the new plate is a response to surveys done in the US mostly on the east coast, where when asked where New Mexico is a surprising percentage of Americans answered it is in Mexico! I'm sure the good folks in the Land of Enchantment are proud of their status as a state and felt that putting "USA" on the license plate will forever settle it's status in the minds of those who don't pay much attention to anything not in the Bos-Wash corridor. Myself, I prefer the old license plate.

We in the Rocky Mountain states like to be taken seriously. Utah has struggled with it's national image since before it became a state and it continues to try hard to prove that it's well within the mainstream. That's what hosting the 2002 Olympics was about, the candidacy of Mitt Romney, and the tourism board's motto of a few years back, "A Pretty Great State." Idaho would love to shed it's image as the potato state, Utah as the fundamental Mormon state, and New Mexico would just like you to know it IS a state. Montana is in better shape, known as the place where rich celebrities buy up huge ranches, Arizona is where the snowbirds go, and Colorado has successfully marketed itself as THE Rocky Mountain state.

Being a transplant (we've lived here over twenty years, but still, I'm not a native), I've always enjoyed the uncrowded open vastness of the west, sagebrush and all. I was raised in Los Angeles, and we lived there as a family and moved to Philadelphia, Denver, and back to Philly before coming here. Having lived in those big cities, I wouldn't want any city in the Rockies to approach the size of those places (alas, Phoenix already has and Denver is close). To me Las Vegas is everything the real west isn't, and I'd like things to stay pretty much the way the are out here, or even revert back a little. I love to visit San Francisco, New York and Chicago (especially because Katie and her family are there) but give me a home where the buffalo roam and the deer and the antelope play.