Post #1 - Hot Springs, Arkansas

Dave was in training in Huntsville, Alabama beginning May 4th thru' May 22nd. When he was finished there that Friday, he rented a car and drove to Little Rock, Arkansas where he picked me up at the airport in the evening. It took exactly 1 hour for us to drive to Nathan and Pamela's. We arrived in Hot Springs just before dark. The two of them came to the motel where we were staying (4 nights free with Dave's earned points, and 1 night paid). It wasn't the most luxurios but we were not to complain as points are points, and free IS free ! We only needed a place to lay our heads at night,....that's all. Saturday we went over to N8 and Pamela's to check out where they are living now. They are renting a really nice older home with a huge back yard. One big beautiful Magnolia tree and several River Oak trees along with some bushes, etc. There is a small stream in the back also and some Dewberries along the back fence line (Pamela made a Dewberry pie for us whil we were there). Here are some pictures of the yard and house, etc. #1) Nathan & Pamela; #2) Front of their house; #3) Looking towards Pamela's garden from back deck; #4) Bloomed Magnolia in center of picture; #5) Looking from the bottom of yard towards back of house and garage; #6) Part of back yard; #7) Little stream in the yard. The pictures don't show how big the yard really is. There's some grass on the other side of the garage with a nice big tree. Also there is a work shop in the back of the garage with a locking door and 2 windows in it. (Next post will be of our walk down town in Hot Springs).

Happy Father's Day!

If Dad Could Write A Letter

By: Janette

If Dad could write a letter
What do you think he’d say?
He’d say, “I’m fine, you need not worry"
My days are never gray.

If Dad could write a letter
I’m sure he would confide,
He’d say I’m always happy
For God is at my side.

If Dad could write a letter
He’d write down his many thoughts.
He’d say I think of all my girls
There’s not one moment I do not!

If Dad could write a letter
He’d make sure that we all know,
His “heart light’s” on forever
For us it will always glow.

If Dad could write a letter
He would write on every line,
He’d say he’s always with us
And forever he’ll be fine.

I think I’ll write a letter
To Heaven it will go.
My Dad can read the words I wrote
From way down here below.

And in my letter to My Dad,
Amongst the things I want to say,
You are the best, I love you lots!
Have a Heavenly Happy Father’s Day!

NEW BABY - Anni (as in Annie)

Some people get new real babies added to their families,....I got a new kitten. I know,...you don't have to say it, I have no business getting another animal, but she has already stolen our hearts. Dave let me get a new baby kitten from Ashley's friend, Kimberly. We got her on the 2nd of June at which time she was 5 1/2 weeks old. Kimberly had about 3 to give away, so Ashley helped talk her Dad in to letting me get Anni. He said if I wanted her bad enough, he would give her to me for my anniversary present (actually, he is getting off pretty easy since she didn't cost him anything!). And so HE named her ANNI (for anniversary). Here is one of many pictures to come. She is the sweetest little thing and smart too! She's sleeping on my lap now as I type. Ashley would say she is spoiled, however,.....she has helped make her that way. In fact, sometimes I have to wonder if she is my kitten, or Ashley's,..... but that's ok because I share nice. Ash really does love her.

WHAT KIND OF TREE IS THIS?

I've been meaning to post this picture of a tree that was in Estes Park, CO for a while now but kept forgetting. I'm not sure what kind of a tree it is. I found it interesting to say the least. It's got pine needles and pine cones but the bark is like an Aspen or a Birch tree. Not sure which. Does anybody know what it may be? (Maybe a forester will read my post and know what the answer is).

Wishing my mother, Nadine

and Dave's mother, Virginia



a WONDERFUL day !!

May 10, 2009

Sometime In The Past,.........

I thought this picture was cool. Dave was on an assignment with his job last January in a small town in Utah County at the south end of Utah Lake. He saw this old Sinclair garage with gas pump and took a picture of it. I love the wooden doors even tho' what was windows are boarded up. Love the pump too! (Where's Dino?) I thought some of you out there might find it interesting.

Easter 2009 - Finally a Slide Show I Hope!

A Poem by Diana - Her First!

Outdoors

by Diana C. Sprankle

Outdoors, outdoors

It is a nice day outdoors.

The flowers are blooming

The bees are buzzing.

Outdoors, outdoors

It is a nice day to play outdoors.

Diana came over to Grammy's house tonight and I was showing her some things on my blog. She proceded to tell me that in her reading group the other day they were reading a story about a young boy who was trying to write a poem. He kept trying and trying but ended up crumpling up several pieces of paper in to balls and throwing them in the garbage can. He decided to go do his math and spelling homework. Then he decided to try and write his poem again after dinner. Afterwards, his sister came to his room and asked him if he needed help with his homework and he told her he was already finished with it. Then he said he needed to finish writing his poem. His sister then asked what he wanted it to be about. He responded by telling her that was the problem. He couldn't decide. After a while and with some help from his sister, he was able to finish it. When Diana's class finished reading the story on the second day, one of the other kids asked if they could write a poem. The teacher said "no, not today", however the next day she said "yes". After thinking about it, Diana decided she wanted to write her poem about the outdoors. This is what she came up with. She did pretty good for it being her first, don't you think? Good job Diana!

Our Ornamental Cherry Tree

In full blossom,....

but it is quickly loosing the flowers. I have a feeling when the wind starts blowing tomorrow, they soon will be gone. Dave is proud of his tree tho'! He has mowed the lawn and done some trimming, but we have decided we need to get creative and think of something different where the ground cover is between the garage and front door step. We pulled out a dead Chinese Elm (plum colored leaves) last year, but there are some seedling trees growing there that also need to come out. I think these babies are from the BIG trees across Main Street. Weather permitting, we'll be trimming the bushes in front of the living room window soon. I don't know the name of them, but they are green all year. The last few days here in Utah have been absolutely wonderful!

She's a WiNnEr ! ! !

Back in March, Diana's 4th grade class had a science project to do. Aunt Ashley helped her decide what she was going to do after thinking of different possibilities. As you can see from the picture (I wished the whole board was visible, but it wasn't) the subject was "Blowing Bubbles" and at which temperature did the bubbles last the longest. They had a 'purpose', 'hyposthesis' and 'conclusion'. I helped with a few of the experiments and the financing and of course, Grammy (me) got stuck blowing the bubbles that were heated. My nose could feel the warmth of the hot bubbles, believe me! The solution was straight out of the microwave. After the numerous experiments, Diana concluded that although the hot bubbles were easier to blow (the solution was in three different bowls, and we were blowing bubbles through a straw), they popped more quickly. The room temperature bubbles were in between, but it was the cold bubbles that lasted the longest. It all came down to Diana winning 2nd place for her project. Pictured on her board is the red ribbon she won. She and Ashley had a lot of fun taking pictures of Diana blowing the bubbles and putting the board together, and we all had a good time doing the experiments. Ashley spent a lot of her time with Diana, and thanks to her, Diana learned something from doing the project. We were very proud of her because she had to present her project to the judges and explain the whole sha-bang to them. Contratulations Diana (and Aunt Ashley) for your accomplishment!

In Memory of My Dad, Clyde - 8/7/1928 - 4/15/2007

Thanks for all the memories Dad! You are in my heart forever! Love you!

Net

Candy Easter Grass ?

Just wanted to know if anyone besides Ashley and I noticed the edible Easter Basket Grass out in the stores? We were curious, so we bought some for Diana's Easter bucket. There were 3 flavors that we noticed - orange, strawberry and blueberry. We got the later 2. Pink and Blue!

Of course we had to see what it was like so we opened the package to try the strawberry. Not alot of flavor!, but we did put it in the bucket. Decided not to put the blue in there with the pink, but tasted it. Same reaction. It felt like shredded paper. I guess if you shoved it in your mouth with a handful of the hard shelled candy Easter eggs (Whitey), it might be just o.k. Anyway, Diana liked it and ate some of it. Kidz! They'll eat anything that has to do with candy!

EASTER 4/12/09 = A BEAUTIFUL DAY!

FROM OUR HOUSE TO YOUR HOUSE!

Diana squinting with the sun in her eyes after a 3 dozen Easter Egg hunt today. She didn't want the hunt to end,....if you can imagine. What a fun time we had watching her and taking her pictures. If I could ever figure out how to do a slide show, I would put all of them of her on it. Oh well,....maybe someday. Her Dad was sick and her mom wasn't feeling well so we just had Diana, Ashley, Joey and Grandma Spencer over for dinner. Dinner at my house is always, to say the least, chaotic but the food was good.

CHILDHOOD MEMORIES

There are so many memories about growing up in our little home that use to be where Mom's is now. In fact, I just can't get all my thoughts in to one document because I remember so much about living there. This is my poem:

Childhood Memories of
Our Little Home
By: Janette - April 2009
Our little home was as quaint as could be,
With flowers planted ‘round it along with some trees.
It was built by our Grandpa and our Dad helped too,
A place for us to live with the mountains to view.
Even though our home was little inside,
When we played we’d always find places to hide.
Our little home is where we would play, eat and sleep,
Naturally, love and laughter is what we would reap.
We were assigned our own little bit of chores,
But once they were done it was time to explore.
Our little home was on the ridge of the hollow,
Down the hill I would go with someone who’d follow.
There were four of us girls in our little home,
Even though there were flaws it was still our own.
Our little home is where we were raised for awhile,
Even through hard times there were still lots of smiles.
Our little home is where we would feel safe and sound,
It’s where we would come when we were homeward bound.
Later on down the road an upgrade was in need,
Mom and Dad told us all and that they had agreed.
To a new bigger home is where we went,
The day of that move was a BIG event.
Of our little home where us girls got our start,
Will always be memories stored in the bottom of my heart.

SPRING

My Reasons For The

Season of Spring

One of the first signs of Spring is the celebration of Easter and the resurrection of Christ. Also all the beautiful decorated baskets with an array of colored eggs in them after the annual Easter Egg Hunt.

Spring is the time of year when I get anxious to see the beautiful flowers in the gardens and along the sidewalks and river banks with all their blooms of color.

Spring is the time we start seeing the fruit trees and bushes burst out in beautiful blossoms.

I love it when the grass gets green in the Spring and one of my favorite smells comes after it is mown.

I love windsocks with beautiful Spring time designs on them and blowing in the wind to and fro’.

And what would Spring be without the pretty ladybugs whether they are real or made out of rocks.

I love all the beautiful birds when they appear in the Spring. I get such a sense of peace when I hear their sweet songs.

And last but not least, Spring is the time of every year that I pull my thoughts and memories together and think of my dear sweet Dad who left us on a beautiful Sunday morning, April 15, 2007,….. when he walked towards his Heavenly Father and his eternal home where it will forever be Spring.

These are some of my reasons

for the season of Spring

WHERE IS THE SUNSHINE ?

If the storm that is coming in tonight is suppose to be as bad as what they are making it out to be,....I don't want any part of it ! ! ! I can't like SNOW for the rest of SPRING ! Bring on the FLOWERS !

Happy Birthday Sioux!

I’m going to get a head start on wishing Susan a HaPpY HaPpy BiRtHdAy on the 27th of this month. Seems like I’m always the one lagging at reading other’s posts and commenting on them. I have been so busy at work and away from work with things that are going on right now that I find it hard just to sit down at the computer (I do it all day) and browse or do emails and posts. Susan has a very special place in my heart. I know I don’t get to be ‘with’ her or ’visit’ with her as much as other‘s do, but I always think about her and our childhood and things we use to do with each other when we were younger. I remember things like when I got to spend the night over at Grandpa’s and Grandma Mary’s . We’d go to the elementary school to climb up the fire escape and play on the playground equipment. She would let me get on the back of her bicycle and she would be the ‘driver’. We would ride around the old neighborhood in Layton and go for walks up to the store to get penny candy. We would go to her friend’s and play with some very special girls that I later got to know real well in school. Several times I got to go with Grandpa, Grandma and Sue up to Morgan or down to a house my Grandma Mary had on Redwood Rd. We would play around the yard while there and just seemed to have so much fun. One time when my family still lived in the little house south on Main Street, Susan and I went for a walk when it was really foggy. We were over in the Experimental Orchard down the road a ways in one of the fields. I can’t remember if we were pretending we were disorientated and lost or if we really were. I DO remember somewhat being scared however. We made our way back to the house though and were safe and sound once again. We would be invited together to go to my aunts or step aunts to help when they had a new baby, or we went to Aunt Dott’s down in SLC together for the weekend. After Grandma Mary moved back to Salt Lake, we would spend weekends with her. We loved to go out on the corner of 7th East and 13th South and watch the guys pass in their cars. Then there were the years that Sue lived with us. She didn’t know it at the time, but I always wanted to be as cute and popular as she was. She had her friends and I had mine through those years, but because she was my age, we seemed to do more with each other than my other sisters did. We would end up together at Lagoon and would always go to the photo booth and take pictures. We walked to the church together and went and dragged main after MIA with the boys in our ward. She had a lot of the guys always calling her and wanting to date her. Sometimes she wasn’t at home when they called so I got to talk to them. One time one of them called and I had to reassure him she really wasn’t there and that most definitely not with another guy. It took a lot of REASSURING in fact! Susan was always more like a friend and sister to me than an aunt. There were several years at different times in our lives when we haven’t lived very close to one another and I didn’t really know what was going on in her life like other friends and family did, which I regret. However, I have gotten to know Sue even more since she started her blog. I’ve realized more and more what a special lady “my” Sue is and all her many talents. She is a beautiful writer and poet. She’s a wonderful mother and grandma. Her family means so much to her. She loves and appreciates her older siblings and she has grown to be the kind of a person that we all love and appreciate also. I’m not good with words Sue,….but know that you are a very special part of my life. So,….after all of this, once again I am wishing you a very Happy Birthday! I Love You Sioux!

Happy St. Patrick's Day!

Janette's Own St. Patrick's Day

Wish For All Those Who Read It!
March 2009

By: Nettie
I wasn’t born an Irishman
But it’s fun to celebrate the day,
And r’ceive all the Irish Blessin’s
In each and every way.

I’d like luck to be my companion
It’s a blessin’ I could use,
Good luck, good friends, and happiness
Are all things I can’t refuse.

On St. Patricks Day NOT wearin’ o’ the green
is NOT the thing ta’ do,
It’s fe'r sure a favorite day fe’r me
But I don’t want a pinch from you!

It’s a day for jigs and Irish songs
And parades along the streets,
A day I’d like ta’ find a ‘Wild Irish Rose’
Cuz’ it’s a flower that’s o’ so sweet!

So here’s a wish from a non-Irishman
But ya’ can bet it’s a wish that tis’ true,
For ya’ to have a Happy St. Paddy’s Day,
This wish comes from me to you!

Happy St. Patrick's Day on the 17th ! !

St. Patrick's Day

St. Patrick's Day is here, you see.

We'll pick some shamrocks, one, two, three.
We'll count the leaves and look them over,

And maybe find a four-leafed clover.

I'll sew green buttons on my vest,

Green for St. Patrick is the best.

I'll wear a green hat, very high,

And dance a jig--at least I'll try!

(Author Unknown)

I got asked to be on the "St. Patrick's Day" party committee at work! Yeah! We are having a pot luck (everybody is suppose to bring some type of green food,....oooo-weeeee!) and we're all suppose to wear green (of course), ..... I'm going to try and over-do it just for fun! We'll see what I can come up with. There may be some suprises too! Sheila, Dawn and myself are doing the planning. Dawn found a shamrock shaped "word find" and I found a "St. Patrick's IQ Test". Gonna be fun, I hope!

Mom's 78th Birthday Party

Second post for the night. I'm doin' good,....and it's only 11:40 p.m. I guess it's a good thing I got these done, cuz' I'm ready for BED ! ! !

Once I got back up to Kaysville after the bridal shower (mentioned in the post below this one) Ashley did for her friend, we went over to Mom's for her party. What fun it was to see my Aunt Florene and Cousin Marilynn there all the way from Grand Junction, CO. ! (and of course everybody else that came). Thanks to everybody for coming because my Mom really enjoyed it! I am so happy that Denice could come from WI and be a part of all of it. It's always great to have her here. I'm not going to go in to detail because Whitey has already done so along with posting a slide show. She did a beautiful job on the book she made for Mom and everybody really enjoyed looking at it. And there was Cheryl's idea of the Memory Box and Kari's beautiful job in making it along with KD helping get the memories typed up. (We missed you and all your's KD. Wish you and all the other's up your way could have been there). Before the party,.....maybe a couple of weeks, Clydene sent out an email message to a few of us (Sue, KC, KD and myself) asking "can you help me with this you need to get your cowboy twang going". This was a story Mom had told over the years about her friend Vada and herself. Clydene wanted a poem telling the story that she could use in her book she was making for Mom. This was her notes about the story Mom told.

Veda and I watched the cows as they came marching (parading) home today from mountains high to the greener pasture were they could roam and eat to their contentment. but in the mix of these female bovine a bull elk did appear and with one look from him we surely feared he wanted us for supper. So up a tree we both did scamper and right behind us the sound of his breath we could feel on the back of our necks so up the tree we sat all day till Veda's big brother came and chased away that big old elk and rescued us from our fate.

So,......I took the elk by the horn (no punn intended) and wrote a poem using as much of Clydene's notes as I could. For those of you who haven't seen it yet, .... this is how it goes.

The Elk and the Tree
Written by: Janette
The cows we were watchin’ my friend Vada and me
As they paraded down the mountain fer' us both to see.
They were headed for the pastures where they’d eat all day
They’d mosey and browse eatin’ what they may.
Well it’s fer’ sure it’s been a mighty long time ago
I remember we couldn’t afford to take it real slow.
For amongst those cows a BIG bull elk did stand
Wanting to eat us for supper we feared was his plan.
One look from the elk is all it took
To run for our lives while in our shoes we shook.
So Vada and me we ran as fast as we could
Cuz’ that BIG bull elk made himself understood.
Up the tree we scampered, we feared for our lives
The only thing on our minds was fer’ us to survive.
As we climbed up the tree we could feel the HOT breath
Of the BIG bull elk on the back of our necks.
So up that tree we sat the whole day through
And how to get down we had not a clue.
Out yonder in the distance Vada’s brother did see
What was happenin’ to us both while up in that tree.
So he ran and he chased that old elk away
And rescued us from our fate on that dreaded day.

Like Clydene requested, there is a little bit of cowboy twang in there. I tried to read it for Mom so she kind of got the jest of how it was suppose to sound. Don't really know how it went over. The picture above is the very tree they climbed up and a picture of Mom and Vada that Clydene had in the book next to my poem.

Bridal Shower for Ashley's Friend

It’s been a couple of weeks since I last posted. Ashley and I were getting ready for her best friend’s bridal shower for Sat. 2/21. We had it at the Marriott Fairfield Inn down in Provo. It turned out quite nice. Kimberly’s colors are Black, Hot Pink and White. We made the invitations and got them all put together. Ashley cut the white flowers (suppose to represent a Gerber Daisey) out with her Cricket. For the middle of the flower we put a black button and I did a cross stitch in the holes of the button with the hot pink thread. We also did favors that were really cute, but a lot of work! They were plastic clear tube things that we filled with the Valentine colors of (pink ,white and red) M&M’s and Ashley cut the words “from this moment” out of black vinyl with her Cricket. We stuck them on the tubes. We trimmed the tubes with black ribbon with hot pink poka-dots and tied them on the end of the tube. I made some really good Chicken Salad which everybody seemed to enjoy (they had seconds). The croissants were huge! I let them put their own slivered almonds, cranraisins and purple onions and lettuce on their sandwiches. I brought veggie trays and Kimberly’s momma brought a fruit platter. We also provided drinks and a cake with cupcakes around it. Ashley had a really cute game where she had asked Kimberley's future husband some questions which he answered. Kimberly was asked the questions. With every wrong answer she got a piece of bubble gum she had to chew. She ended up with a good size wad, but not as bad as it could have been. Also Ash sent around a piece of paper where we all wrote 2 lines that ended up in a pretty cute poem. She kept folding the paper so that the next person couldn't see what the previous person had written. That was a lot of fun! Here are some pictures from the shower. WOW! Kimberly only has 25 days til’ her wedding. This is a young lady that I have more or less watched grow-up with Ashley from Kindergarten on in Kemmerer, WY. In fact, she was mostly the reason that we let Ashley go back up to WY the last half of her senior year so she could graduate with Kim and the rest of her Class of 2002’. I can’t believe how fast the last almost 7 years have flown by since their graduation. Anyway, a good time was had by all that attended. Then we were off and running to get back up to Kaysville for Mom’s 78th Birthday Party!!!!

HAPPY NEWS FOR NATHAN

My son, Nathan has accepted a job offer back in Blytheville, AR. Actually it is Pamela's momma's hometown near an old air force base that has been closed down for many years. The company is located on the old base and called ART. They repair jets, like the Delta Connection planes, etc. I think I mentioned he is an A&P Mechanic. I am happy for him but sad for me because we have really enjoyed having him back home again this past year and four months. He was in Baton Rouge, LA before that for a year and a half or so after graduating from SLCC. Anyway, he flies in tonight from Arkansas and will immediately start getting ready to be on their way by a week from today. The tears are already starting to come just thinking about seeing him leave again. Oh well,....I do wish the best for them and I'm happy for Pamela's momma cuz' she'll be getting her daughter back home after many years. I know what it's like to have your kids across the country or even down in southern Utah. I'll have to plan some vacations down that way I guess. Like maybe Branson, MO. Yeh,....it's only 5 hrs. from Blytheville.

TIME FOR A CHANGE,....AGAIN ! !

Well,...Valentines Day is over and it's time for a change in my blog's background. Since St. Patricks' s day is the next big celebration other than Mom's birthday and the Federal Holiday tomorrow, I am going with the green. St. Patty's day is what,....about three weeks away, so this is it til' then. Since I am off work tomorrow for President's Day, I am planning on spending some time with my sisters and some time with my daughter Ashley. Her and I are throwing a bridal shower for her best friend Kimberly (from Wyoming) down in Provo the same day as Mom's party on Saturday the 21st. I guess I am going to make chicken salad to put in cresants. The Bagelry where my son-in-law use to work had an excellent bagel sandwich called the 'Chicken Almond Crunch'. Besides the almonds, it also has the cranraisins and bean sprouts. I made it for Ashley's high school graduation party and everybody seemed to enjoy it, including Kimberly. I'll let you all know how it turns out. The shower is at 1:30 p.m. and Mom's party is at 5 p.m. Ash and I are going to be doing some 'scootin' that day. I better get down stairs and get dinner started. I know this wasn't a very exciting post, like most of mine, but hopefully I'll think of some better ones to write here pretty soon.

HAPPY VALENTINES DAY TO ALL MY FAMILY AND FRIENDS, ...... OH YEH, MY CO-WORKERS TOO THAT TAKES THE TIME TO READ THIS. LOVE TO EVERYBODY!

We just got home from the Utes vs. Air Force basketball game. The 'Runnin Utes' kicked butt and won by 20 points ! ! That is for the other Ute fans that read this,.....you know who you are!

I'm excited because my sister Denice is landing at the Salt Lake Airport as I type. She's flying in from Wisconsin. It's always fun to have her come home for a visit! AND what a wonderful Valentines Day gift for us all. Love you NeeNee!

A TOUGH WEEK IN LAS VEGAS

I wanted to write a quick paragraph on a show we saw down in Las Vegas this past week while I was down there for training. Yeah,….I know. Tough to get through a whole week down there, but I managed. Anyway, we ( a co-worker and I) had training in the convention center at the MGM Grand. One of the many shows down there at the casino is “Ka”. It is one of the Cirque Du Soleil stage productions. We went on Tuesday night last week and it was amazing! The special effects, and what they did with the stage and just everything! It actually has a story behind it. It’s about twins, a girl and a boy who get separated from each other and the journey they make apart to find one another again. This is what it says on the “CIRQUE DU SOLEIL” website. “EMBARK ON AN ADVENTUROUS JOURNEY YOU CAN SEE IT. YOU CAN EXPERIENCE IT. BUT, YOU WON'T BELIEVE IT! The KÀ Universe - KÀ transcends place and time, with a theatrical landscape, scenic elements and costumes inspired by an array of diverse cultures. Brought to life by 80 artists from around the world, KÀ is a gravity-defying production featuring a powerfully emotive soundtrack that enhances the innovative blend of acrobatic feats, Capoeira dance, puppetry, projections and martial arts“. Anyway, if any of you are lucky enough to see one of the Cirque Du Soleil shows, this one was excellent. They have several in Las Vegas and around the world. I actually saw this one twice last week,…once with my co-worker and then with Dave on Saturday night. He flew down to Vegas for the weekend and then we came home on Sunday night.