Ode to St. George....

....by my niece, Colleen Sullivan. She wrote this piece and entered it into a contest winning the privilege to be on the first ride on Skywest out of the new St. George Airport. It's states my sentiments exactly and I wanted to share it with you (with her permission of course). Enjoy!!! (The picture is my friend Janet looking from Stone Cliff.)

Oh City of My Dreams..

How can a city have such a grip on me?

You hold me willingly hostage, unable to resist the grasp of your charms.

Brother Brigham designed your roads, organized and spacious (200 East is my favorite).

Despite your desert upbringing, you sprout green-ness in all your city blocks, contrasting against the red rock, the black rock, and Pine Valley above to create one sweeping panorama of gorgeousness.

You're beautiful, St. George, and humble about it.

You embrace those who would have a cup at Dick's,

And those who would invade from the North every weekend from President's Day on.

You attract the large national chains while making sure the Frostop plugs along.

Your climate is unparalleled -- your winter cold never reaches into my bones, and your summer heat invigorates, making me feel alive.

Geographically, you are in the sweetest of sweet spots.

You lie at a perfect distance from Las Vegas - close enough that I can make it to my concerts, and far enough away that the desert is all you have in common.

You also lie at a perfect distance from Salt Lake - separate and independent of northern Utah in every way.

You have but a single bar, it's name "The One and Only." Karaoke is on Wednesdays.

You are rich in history and character; think of The Electric Horseman.

Bruce Hurst,

the Sun Bowl,

cotton, and

Ranger Bart.

You're quite a sporty thing, St. George, with your marathon/Ironman/Senior Games and your softballing and your trails and parks and all your many city leagues.

You are self-sustaining. You welcome all your visitors with open arms, invigorating your own economy. You offer them golf, sun, Bear Paw, and pools. Your residents stand so proud. You have that intangible quality other towns could never define or have.

I tried to leave you once.

Found myself in the cold and wind of the Spectrum-sharing City to the North.

I thought I could handle being only forty minutes away.

It was the margarine to your sweet cream butter.

Away from you I lasted three months.

You are not without your quirks, St. George.

You loudly sing the siren song of the seniors,

beckoning them to bring their RVs.

Come, you say, partake of our Senior Sampler.

Bingo and slots are only thirty minutes away, you lure.

The Temple is right here, you sing.

And they come.By the Buick they come.

Beating the heartbeat of your several buffets.

They, like me, are unable to resist you.

Forever I will cruise your Tabernacle Street,

Be entertained by your goings-on,

Love your people,

And enjoy and be grateful for your goodness.

That, my friend, is a Given.

A Mona or a Bill Given, of course.

It's Jack's birthday..........

........and I know he's having a good time 'cause he always does. He's one of the happiest little kids I know that takes great pleasure in small things and especially loves his big brothers and is very happy to be big enough and old enough to "hang out" with them and be able to play their games. This kid just plain and simple, makes me happy. Jack, I hope you're having a great birthday. I'll see you in June.....

Jack happens to share a birthday with his great-great-great grandfather, William (Badcock/Babcock) Webb.

William Webb is the father of Sarah Ida who is my mother's mother and their name was changed from Babcock or Badcock to Webb. From the time he was baptized, he had a yearning to get to Zion and was able to make his way to Salt Lake City. In 1866, Apostle Erastus Snow was looking for someone who could run a four-horse outfit and William applied and was soon sent to St. George with a load of freight. William raised the last commercial cotton in St. George in the year 1899, on a lot belonging to George F. Jarvis. He died February 7, 1911 of cancer of the stomach, and was buried at the cemetery in St. George, Utah.

My favorite Easter picture ever....

HAPPY EASTER....one and all!

Not feeling clever...

....but needing to blog, I set out this night with my mind in a fog. The week's been well-spent so here's what I'll do....I'll simply share what I did with you!!!!! (cheesy, huh?)
Monday was spent with Lucy......Oh, what a good day.
Tuesday rode home with Cynthia; going through Gunnison on our way. Then Wed. two friends showed up the same time, so I invited them in for lunch and we dined. (Janet came from Houston and Margaret from Salt Lake, we had a good time but no pics did I take). I'm tired of rhyming ,,,,,,so here's how the rest of the week went.
I did get these pictures of the cutest little baseball player ever....
Some thirty plus years ago it was Aaron McArthur's dad pitching to my boys.......
Having Janet here for a few days was a blast and a half.....starting out Thurs. at Bear Paw (the locals don't even try to get in there anymore but we did).
Then we hit Paula's for an early dinner and headed out to see the sights of St. George, from showing off the new airport, over to Sandhollow, up to Quail, around through Leeds and home again, home again...very spent and tired.
The Annual St. George Arts Festival was a great ending to a fun-filled week with my friend. Joyce joined us and here we are listening to the "Younger Brothers" perform. They are awesome for sure......

..and of course, checking out the latest "Roland Lee's"......
.....then ending the day spending time with Maycee for her birthday that was last Tuesday: I love my "one on one" time with my grand kiddies. Aw.....it's been a good week. Hope yours has too. Sweet dreams whoever and wherever you are. Happy Easter....let's all be sure that we remember the "reason for the season" and let the atonement work in our daily lives.

The pool is officially open...

....and the season has begun. Saturday got us off to a mighty fine start with Maycee's 9th birthday party at MamaNita's pool. It was sooooo much fun and we're thinking the 27 plus kids exceeded the legal capacity but no major mishaps.

What do you do on Sunday evening? I've mentioned many times before that we head up to my mom's for her weekly and wonderful cake (tonight was one of my faves, devil's food with white frosting) and the kids are always bugging Kyle or Mason to play "Scary Dad". When it's dark, they run around outside and chase them and scare them but tonight, Kyle, having been a bit under the weather and not feeling like running, hopped on the Jazzy and grabbed the Louisville Slugger and headed out chasing the kids, swinging his bat. I guess you had to be there to get the full effect....but it was hilarious.

How can we justify this as an "appropriate" Sabbath Day activity....um...let me see. The only thing I can think of is it's a dad playing with the kids. That's a good combination if you ask me. That Jazzy can rock and roll if it needs to.

A whole lot of celebratin' goin' on...

.....for the Centennial of Dixie High School and Dixie State College. The town comes alive this time of year anyway as we are heading into spring and the north is still snowed in. Tonight was "State Champion" night at Flyer Field and they invited all of the team members of the State Championship Teams. It was fun to remember those "baseball days" and the good times we had. It was good to see the guys lined up again and watch their little kids run around...I guess baseball did teach some pretty good life lessons afterall. ...and it was awfully good to see Doug Jolley and his wife and two little kids again after all these years. These guys spent a lot of time in our home through their high school years and it's so good to see what they've done with their lives. Spencer was on the 1994 team and Mason was on the '95 and '97. *********************************************

Since it's also the Centennial Celebration of Dixie State College, they invited a few former D-Day Queens back to judge the contest this year....and I was privileged to be one of them. It was really a lot of fun and gave me a bit of a diversion from my "usual stuff" for an afternoon away from my phone. I think we actually really did pick the right one. BTW....I wasn't the right on 41 years ago but I'm mighty glad it was me. It's been a little "piece of Dixie" that I've been able to have with me all my life.

Miller and I went looking for the Easter Bunny last Thursday and we found him.....

...and Aunt Joyce stopped by to meet Lucy...

....and she smiled. A little grainy but I had to post it. Such a cute picture of one of her first "real" smiles.

It's been good to have Lucy (and her parents) in the house again for the past couple of days.

It's always good when friends stop by...

....she used to come by to dance, swim or play Barbie....

.....but yesterday Camille came by to get acquainted with Lucy.

Speaking of friends.....yesterday was Phyllis' birthday and Stef came by last week and we went to breakfast. I love seeing or hearing from my friends; Stef, Phyllis and I go way back....I mean waaay back. Not only did we terrorize East Elementary together (Stef and I pushed a kid off the railing and he broke his leg) but we had our way with Pine Valley every summer at 4-H camp.

I'm on the far left, Stef on front left and Phyllis second in from right.

Stef and I went to state with our "Seam Demonstration" and we even got our picture in the paper. She's now a professor at BYU with a Ph.D in Education (or something like that) and travels all over the country doing what she does; Phyllis is the wife of a general authority and travels all over the country doing what she does; but we seem to find time to get together a couple of times a year and laugh about the same things every time because we are now getting old and don't remember stuff. I count myself lucky to be able to still be in touch with old friends. I count myself even luckier to remember the good times....even if we do talk about them over and over.

Phyllis, me and Stef at our finest......

******************************

LUCY AT HER FINEST.....I've enjoyed having Lucy around for the last couple of days. (James and Lauri too)....so fun to watch new parents.

They're doing a great job. I think Lucy's gonna be o.k.......

Lucy is in the house...

....and we're all enjoying getting acquainted.

Her first time meeting her cousins..............

Uncle Kyle takes his turn....

Matty is not too sure she wants to give up her post as "youngest" but enjoys reverting back to her "baby" ways and enjoying the baby swing. She wasn't sure she wanted much to do with Lucy....she'll come around. They'll be great friends one day.

THE BIG DAY IS HERE....and Emily got baptized by her father. We all enjoyed sharing this day with her. Emily is the purest of pure....such a loving heart and kind temperament, always happy and willing to help and learn, loves to play and pretend; (click on collage to enlarge).

I do so hate to see these little ones grow up so quickly but I'm so glad I can be a part of it.

Is there a doctor in the house...

.....or perhaps I might entitle this post..."Home Remedies", whatever the case may be I needed one or the other this past week but I took it as a "hint" from my body that it was time to slow down and take a breather (or several naps, which I did) and I'm feeling quite chipper. I had a terrible cold that turned into a sore throat yesterday....and my memories of childhood flooded back with a vengeance and I made sure I DID NOT CALL MY MOM...as her "home remedy" back in the day when I complained of a sore throat was her finger wrapped in gauze dipped in this (Mercurachrome, or methiolate or something like that) stuck down my throat (if she could catch me) to swab my tonsils. (Click on the picture to learn more about it if you want to try it on your kid some time). I learned very quickly to keep my sore throats to myself, which is what I did yesterday. (It was so bad I think I may have swabbed it myself if I had the right stuff) but it's gone today. Another nasty home remedy I remember is a "mustard plaster" which is something my mom would whip up and put in a folded dish towel and place on our chest. I didn't mind it so much but the smell was atrocious and in case you want to try that one, click HERE to see how it works. (If you are really serious about it click HERE for a video that will show you how). It has something to do with drawing the heat out of your body so please be sure to follow the instructions. Be sure to let me know how it goes.

O.k. so the best remedy of all is to just have a doctor in the house and a few years back, I got sick on one of my visits to Kentucky and Spencer just hooked me up with some fluids....best remedy ever. Don't know why they don't just sell an IV fluid pack at the drugstore. Not only the best "home remedy" but the quickest. I snapped right out of it within hours.

Speaking of "quick fixes", the best ever ebelskivers can fix anything and JoEllen made some this morning and shared with me. I'm sure they are exactly what got me going today and she is now the official ebelskiver maker of the family....sorry to say folks, but they are better than Grandma Rose's. Bring 'em on JoEllen, I'll never turn them down again. (I was too lazy to go over to their house so Kyle brought them to me). Maybe if you make some for Mason he will get well real soon.

I do hope whoever reads this is staying well....if not...you have some great "home remedies" here and if you have any you'd like to share, please feel free. Just wash your hands a lot....I think it's been a good long time since George has been sick (OCD about handwashing but it has paid off, knock on wood).

It's time for pedal pushers and polos....

.....and I remember well the day we really did call them "pedal pushers" (click HERE to see) whereas today they are just capris. Whatever they are called, we're supposed to hit 80 degrees today so my summer wardrobe has surfaced from the pile of clothes in the laundry room. Same ol' capris I've worn for the last 5 years, maybe a couple of new polos, we'll see. Hope you're feelin' the warmth wherever you are. Joyce is sporting her pedal pushers while I'm sure I was forced into these shorts and sleeveless shirt. I've got shoes, Joyce doesn't. That's just the way it was but we always had our "ever so trimmed" bangs. Here I am; looks like I'm modeling my pedal pushers on an outting in Zion. I'm sure this one is my outfit of choice. We enjoyed a fun, family dinner at "The Corral" for mom's 84th on Wed. I've been "under the weather" but today I'm finally hoping to be out "in the weather" a bit. Thanks to my "Juice Fairy" that magically appeared this morning and to Joyce for getting my milk yesterday. It's great to be surrounded by my family. I love you all....it's going to be a brighter day!!!!!