Eight

8 places I've lived:
1. Oak Ridge, Tennessee
2. Littleton, Colorado
3. Provo, Utah
4. Madrid, Spain
5. Jackson, Wyoming
6. Cleveland, Ohio
7. Omaha, Nebraska
8. San Antonio, Texas

8 jobs:
1. babysitter
2. janitor
3. nanny
4. secretary, whatever needs typing
5. teacher
6. medical office manager
7. academic office manager
8. flight instructor

8 TV shows:
1. Flintstones
2. Mighty Mouse
3. Underdog
4. Space Ghost
5. The Man from Uncle
6. Mission Impossible
7. All of the Star Trek series
8. Gilligan's Island

8 Restaurants
1. A&W Rootbeer
2. I have never eaten out much

8 things I did yesterday, Saturday
1. kissed Dad
2. laundry
3. dishes
4. mopping
5. Christmas shopping
6. vacuuming
7. my life is always picking up (other people's stuff)
8. attended a wedding reception

8 things I look forward to:
1. Christmas
2. Spring
3. Dad singing
4. weddings (you know who you are)
5. more grandchildren (you know who you are)
6. sunsets from the air
7. good books
8. The Second Coming of Christ

I think I will go with Arwen's #1 wish.
#2 is that you all find love from God and others. Look for it. It is there.
Merry Christmas!

This Thanksgiving I spent with 7 of the people I love the most. Six more live 700 miles away. Two more live 500 miles. Some of the people I love no longer live on the earth. Some live close by, but are busy with their own children and grandchildren.

I heard a DJ on the radio say that we need to remember that Thanksgiving is a religious holiday. When we say Thanks, it is to someone, and that someone is our God.

Now thank we all our God, with hearts, and hands and voices.
Who wonderous things hath done, in whom the Earth rejoices.
Who from our mother's arms, hath blessed us day by day.
With countless gifts of love, that still are ours today.

I am descended from William Bradford and Alice Carpenter, two of the survivors of the first winter in Plymouth, Massachusetts. Our first baby was born on Thanksgiving. I can't remember a Thanksgiving when I didn't have plenty to eat, always turkey, rolls and pie. This year we enjoyed produce from our own garden, cabbage, carrots, potatoes, and beets. Everyone chipped in to help prepare the meal. It was great!

My children tease me because I want to start listening to Christmas music in early November, but it makes logical sense. At Thanksgiving I turn my heart to thank God for all of my many blessings. Then my heart turns to the greatest blessing I know that God has given us. That blessing is the Plan of Salvation which is possible because of our Savior, Jesus Christ.

So now, officially,

This is the season, beloved of the year,
Sing a rhyme, Christmastime, soon will be hear,
Tell the true story of Jesus birth,
When as a baby he came to the earth.

What I did during my summer vacation

Well, let's stretch things a little. . .Summer deserves to be stretched both ways don't you think?
In mid May we started off with a camping trip to Goblin Valley.

In July the Hart family came and stayed an entire month. Wahoo!







We took a camping trip to Great Basin National Park in Nevada. It is a fantastic national park complete with a cool cave, alpine lakes, the tallest mountain in Nevada, a glacier, and my favorite the ancient bristle cone pines.



one with the tree.

The old man and the tree.


Then in August the entire clan met in Cooke City.


Finally we took a hike on Saturday last to the Salt Spring. Wahoo, Summer!

Teenagers are AWESOME!

I have the most awesome teenagers in the world, the Bean, the Bug, and Blue Eyes worked their behinds off today cleaning the house from which we just moved. Today, Labor Day, a holiday, when they could have been sleeping in, or reading a fantastic book, or helping that little elf find Zelda on the game cube, or hanging with their friends. They worked for 6 hours straight without food, or rest, and without complaining or fighting (mostly). And Saturday, they also worked a good 8 or 10 hours moving in our new home. Their dad and I love 'em to pieces.

Meet the Riddles

I do not claim to have written this entry. It was written by relatives of mine who shall remain unidentified, however, they did a phenomenal job of pointing out the foibles of the couple pictured on the right.

QUIZ: Are you prepared to meet the Riddles?

1. Your political convictions can best be described as:
A. Conservative
B. Republican
C. Right
D. Ronald Reagan was the greatest President of the last century!

2. A person who doesn't like to camp, hike or backpack is called:
A. a footsacker
B. a hot house plant
C. the unnatural offspring of Dad's first wife
D. Arwen

3. What is not an acceptable dinner time activity?
A. Singing at the table
B. Reading at the table
C. Calling someone "Late for Dinner"
D. All of the above

4. The Joanie rule is:
A. Applying your spell checker to every email before sending it off
B. Claiming privileges based on birth order
C. Using the phone greeting, "Joanie's Answering Service"
D. Waiting until everyone is in the car and ready to leave before running to the restroom

5. In J.R.R. Tolkien's Silmarillion, the name of the spider that poisoned the Great Trees is:
A. Smaug
B. Morgoth
C. Ungoliant
D. Are you insane? How is this relevant?

6. In one of the Riddles' jam songs, what dead animal is lying in the middle of the road?
A. Armadillo
B. Rattlesnake
C. Mormon Cricket(s)
D. Duck (you can take this one home!)

7. When cornered by one of the pilots in the family, do you:
A. Smile, nod and set your mind for screen saver
B. Claim you forgot something in the car
C. Shout "Fire" and escape in the confusion
D. Pretend to faint

8. Acceptable road trip activities include:
A. Getting lost and refusing to admit it
B. Sing until we run out of song ideas (This hasn't happened yet, but you never know) or our throats hurt (This has happened)
C. Enjoying the loving sweet-tempered company of your eternal family after nine hours in a car without air conditioning, driving across the American Midwest in the middle of July, listening to the dulcet tones of Rush Limbaugh, Sean Hannity and Michael Savage.
D. Stopping to hike, swim, find a hot spring, have everyone leave until Mom calms down and lets us back into the car.

9. What is not a Riddle family tradition?
A. Green Eggs and Ham on Christmas morning
B. Giving up milk for Lent
C. Homemade doughnuts on Conference weekends
D. Witches' fingers for Halloween

10. Who is Step and Fetch It?
A. Anyone but Dad, depending on circumstances
B. Anyone who is younger, smaller and/or of lesser authority than the requester
C. Kate. She is the youngest, after all.
D. All of the above.

11. Who is the most stubborn member of the Riddle family?
A. Depends on the situation
B. Mom, she has a genetic predisposition towards it
C. Depends on who you ask and whom they they are angry with
D. Dad, he is the oldest and has had the most practice
E. Other--Come up with your own answer

12. Whose year is it to sleep in the bunk bed in the Big Cabin?
A. Joanie
B. Elise
C. Arwen
D. Maybe they all should... to avoid court intervention. Do you remember 2002?




14. What do you get if you mate Zippy with a Forerunner?
A. I think that's illegal
B. Ziprunner
C. Foreruppy
D. Joanie's dream car


15. While on a forced march (euphemistically referred to as a hike), you come across a Centaurea solstitialis . Which of the following actions would be appropriate?
A. Carefully clip the premature buds with the clippers you had the foresight to bring with you on said forced march
B. Collect the seeds to sell or to spread on future forced marches
C. Quickly memorize its location, name, and characteristics (You have to pass a quiz to be freed from forced marches, of course)
D. Dig it up, bring it home and plant it so you can share it with all your friends and family

I think we have now found a house. Can you believe it? We expect to move 5 houses down the street from where we lived two years ago. Now the hard part: Can't afford to pay cash for this baby, so we are getting a loan. Ugh! What trauma. What little pieces of the pie we have to pay here and there to close the deal. What wondering when to lock in the interest rate. All this wondering makes me tired. Wondering if we will lose money in real estate or eventually make a little. Hoping our neighbors will be glad to have us back. Trying to ignore the fact that we have to MOVE.

A women's home is her castle

Okay, gang, what has kept me from blogging? I have a life. Can I make a post in 5 minutes or less? Probably, if I don't add a photo. On the other hand a picture is worth a thousand words. If I were not looking for a house I most likely could blog more often. Finally, last Saturday, Brian summed up our house hunting adventures when he said, "I am sick of looking at houses." We finally made an offer on a house, and can you believe it? It is on the street where we used to live. For those of you who know where that is, it is the Taylor's house. Maybe that is appropriate for the former Motel Camzoil. I have looked at about 25 houses physically, and twice that many on the internet and google maps, specifically street view. Buying a house is hard work.

Jesus Smiles

One of the shortest scriptures in the New Testament is John 11:35, Jesus wept. This was upon learning of the death of his friend Lazarus, whom he then raised from the dead.

I think our Savior often smiled and even laughed, although I have only found one reference to it.

And when Jesus had spoken these words he came again unto his disciples: and behold they did pray steadfastly, without ceasing, unto him; and he did smile upon them again; and behold they were white even as Jesus. 3Nephi 19:30, see also verse 25

What do you think? Someday I hope to kneel at the feet of the One who smiles on high.

Dear readers, I was born BC (before computers), and I am busy, but I will try to put more stuff out there for those of you who want to read more. Look for something new in the near future.

Riddle for today

Riddle: What’s the main difference between the sports car and the airplane?
Answer: If you speed up the sports car to about 75 miles per hour and pull back on the steering wheel, nothing very interesting happens.

I begin

Here is one of my favorite hymns by Robert Lowry:


My life flows on in endless song;
Above earth’s lamentation
I hear the sweet though far off hymn
That hails a new creation:
Through all the tumult and the strife
I hear the music ringing;
It finds an echo in my soul—
How can I keep from singing?

What though my joys and comforts die?
The Lord my Savior liveth;
What though the darkness gather round!
Songs in the night He giveth:
No storm can shake my inmost calm
While to that refuge clinging;
Since Christ is Lord of Heav’n and earth,
How can I keep from singing?

I lift mine eyes; the cloud grows thin;
I see the blue above it;
And day by day this pathway smoothes
Since first I learned to love it:
The peace of Christ makes fresh my heart,
A fountain ever springing:
All things are mine since I am His—
How can I keep from singing?

I love music and my husband is an amazing singer. I love to hear him sing. We make a good team, as I can play the piano while he sings.