Everyone Home for Christmas

We were all together for Christmas for the first time in a couple of years so we all got together and took a family picture. The home teachers happened by and pressed the shutter on a couple. We did some with the timer.Rose, Eric, and Glen opening presents on Christmas morning.

Jilly in the high chair.

Eric preparing to open his present from Santa Claus.

Jilly with Elmo.

Grandsons opening presents. They really had the hang of tearing off the wrappping paper. Rip, tear, and move on to the next present. Oh, were we supposed to look at the presents? The unwrapping is so much fun.

The kids are all here for Christmas vacation and we are so thankful that they made it. While the past few days have been cold and snowy it seems that the timing was good for Saturday travel at least coming from Utah and Idaho. It started snowing here quite hard just before Holly and family got here and has snowed pretty much since.

We drove the 4x4 to church today and were kind of glad to have it right now. The main roads and streets were plowed but the side streets were pretty snowy. After we got home from church it started snowing some more. It will be good to just hunker down here in the house for a few days now that everyone is here.

Eric is home for Christmas

Eric got home this evening. He had some bad roads through the Blue Mountains of Oregon. So glad he got home safely. What a relief when he walked in the door.

YYSO Concert at the Yakima Valley Museum

This is Rose playing at the museum on Saturday. She had a lot of playing time this past week.

Bot Competition

It has been a crazy day today. Well actually all week I guess. Rose is in the orchestra for YVCC's production of Cinderella. She has had rehersals and or performances every night this week. She also had YYSO rehersal on Mondy night. Today she had a YYSO performance. She had a solo part in one of the movements from "Carmen" and she also played duet with one of the oboe players. Then she had two performances of Cinderella. In the meantime, Glen is competing in the robot competition at the High School. After I watched Rose's YYSO performance I went over to the high school to see Glen. His team finished second over all. He is so relieved that it is done. And so am I. Not just the robot competition but also the whole busy week.

WIBC

I made a quick trip over to Seattle yesterday to see Rose perform in the Western International Band Clinic concert. There were actually two concerts with two bands each but I only went to the 10:30 am concert to see Rose. I saw her at a distance before the concert began and during the concert I could see the top of her bassoon. Afterward we did get to talk for a minute before she had to run on to other things.

She went Friday with the band director and four other students from her school. They had clinics and listened to several bands over the time they were there as well as played in their own concerts.

It was a nice day in Seattle. The sun even shone a bit and the view of Mount Rainer was impressive.

The concert was at the Double Tree Seattle Airport Hotel. It is a big hotel and the ball room was big enough for the concert. The only problem was that the seating was all at floor level so it was a bit hard to see the participants but they sounded pretty good.

It was a nice day for a drive. The only blip in the weather was just a bit of wind from Snoqualmie pass to about Issaquah.

Peas, Fall, and Other Thoughts

As you can guess this picture was not taken today. The pea blossoms in this picture just made me think about work. Right now we are in the process of labeling peas that were grown a while ago. The idea that food can be processed so that it can be stored for a long time is quite an invention. I know that salting and drying of meat has been around for a long time but the method of canning as preservation is really quite new, like maybe 150 years or so.

Anyway as fall is now upon us and it will not be long until we see snow and possibly some really cold weather it is good to know that we had a good harvest this year and we have been able to "can" food so that there will be a supply for this coming winter.

We also had a chance this summer to do some dry canning for ourselves. Sugar, flour, and other staples are good to have just in case there is a disruption of supply to our local stores.

Saturday I was able to help out at a DI event where the church is able to provide furniture, bedding, and clothing to those in need. I was a little surprised that the quantity of things provided this year was actually down a little bit from the past few years. (I have been involved in this for about the past four or five years.) I think that is a good thing as perhaps not so many are in need right now despite the economic downturn. Perhaps it is just that the downturn has not trickled down yet. We shall see.

Cars Again

Remember a few weeks back I posted about how we seem to be in the time of car troubles. Well, I guess they are not over. The van began making an odd noise and when I pulled in the driveway tonight coolant leaked out onto the ground. Now I know where the noise was coming from. It appears the water pump has gone bye, bye. Anyway we can't get it into the shop until Wednesday so we are down one car for a couple of days.

Puss N' Boots

For some reason Glen's face in this scene reminds me of Puss 'N Boots in Shrek. Maybe the picture doesn't exactly catch it but I sure saw it when I saw the play for the first time. I ushered again tonight--well actually I was the ticket taker which is a lot of fun because I get to see all the people come to the play and I get to watch the play too. I think tonight was the biggest audience so far but I think Thursday's audience was more responsive.

Glen's Project

I do not have any pictures to post today. Glen has them in his camera and has not downloaded them yet. We poured concrete today. At first it did not look like a real promising day as it was raining pretty hard between 6 and 7 am. Glen cancelled the concrete based on the weather and we went down to the park to do a little prep work. There were quite a few people who showed up. Some of them were there to help another scout in Glen's troop work on his project but when the rain let up we decided to go ahead. Glen called the ready-mix place and they had a truck to us within about an hour and we got the pour done. We had a lot of help and most of it was pretty good. Some of the boys found it more fun to play than to work but all of the adults dug in hard and many of the boys too. We had the pour done and finished by about 2:30 and that was even with a break for lunch. There is a lot more to get done but at least now it is down to a managable project.

The Hunchback of Notre Dame

I did not know that the story of the Hunchback of Notre Dame could be so funny. Here are a few pictures of the play.

Glen's Eagle Project

We worked all day on Glen's Eagle Project today.

We got two thirds of the basketball court poured. It was a long day and I am glad it is done. We poured about 20 yards of concrete so we have about 10 more yards to pour another day.

Voting

In Yakima County all voting is by mail. It is actually a pretty good deal as you do not have to go to the polls and you can vote anytime in about a three week span from the time you get your ballot until election day.

The biggest perk, perhaps, is that once you have voted you can just ignore the negative ads that seem to crop up as the campaign gets closer to election day.

We did not watch a lot of the debates but what parts we did see just confirmed what I already suspected--the persons who would be the best president or the best governor are not on the ballot.

Still I am glad we do live in a country where we can vote and otherwise participate in the election process.

It's Coming Fall

If you have not noticed I think fall is upon us. The frost on the windshield of the pick up truck this morning was a sure sign. The garden is not all dead yet though. The tomato plants do not appear to have frozen yet but it is definitely then end of warm weather. One of the things I like about where we live though is that there is a fall period. Not like when we lived in Idaho when it went instantly from summer to winter. It is a good thing or the apples would not get harvested.

Well the corn is done for this year, at least it will be by this time tomorrow. It seemed that the season zipped by us this year. In fact it seems like the whole year has hurried by way to fast.

Cars, trucks, and vans

Seems like we are having one of those waves of car issues. A couple of weeks ago we had to have a new starter put on the van. Today the pick up quit on Glen and Rose. Seems that the battery cable that goes to the starter was in contact with the manifold and the insulation burned off and the wire grounded out to the manifold. The truck stopped. Fortunatley it was just down on Concord and there was plenty of room to get the truck off onto the shoulder of the road. We towed it home this evening and got the old wiring off but now we need to get a new battery cable. I wish I had some time to work on it but I am kind of booked up for the next couple of days unless I can sneak away from work for a while tomorrow or Thursday. We'll have to see how that goes.

Well, I guess if you think about it, the old truck doesn't owe us much. We bought it on New Years Day of 1998. So it has been around for a while. We have had to do a few things over the years but so far nothing really major. Of course the boy's might disagree since it seems to quit when they are driving it.

Old Photos

I have had some fun going through some old photos. It is amazing looking at one's self from the perspective of a half century later. Why would I pose with a toy gun in my Sunday go to meetin' clothes? What was I looking at? What was I thinking? The funny thing is that if there were not a photograph I would not even have remembered doing something like this. Kind of weird when you think about it. I mean, what makes a memory? Do photos perserve memories or do they create them?

Celebrity endorsements

I just saw that Madonna is endorsing Obama. That right there is reason enough to vote for John McCain.

Before Kids

I think this picture was taken at Christmas time in 1979, in the time now nearly forgotten, before children.

Heather, does the size of the boy in this picture remind you of your boys? Well, as you might guess all big babies do not grow up to be big men.

Not my Post

As you might have guessed it was Teri, not me, who posted the last time. Teri and her sisters had a good time in Victoria, BC. and she wanted to share some of the pictures of their fun.

Had to add just one more picture of the gardens. It was a fun trip and I will remember it for the next 50 years. Does anyone have better sisters than I do? I doubt it. Thanks Sharon and Diane

This is the carriage ride around the city. Our guide had a distinct british accent when we started but by the end it was clearly lost. Funny

Here we are at Bushart Gardens. It was huge and very beautiful. We went a little crazy taking pictures of all the beautiful flowers. Makes a person want to spend all their time in the yard.

Diane and Sharon decided that we needed a sister's trip to celebrate the big 50 for someone so we went to Victoria BC for a weekend. Here we are at the Empress Hotel having high tea. Very posh! If you look closely you can see the Happy Birthday written in chocolate at the top of the tiered serving tray. We went from there to the spa and had massages and pedicures. These girls sure know how to pamper a person.

For those of you who do not believe that I grew up on a tractor seat here is the photographic evidence.

A Tribute to Dorin and Lucy Porter on the Occasion of their 60th Wedding Anniversary


I am truly honored to be the spokesperson for the family in offering a brief tribute to Mother and Daddy on the occasion of their 60th wedding anniversary. I guess maybe I was asked to speak since I have had some experience speaking. Having served on the high council for the last five and a half years I have put my fair share of people to sleep.

President Hinckley, in his book Standing for Something, related the following story.
“Several years ago, the Wall Street Journal carried an account of a lawyer in Ohio. He spoke of his boyhood, and told how his father took the family for a ride in their old car on a Sunday afternoon. While they were going down the street, a fancy red Cadillac passed them. The boy asked his father why some people had Cadillacs while their car was an old jalopy. His father responded that everyone couldn’t have the same, but that he, his son, had something of tremendous worth that many others did not have, and it was of greater value than any Cadillac. He was a descendent of his father’s and mother’s families, and there flowed in his veins the best blood of each. This wise father taught his son that although all could not achieve temporal equality, everyone could cultivate that wonderful quality of self-esteem.”

We truly have the best blood of both Mother’s and Daddy’s families in our veins. I know that you younger siblings did not get to know our grandparents as well as us older ones. The traits of our grandparents were passed on to Mother and Daddy and to us.

In The Family: A Proclamation to the World we are taught that the family is ordained of God and that happiness in family life is most likely to be achieved when founded upon the teachings of the Lord Jesus Christ. Successful marriages and families are established and maintained on principles of faith, prayer, repentance, forgiveness, respect, love, compassion, work, and wholesome recreational activities. I think that we are a successful family. I know that we have had some bumps along the way but I still think we could be termed a successful family. Just look at the number of us who are together on this occasion.

I want to talk a little about each of these principles.

Faith-From the time I was little I was exposed to church activity. I remember walking the half mile or so to the church with Daddy. I tried to keep up with him as he walked. I remember the how I would get a pain in my side as Dauntes and I went to priesthood meeting with Daddy. Now we were not old enough to go to priesthood meeting but we would hang out with Uncle Woodrow’s kids while the men were in priesthood meeting. A lot of our life revolved around the church—of course for me it was the old building that stood across the road. The faith in Jesus Christ that we learned has gone to many places on the earth, South America, the Philippines and West Virginia just with us children. Now the next generation continues to carry this faith to many different parts of the world.
Prayer—Mother taught me to pray. After family prayer at Mother and Daddy’s bedside she would help us with a simple prayer. Many times I have turned to prayer just as Mother taught me.

Repentance and forgiveness—as I mentioned before we have had some bumps in the road. Growing up in a large family we did have some disagreements but Mother and Daddy taught us to forgive and to seek the opportunity to make things right.

Respect—Mother and Daddy lived lives that caused many people to respect them. Not the least of which was the respect that they earned from each of us, their children. Daddy taught us to respect Mother. They taught us to respect others, especially adults.

Love—Sixty years together is an expression of love and we have all been a part of that love. Daddy once told me that once a child came into the family it was loved and would not be traded away at any price. That is a good thing since that happened nine times in their lives. Love was not diluted but multiplied.

Compassion—Our family is, well, how should I say this? We are not really good at expressing our feelings, especially those of love and compassion. Maybe we are better at showing some other types of feelings. I think that one way we show compassion is through service. Mother and Daddy showed us how to serve. Many times we have had a chance to go along on those errands of service. When the church or community needed help our parents were there. One time, the church needed sand hauled for a ball diamond. Now, I’m pretty sure that Daddy didn’t give two hoots about the ball diamond but the call for service went out and he provided a dump truck and drove it all day long hauling that sand. The church provided many of those opportunities. Does church pig mean anything to anyone? This particular pig had a way of getting out of the pen and running up and down the river. The call would come, “The church pig is out!” and we would all chase it until we were able to catch it and get it back into the pen.

Work—Do I need to explain this? I want to share some things that I learned and some things that I did not know until much later.
Some things I learned:
1. Cows need to be milked twice a day no matter what, even if you don’t feel good.
2. Gardens need to be weeded. Peas are not weeds
3. Raspberries need to be picked.
4. Plowing is a boring job. Just how slow can you go on a D4 Cat?
5. You can drive too fast while harrowing.
6. It gets really cold in the winter while Daddy is up on the pole fixing TV lines and you are standing on the ground waiting for him to get the work done.
7. Choke cherries taste good while you do farm work. If you are smart you can pick enough on the first round on the Baker Knoll to last for a long time. The only problem is that they can make you very thirsty.
8. Tractor lights make it possible to extend the work day.
9. You can’t see out of frosty windshields. This is especially bad when the disk is parked along side the drive way.

Some things I did not know until later:
1. Not everyone owns a welder and a cutting torch.
2. Not every mother makes bread every other day. Bread can be purchased in the grocery store.
3. You don’t have to own a cow to get milk. They sell it in the store as well.
4. You don’t have to change your own oil. There are quick lube places that have oil and filters and they will do it for you.
5. Not everyone had to learn to ride a horse. I didn’t like riding so much but I did learn to ride. I even got bucked off a time or two. One time was just before I went on my mission. Nonavee was in the saddle and I put the fence posts up behind the saddle and swung myself up. I must have kicked the horse in the flanks because the next thing I remember was Nonavee shaking me to see if I was okay.
6. Not every household get the Reader’s Digest and not every father reads the articles in it to their children.
7. Not every woman knows how to sew.

Wholesome recreational activities—Do any of these things mean anything to you?
A. White Elephant—Yes, it was our boat. It wasn’t much to look at but it was a lot of fun.
B. NSU, Honda, Kawasaki—More of you remember Kawasaki, don’t you?
C. Snowmobile
D. Yellowstone Park—I think I must have gone with Mother and Daddy about four times. I think everyone got to go with them at least once.
E. Glendale reservoir—I just about drowned there trying to learn to water ski. I think it must have been before they invented bare foot skiing. The skis came off but I did not let go of the rope and got dragged under the water for a ways.
F. Sunday afternoon drives—We got to see a lot of the local area on those drives.

In closing I just want to pay tribute to the two people for whom we are gathered here today. I thin that any good that we’ve done in this world we have to thank Mother and Daddy for instilling in us the virtues of honesty, service, faith, and work.

Mother and Daddy we love you. Thank you for the gift of life and showing us how to live.

New Car

We have been shopping for a car for several months. Here is the end result of our search.

Sky as a Result of Fire at Mt. Adams

The sun through the smoke in the first photo and the edge of the smoke in the second picture. Mt. Adams is over a hundred miles away from us and the fire was on the back side of the mountain but we still saw some effects on the sky.

August Already

The summer is racing by and we have not yet started canning corn. Probably Wednesday or Thursday will see us getting into the harvest at least for starters. Hopefully this will not mean a real late finish.

I was going to post a few pictures of the sky from the results of a fire over by Mt. Adams a few weeks ago but cannot get them to post right now. Maybe I will try again later.

Summer Fun

I took a couple of days of vacation while the our grandsons and their parents were here. We spent one day in Tri-cities and another day we minature golfed and went to the park. During the week they were here we also went to a Fourth of July Parade and we got rained on and we fed ducks and geese and skipped rocks on the Columbia River. Mostly we just enjoyed having family around. Too bad that our married kids and our grandkids live so far away. Now that week is past and I have to go back to work and things will have to get back to normal

Another Sunday

We took Rose to a bassoon recital today. It was a young man that Rose performed with in YYSO doing his senior rrecital. He did three concertos. It is interesting to listen to but I am glad it did not last over one hour.

After the recital we went to a Single Adult Fireside. Like normal it was not real well attended but I guess it is good for those who come. President Neal of the stake presidency was the speaker and he gave a good talk on the topic of repentance.

I took Friday off work and over the weekend we did a little work around the yard. We never seem to come to the end of yard work.

Fathers Day

I got this new grill for Fathers Day. The boys and I put it together on Saturday. I took a long lunch break since the pea plant did not start up until 3 in the afternoon. We were able to get it together and cooked burgers on it Saturday night. Today we grilled New York Strip steaks.

Peas and Other Things

I started work at my present place of employment 34 years ago this July 4th. Now I know what you are thinking. "What kind of business hires people to come to work on a National Holiday?" Well I work in the food processing industry and summers are dedicated to that very thing--processing food.

Over the years I have missed out on many summer activities that I would have liked to have participated in. In fact just this week there was a family event that I would very much have liked to have been part of but wouldn't you know the only three days in June that I absolutely could not get off work happened to be those very three days. We canned peas on Thursday, Friday, and Saturday of this week. Teri and Rose were able to get out of town. The boys and I were here. At one point it even looked like we may have to work on Sunday but we were able to get done overnight on Saturday.

There have been some summer events that I was able to attend over those 34 years but they all required that I not spend as much time at them as I would like or it may have meant operating on much less sleep than I normally would have gotten.

I must say however that despite the summer events that I have missed out on I have had a pretty good career so I will not begrudge that point.

Toppenish Church Building

You may wonder why a post with a picture of the church building. Well, I have been thinking just how much my life has revolved around this and other church buildings. Of course I have been a member of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints all my life. The first building that I remember, of course, is the old Mapleton Ward building. I went to Primary and Sunday School there and later Mutual. I left for my mission from there and returned home there.

There were different church buildings from my mission. I remember well the chapels in Curitiba and Santos. I also remember meeting in rented houses that, while not as nice as the church buildings did provide a place for a growing church to meet.

After I returned from my mission I remember attending church now and again at Franklin and at Whitney because my work schedule at Del Monte sometimes prevented me from attending my home ward during the summer months.

After Teri and I married we went to church in the Preston North Stake Center for a while and then in the 3rd/7th Ward building in Preston. When we moved to Burley we went to the Star Ward Building and even after we were changed into the Burley First Ward we continued to meet in that same building. One of the memories I have of that building is going to get the kids from Primary and standing in the hall waiting for them. The Primary was singing "Joseph Smith's First Prayer" (" O How Lovely was the Morning"). There I felt the spirit renew my testimony of the Prophet Joseph Smith. We later moved into the city of Burley and attended church in a relatively new building there.

When we moved to Zillah the building in the picture accompanying this post is where we met and still do up to this day. I served as Elder's Quorum President here, and then bishop and then on the stake high council. Of course there are other buildings of the church which have influenced me too like the Logan temple where I went for the first time prior to serving my mission. There is the Ogden temple where Teri and I were married. The Boise Temple, the Provo Temple and the Columbia River Temple have also been important church buildings to me.

The church is not the buildings but they each one represent a period in my life that I can reflect upon and think how good God has been to me.

End of May

The month of May is fast drawing to a close. I can not believe how fast this month has gone by. I would expect that summer would soon be upon us but today does not indicate that it is very close. It has been cool and rainy again and that seems to the norm. We expect to have peas come on sometime in the middle of June. I am getting the ingredients together now so that they will be ready when the peas are.

We finally got the garden planted. The cool spring has just not prompted me to get out and get it done. We planted a few less things this year. The garden spot is not large enough for a lot of squash, pumpkin and the like. We do like to have some tomatoes though so we planted those and lettuce, carrots, and peas. We did have a pretty good crop of weeds coming until we roto-tilled the last time.

H-O-T

It is hot today!!!! It got up to 98.2 degrees F. today. Almost sounds like a body temperature doesn't it? Just Monday it was only in the 60's so it has been quite a shock to our system. We started up the air conditioner yesterday afternoon. There are things I should be doing outside but it is just too hot to do it.

Toppenish Murals

The city of Toppenish is famous for its murals. Here are just a couple of them. The swimming pool scene is on the side of the dressing rooms at the municipal pool located just across the street from the LDS Church. There are many such murals located all around the city. I just walked a little way from the church one day while Teri was practicing the organ and snapped these pictures.

Wild Life Photo.

This picture was taken at Mother and Daddy's house the first week of April while we there on spring break. The deer were on the hill behind the house. Zoom lens and digital croping brings them in really close. I wanted to get some pictures of the wild turkeys too but on the second day when I had the camera the turkeys did not show up.

Annie-Z Center Stage

The Z Center Stage Production of Annie began last night. Here are a few pictures of Glen and Rose.

Things Happening in Zillah

1. Pizza Hut opened last week (it is just a take out but hey this is a big thing in a little town)
2. We had supper last night from Pizza Hut
3. The price of gas is 3.779 at the Chevron
4. Community days is coming up this weekend
5. The Z Center Stage production of "Annie" starts on Friday. It runs Friday and Saturday of this week and Thursday, Friday, and Saturday of next week (two performances on Saturday the 17th)

100 Things About Me

1. I was born in Preston, Idaho

2. I am the second child in a family of nine children

3. I have 6 sisters

4. We had only one bathroom in our house growing up

5. The outhouse was still standing but we did not use it.

6. I went to grade school in Franklin, Idaho

7. It was the same school where my father went to high school

8. There were 8 grades there when I started, only six when I finished

9. I went to Jr. High School and High School at Preston. It was the same building for both

10. We milked cows when I was growing up

11. We also raised chicken, pigs, and turkeys

12. I went on an LDS mission to the Brazil South Central Mission

13. I learned to speak Portuguese

14. I still remember some phrases

15. I hauled hay for spending money when I was a kid

16. My first job other than that was at Cove Concerete

17. I was editor of the high school newspaper

18. I tried wrestling when I was in Jr. High

19. I was not a very good wrestler

20. I have a BS degree in Biology

21. I graduated from Utah State University

22. I worked for Del Monte in Franklin in the summers while I went to USU

23. I am married to Teri

24. Teri and I met at a Stake Gold and Green Ball

25. We both worked at Del Monte for a couple of summers together

26. We were kind of on again off again daters for a couple of years

27. She finally agreed to marry me after I graduated from USU

28. I have 5 children

29. I have 3 grandchildren

30. I now live in Washington State

31. I still work for Del Monte

32. That is me in the picture that accompanies this post in my Del Monte hard hat

33. I married Teri in the Ogden Temple

34. I have been to Canada

35. I have been to Hong Kong

36. I have been to all of the states west of Colorado except New Mexico

37. Back to Del Monte--I have worked there for 31 years

38. I have worked at four different plants

39. All of the plants I worked at are closed now except for Toppenish, WA

40. I am the warehouse manager

41. I have been Utility supervisor

42. I was schedule coordinator for a while

43. I went to Smithfield, Utah as a department supervisor (cookroom)

44. I was promoted to production supervisor there

45. I went to Burley as shift supervisor

46. I was Plant Production Superintendant when the plant closed in Burley

47. I was transferred to Washington as a general supervior for the plant

48. I was later moved to the warehouse where I work today

49. I was called as Elder's Quorum President right after we moved to Washington

50. Three years later I was called to serve as Bishop of the Zillah Ward

51. I am now on the stake high council

52. I applied to the Veterinary School at Washington State University twice

53. I did not get into Veterinary School

54. I like to read

55. I started wearing glasses when I was in my early 20's

56. I started wearing bifocals a few years ago

57. I have lived in 7 houses in my life time

58. I have owned 4 of those houses (well me, Teri, and the bank)

59. I lived in Burley, Idaho for 12 years

60. I have lived in Washinton State for 14 years

61. I never lived in Utah but I went to school there and I worked there

62. I don't like to swim because I don't like to put my face in the water

63. The first car that I owned by myself was a Mustang Cobra II

64. I bought a computer for the first time in 1990

65. The built in memory of my digital camera has almost as much memory as the hard drive of that first computer

66. I bought my first hunting rifle when I was 12

67. I hunted a lot until I was about 19 then I kind of lost interest

68. I used to own a snowmobile but I got to old for that (it is a young man's sport)

69. I had a Kawasaki motorcycle when I was in 20's (again a young man's sport)

70. I still have the yellow helmet that I wore when snowmobiling and motorcyling

71. The only musical intruments I play are CD players, MP3 players, etc.

72. I have purchased a lot of musical instruments for the kids but have never learned to play any.

73. The first time I tried to water ski I fell off the skis and forgot to let go of the tow rope. I nearly drowned. Maybe that is why I don't like to swim (see #62)

74. I have never owned a brand new car though the Cobra II had just 3000 miles on it

75. After we moved to Washington I got down to 140 pounds.

76. I weigh just a bit more than that now (I just won't say how much of a bit)

77. Ice cream is my favorite dessert

78. If I have my choice I would rather be home than anywhere

79. I have worked a lot of night shifts over the years but I never got used to them

80. The hottest place I have ever lived was Santos, Brazil

81. I have experienced at least 4 pretty good sized earthquakes in my life (3 were in Idaho, 1 in Washington)

82. I got a telescope for my service award for 30 years with the company

83. I could tell time by the age of 6

84. I asked a lot of questions when I was a kid

85. I graduated Cum Laude from USU

86. I was salutatorian of my high school class

87. I have a scar on my left thumb from hold on to barb wire while it was being stretched to erect a fence (I was just a kid then)

88. I wrecked the Ford tractor when I was six or seven years old

89. I spent one whole summer cutting hay when I was about 12 years old

90. I can "moo" like a calf enough to make cows take a second look

91. I learned to milk cows by hand when I was a kid

92. I rode the school bus to school from first grade through high school

93. I think a new notebook and pencil is the neatest thing

94. I would much rather read a book than read from the computer screen

95. I learned to square dance in the 3rd grade--I never got any better at it than I was then

96. When I was in grade school I would umpire the softball games because I was not a very good player and it saved the embarrasment of being chosen last

97. Speaking of school bus, the bus I was on tipped over in a snowstorm when I was in about 4th grade. No one was seriously hurt but we could have been if it had tipped over a short time sooner than it did. (Details upon request)

98. My Grandfather, Fred Porter, used to take me fishing when I was a wee lad

99. I got thrown off a horse a couple of days before I went on my mission.

100. I am now at the end of my list. I don't know if it will make any sense to any one but I do like a challenge

If anyone wants to take up the challenge of listing 100 things about themselves go for it.

Rose and YYSO

Yesterday we went to Rosemary's YYSO concert. The Symphony did a really good job. The only problem with the concert is that there were a lot of solos (and we did not know any of the students) so it seemed a little long. The Capitol Theater is a nice setting for the perfomance. It was not as full as it is sometimes but there was a pretty decent crowd just the same. This is a picture of Rose with her bassoon but not at the concert yesterday. Well, YYSO is done for the summer.

Speaking of summer, I am beginning to wonder if it will get here. We had a very nice day yesterday but today was a bit windy. It was still warm but the wind kept it from being as nice as yesterday was.

Random Photos

Here are a couple of pictures from a couple of years ago. Glen was working picking up roadside trash.

Was this the start of school?

Columbia River Temple

We had stake conference a couple of weeks ago. The Stake Presidency invited the Stake Council and the High Council and their spouses to attend the temple. We had a very good night in the temple. The session was full to capacity with about half of the session from our stake.

After Spring Break

We returned home Sunday night from a week long trip to Idaho and Utah. It was good to see family. There were a few we missed and we would have liked to have been able to visit with them too. Hopefully it will not be so long before our next visit.

On the way home we ran into quite a snowstorm at Deadman's Pass in Oregon. Fortunately that was the only real snow we saw though there was some going down between Pocatello and Idaho Falls and also some in Preston where we spent Wednesday and Thursday nights. The only snow was on Wednesday however.

It is good to be home but it is difficult to get back into the swing of things.

Sunday

Boy was I tired this afternoon. I was trying to read the newspaper after we got home from church and I just could not keep my eyes open. I had a long Sunday afternoon nap. It was a busy day as Teri and I both had assignments at the Yakima 1st Ward Conference. And it has been a busy week besides. Perhaps that is what wore me out and required the long nap. After I woke up I went to a Single Adult Fireside in Sunnyside. (I am the high council advisor). Now the day is winding down. Hope I can sleep all night since I slept so long this afternoon.

Now isn't this an exciting post?

Daylight Savings Time and Other Thoughts

It is hard to believe that it has already rolled around to daylight savings time again. I know it is earlier now than it used to be but still spring is rapidly approaching. Do you realize that it will be May 8th before we see the sun up as early in the morning as it was today? Two more months of going to work in the dark. It is a good thing that we have more daylight in the evening, I suppose, but I was getting used to the idea of not needing the headlights to go to work.

It was near 70 degrees here today. I saw a lady planting plants when I took Rose to bassoon lessons this morning. I thought, "Does she not know that it still freezes at night?" Hopefully they were hardy plants that will take the cold.

I suppose that I should be thinking about getting the garden ready to plant. Peas and radishes and those kinds of things could be planted anytime now. I think I will wait for some weeds to come up first though. That way I can till them up and get rid of that first round of weeds.

Eclipse

I spent part of the evening last Wednesday looking at the lunar eclipse. One of the problems we had was that there was a partly cloudy sky. During the early and full stages of the eclipse it was very hard to get a good view. Later, as the eclipse was ending, I was able to get some pretty good looks through the telescope.

Here are a few pictures I took with the zoom lens of my camera. Not too clear but it was fun to try.