A Kentucky Thanksgiving.....

......no deep-fried turkey or grits but a lot of good food and family togetherness. We opted to eat in this year and it was good (last year we did the restaurant thang). Shana puts on a good spread and the house smelled good all day long (and there were left-overs. I think that's my favorite part of a Thanksgiving dinner.) The weather has cooperated as well. Lots of "outside time" with the kids; climbing trees, going to the park and walking to the dollar store. The tree is up and the stockings are hung....just waiting for the next holiday. I'll be heading home soon but it's good to know all is well here on the Louisville front. Happy Holidays to anyone that happens on this post.

My Kentucky kids get in on the Superman action...

They miss their cousins but were glad to get in on the action.....

Can you tell there was a sale....

.....on "Uberman" jammies and I invited the kids for a sleepover (call me crazy and what the "h" "e" double toothpicks was I thinkin') but we made it. I have a confession.....my love still runs out at 9:00. Nuff said!!!!! They did sleep and hopefully a good time was had between the whining, complaining, yelling (mine) and threats. Maybe they'll come back....maybe I'll invite them. They are pretty cute kids but ya know what? I'm appreciating the quiet right now.

I'm totally so out of it....

.....because I'm not at the mid-night showing of Twilight. I probably would have gone if invited but frankly, I'm not sure what all the fuss is about. I did try reading the book......but once again, I'm uber not cool....(that word "uber" came up while I was reading Tamn's blog only she spelled it "oober" because she learned spelling with phonics in elementary; anyway, I was totally wondering where on earth such a word came from so I asked my sister if she had ever heard it and she informed me it was German so I googled it and found out that I am so much more totally out of it because it's been a cool word for quite some time; I just hadn't heard it. I would ask a few people here and there and they had heard it, so then I'm figuring, where have I been?!!!!! This is what I found out when I googled it....."One of the first popular modern uses of the word as a synonym in English for super was a Saturday Night Live TV sketch in 1979. The sketch, What if?, pondered the notion of what if the comic book hero Superman had landed in Nazi Germany when he first came from Krypton. Rather than being called Superman, he took the name of Uberman.[2]" So this goes clear back to 1979....wow!!!!" If you want to know more about the word, which you probably already know everything, duh....it's just me that doesn't then I've put in a link for ya. Click on uber). Anyway, I'm not going to Twilight, not tonight anyway and probably not tomorrow either.....but I did go to Park City and that was pretty cool? Why did I go to Park City? Because I could and Diana had a time-share for a week and it was uber relaxing and fun....(ya know, I really hate that word. You know when everyone started using "sucks"...I hated that one too and I wouldn't let anyone use it in my presence. I don't feel that strongly about uber but almost). I put "Knitting Workshop" on my calendar just so if anyone wondered why I went to Park City, that sounded like a pretty good reason and I knitted for many hours while there. We also shopped a bit but didn't want to contribute to the economy so it didn't take us long to walk past a few stores in the downtown district but we did happen onto the Family History Center that the church has established there and a couple of nice sisters showed us the new website that the church has developed to help us all get our generations linked properly. I spent a day with Traci then headed on down the road to be home to babysit while JoEllen went on a field trip with George's class. I'm throwing in a few random photos, one especially funny of Evan in Eddie Bauer where I went this morning to get his mom a birthday present.....he had a rockin' good time. Then tonight, I hosted at the Jubilee of Trees and will do the same tomorrow. This has been an uber lame post but I wanted to get caught up for all my followers out there in blog land. I have to link you to Penny's 2 Cents http://pennybs2cents.blogspot.com/post because she brags about Mason as her dentist. Also, I wish I could post the letter I got from Karen (she's Mason's assistant) and she took the time to write to a mom and tell her how her son is doing. I wish more of us would do that.....we always hope all is well but it's always good to hear from someone else. Thanks Karen, if you ever read this. You made my day.....week.....year. I'll carry your letter around in my purse for the rest of my life and maybe someday, post it on my blog.

Anniversaries and Birthdays...

Eight years ago tomorrow, Mandy joined the family. She and Mason were married in the St. George Temple. They lived here for a while then headed to Kentucky for school. Five years and three kids later, they're back and we're glad. Happy Anniversary on Wednesday. Thursday is JoEllen's birthday. She joined our family 11 years ago when Kyle decided to ".....view her in a different light". They had been friends a long time and when I told him the friendship needed to move on to something more "....you need to view this girl in a different light"... is what I think I said and his response in "grandpa style" was..."I looked at her in the sunlight and with a lamp on....and she looks the same." Happy Birthday, JoEllen. Glad Kyle finally "saw the light" and invited you to join the Wells Clan. I guess I should say "thank you" for accepting. Have a good one.

Remembering a really good man......

on his birthday, Scott Gordon Wells

November 16, 1949 - July 22, 2001

Nothing like a good whiff of something.....

…..to spark a memory, hopefully a good one. Yesterday, Kyle came in hot a sweaty, rushing from one meeting and needing to be to another one without having time to go home and freshen up. He asked me if I still had Dad’s cologne, "Elsha", anywhere. It was right where he left it over 7 years ago and hasn’t been touched since. He splashed some on and came out breathing in the scent of memories of days past….."That’s the smell of a babysitter.” I was a bit puzzled at first but then he explained that the only time he smelled it on his dad was when we were going out on a date and got a babysitter. The babysitter would arrive and we would leave, exiting with the scent of “Elsha” in the air. My dad’s signature cologne was “Old Spice” and my mom’s was “Evening in Paris”. I remember seeing that dark blue bottle in the medicine cupboard and always being fascinated with “grown up” perfume. I think I even sneaked a whiff once in a while. Then Avon came along and “Topaz” seemed to be my mom’s scent of choice along with others she would try. I remember trying things like “Chantilly” and others but they all seemed “cheap smelling” compared to my favorite, “Eternity”. I don’t know when I started thinking I was rich enough to have a “signature” cologne but I did and I still wear it to this day. I used to use any money I was given as a gift to purchase it. I don’t wear it much any more but I still love it, mostly because of the memories I have when I smell it. I’ve thought a lot about smells lately as I’ve enjoyed the coming of Fall and the scent of cool, fresh air with a whiff of ….can’t call it anything but Fall. I’m not sure what it is, maybe the changing of the leaves causes it….maybe someone has a fire in their fireplace somewhere. I’m not quite sure but it always brings with it memories of family gatherings, football games and the coming of the holidays. Speaking of holidays, I think that’s the main reason I still get a real Christmas tree. I just love the smell. I’ve stocked up on my “Evergreen” and “Christmas Tree” Salt City Candles and can’t wait to get them lit, anything to capture that fresh-cut Christmas Tree smell, always trying to capture something other than the 28-year old house smell. I use Pine Sol when I clean. Even if I don’t clean, if I put a bit of it in the sink with a little water, it smells like I’ve cleaned. Everyone’s house has a smell. The kids used to say if they were blind folded and taken to someone’s house in the neighborhood, they would be able to tell whose house it is. I think I’ll go do some real cleaning….then light a candle. Mmmmmm, Pine Sol and Pumpkin Spice; doesn’t get much better.

Today's just one of those days.....

.....that 15 years ago I would have given a heave ho and tossed a few laundry buckets down the stairs. Laundry has never been one of my strong points in housekeeping (actually, I'm pretty much "domestically challenged" - 'clean enough to be healthy, dirty enough to be happy') but in trying to come to grips with my disdain of laundry, one day I purchased a laundry bucket for each member of my family, put each one's name on it (some of them got personalized over the years. Not sure who was into Garbage Pail Kids at the time) and as I would launder, I would load the buckets fully expecting each obedient child to empty his/her bucket into his/her bedroom downstairs. I took great pride in filling up the buckets and most of the time I didn't really care if the clean clothes stayed in the buckets but once in a while, on a day like today, I JUST WANTED THE LAUNDRY DONE AND PUT AWAY. My rage would get the best of me and I would chuck them, one by one down the stairs (it felt so good) and the children would just stare at me....I'm not sure what they were really thinking but at least the laundry room would get cleared out, for a time anyway. My laundry room is pretty small. Actually, it isn't really a room, it's more like a closet but I think each of my kids thought it was their personal changing room, and, like I said, most days it didn't bother me, but on days like today, I just wanted it clean. So I got up this morning with the feeling that I wanted it cleared out, but that feeling soon went away and I've gone on to more important things like downloading my Christmas songs onto my Ipod. Now that's important stuff (and cleaning out my den closet and finding some wonderful pictures to post, like this one.) Anybody got any dialog for this? Mason, if you're having a hard time putting down some memories of Dad, maybe you could start with this one. The rest of you better watch out. I'm finding some pretty interesting stuff in my quest to clean.

Mr. Cool 50's guy....

....and that's as close as he ever got to dressing up for anything except church. He never was one to draw attention to himself. Even when he lost his hair, he figured the wig would cause more heads to turn than his bald head, so he tossed out the fake hair but he was who he was and never pretended to be anything different. He taught by example, let go of what he couldn't do anything about and judged no one. He wasn't perfect then, but he is now only because imperfections are buried with us and taken up to God to sort out. I'm sure he made mistakes but they are forgiven and forgotten. His sense of humor existed only in the fact that he didn't think he had one but he could make us laugh and he especially liked to laugh with us. He was funniest when he thought he was funny. My favorite memory of his laughter was watching him laugh outloud (I had to quiet him down) in a motel room in Europe watching "Home Alone" in German. He took life very seriously at a very young age and worked hard to earn money to help out his Mom and his brothers and paying his own way, all while getting really good grades in school and taking hard classes. He had friends, and he had fun but he had his goals and the friends and fun never got in the way of those goals......(there were a couple of close calls though). I'm just thinking about him this week so thought I'd post the coolest picture I could find of him. I'll put more on later but I thought this picture wreaked of coolness....and the sideburns are real. It's from a 50's party while we were in Pullman, Washington. I also wanted to post a picture of his GQ-ness. He was voted "Best Dressed" in high school you know, and wore ironed pants and starched Gant shirts and shined, wing-tip shoes every day. He would have been 59 this coming Sunday, November 16.

The basement's calling me.......

…and has been for the last 28 years as I never go down unless I’m beckoned, lately to turn off lights left on by grandkids or check for an un-flushed toilet before I leave town but usually, there’s not much that gets me down there. Not sure why….I just don’t like basements but I love my basement…not for me but for what it’s done for me through the years….so here’s to you, basement o’ mine; my ode to you.
You’ve been there for me through the years….which is more than I can say for me.
I’ve neglected you, left you for months without even a peek inside to see how you are,
but you never complain, only call out for more.
“Bring on the kids” you would say on a hot summer day.
You would let them romp and play,
rough-house and mess you up and bang you around putting holes in your walls
and breaking your lights, probably with some kind of ball.
You’ve seen so much through these last 28 years.
I wish I’d been a fly on your wall many of those hours that the kids would play.
You could tell me tales some of which I probably don’t want to hear
but you are loyal to the children and don’t divulge their secrets.
“What happens in the basement, stays in the basement.”
I can see the destruction but will never know the real truth.
Were they playing “Basement Ball”, “Steal the Pillows” or “Flashlight in the Dark”?
I guess I’ll never know whence came that hole.
You kept them safe, for the most part.
I’m surprised there weren’t more casualties from the rough-housing that went on.
You’ve seen it all, haven’t you basement o’ mine?
You’ve been the backdrop for many a home-made video,
dance recital, dress-up session/fashion show, seminary video, school project;
a haven from the world with your dark t.v. room
closed off with the old Dixie High School theatre curtains.
Now another generation;
still the same old dress-ups and Barbie dolls; same holes and uncovered neons.
You still welcome the little ones.
You’re trying to teach them to play but it’s just not the same.
They are frightened of you….they don’t like your shadows.
They will learn that you are their friend and you’ll let a kid be a kid.
I’ll show them where the lights are and keep trying to convince them
that you are a safe place to be.
They’ll come around, but for now,
thanks for raising my kids and giving them memories of a childhood retreat,
free from adult scrutiny and intervention, a soft place to land in a cold, cruel world.
Though I don’t visit you much, I know you’re there for me.
I won’t make any promises of more frequent visits
but I will keep your toilet flushed and provide you with grandkids to come down and play.

Ode – A lyric poem often in the form of an elaborate address and usually characterized by loftiness of tone, feeling and style. (I tried to make this look like a poem. I’m no English major here.)

A gramma's gotta do what a gramma's gotta do....

....and this week, I ventured up to have some gramma time with Scott and Jake. We got a visit to Gateway Discovery in along with a few other adventures but mostly enjoyed hometime with the boys, watching Jake watch Scott, watching Scott fight his monsters, give his speeches and tell his stories. Since a picture's worth a thousand words, here's 9,000 words summed up in 3.....lots of fun. (top right: he's eyeing the cucumber after he climbed up in the vegetable bin at Gateway and concludes that a cucumber can be a sword.)

Fun times...Halloween '08