Shakespeare and Summer--Alas and alack...gone too soon!

I'm going to copy Juje's technique of squishing time together with this post. There are so many things I have wanted to blog about, but I simply haven't done it all summer long. So I will blab a tad about many things...starting with today and working backwards.

Who are these gorgeous chicks sitting in front of the SUSU theater fountain? Jill, Brenda, Leanne, me, Janna, and Marba...quality girls, I have to say.


Our book club (3rd ward R.S.) went as a group to see Shakespeare's "Much Ado About Nothing." We read the play and chatted about it last month, so we were eager to see the stage performance.

Jill and Brenda hurry ahead to the theater. Note Jill's exquisite high heels. Note Brenda's exquisite long hair.


We're excited!


We spent some time in the souvenir shop both before and after the play. Couldn't resist the masks. I want to wear one to teach school.

Guess who each of these mysterious masked maidens are!







Of course the most mysterioso one is...ME!



The play was really good, by the way.

The Wasatch Back Loves ME Back!!!

Darwin and I took a little jaunt northward this past weekend. He had a conference in Logan, so I tagged along, even though I am still a cripple with pins sticking out of my reconstructed, robot foot. I rode in the back seat with my foot propped on pillows. Darwin looked like the royal chauffeur while I was content just being a royal pain!

I have a crush on the Wasatch back country. Kendall ran the Wasatch Back last year. They started in Logan...and ended up in Heber City. We drove up to cheer him on, and that was the first time I had ever seen parts of this great state I grew up in.

I particularly loved driving up the face of a mountain on the north side of Ogden. (This is NOT the normal Ogden Canyon road.) We wandered onto this road quite by mistake...a fortuitous mistake.



It was a steep two-laner that whipped us up over the mountain and down the back side, right into gorgeous rural farm land. Everything was so GREEN. The little towns were called Liberty, Eden, and Huntsville.


Can you see the road we came down into the valley on? It's clinging to the side of the mountain, and it's steeper than it looks!

DarDar and I decided that we needed to move there. Huntsville was our town of choice. It was such an old-fashioned country town...no fancy amenities like curb and gutter. Just grass growing over to the edges of the streets. Oh. And a beautiful lake in the back yard!


This particular home is typical of the graceful, classic homes in town. This home is where the prophet of my childhood grew up...David O. McKay.


Check out the crazy gingerbread trim on this new home overlooking Pineview Reservoir.


This is the view looking the opposite direction of the Hansel and Gretel house. I could handle this. The Huntsville pics were taken LAST summer in June, when we wandered about while Kendall was running. If you look across the lake, you can see some condos. Little did we know that we would be staying in one of them THIS year...last Friday night, in fact.

See? The Wasatch Back got me BACK. Get it????


We had NOT made reservations. This is our version of living on the edge. As the afternoon waxed old, we could not face the thoughts of descending once more into Wal Mart-and-McDonald's land. By the way, there were NO fast-food franchises in this area. They must have covenants about that sort of riff-raff. Just charming Mom and Pop businesses. We didn't want to go back into Odgen to spend the night, so we drove into the office at the condo complex to see if they had rooms to rent for just one night. They did.



This was the view from the bedroom window. Pathetic, huh!




I propped my sick and afflicted foot up on the window sill, the better to text pictures to my kids to make them jealous.


Do you see what I mean about the Wasatch Back? It really does want me to come back often. I may have to buy that faux gingerbread house in Huntsville.

Sunday Surprise

No one will be playing volleyball in my backyard today!

Look what I woke up to this morning.

Here’s the weird thing: my first thought upon awakening was, “Wouldn’t it be fun if I looked out the window and the yard was blanketed with snow?” Then my rational self said, “No way. It’s been spring-like weather for a couple of weeks. The forsythia is blooming. Daffodils are poking their curious little heads out of the ground. Spring is in the process of...well...springing!”

Then I looked outside…and VOILA! Snow! No way! Some Fairy Godmother heard my wish. I am SO not ready to give up winter. I did a little jig (really!) right in front of the window and tried not to shriek loudly enough to wake DarDar and Janna.
I put on my old yard shoes, still wearing my green p.j.’s—and popped outside for a pic before it all melted away. The redbud tree that only yesterday looked on the verge of blooming like this:

Now looked like this!


Only yesterday, as DarDar, the beloved hubby, and I were driving around in the pouring rain (OH, blessed event!!!) and I noticed the the blooming forsythia, I thought to myself, "Sunday will be a great day to take the camera on a walk and take pics of signs of spring." Ha, ha, ha. I love how capricious you are, Mother Nature. No one appreciates a good joke more than I!!!!

Living Up to the Name

I really want to live up to the title of my blog today, and RAMBLE!

FUNERALS...I've been to many of these lately!
First of all, I sang "The Red Hills of Utah" today, at Quinta Beatty's funeral (see previous blog!). I was honored that Quinta wanted me to do this. I thoroughly enjoyed the funeral...I have to say right here that I love funerals, and I don't get people who hate them. It's fun to find out things about people that you would never know otherwise. It's fun to see loved ones that you don't get to see any other time. I visited for just a short time with my cousin Melodie (Quinta's oldest daughter) and her husband Vance who live in Texas. I don't think I've seen either of them since high school, so it was a real treat getting reacquainted.

When someone has lived a rich, full life, then a funeral is more of a celebration than a mourning. That's what Quinta's funeral was for me today. Randie (her daughter) and Brad (her son) both did such a good job of eulogizing their mom. Eric Nielson, her brother, also did a great job speaking. I need to say right here that Eric built Quinta's coffin just for her...at her request...and it was a work of art. What a loving tribute to his sister!

The funeral was tender, and a good send-off for Quinta.

AND...I got to see more friends and neighbors that I love. Paula (neighbor across the street) sat by Darwin and me, and she had her little granddaughter Abby with her, who is 2 and 1/2. I am so starved for grandkids, since mine all live too far away, that I ate it up. Abby is adorable with big, brown eyes...and she entertained me highly, just watching her snoop all through Paula's purse. She daubed me with lip gloss and perfume, and tried to give me Paula's credit cards and cash. Go, Abby!

Many of my Uncle Horatio Gubler's family were there...and they brought their mom, one of my last remaining aunts...Aunt Genevieve, who is still bright-eyed and witty at 96. Wow. I love every wrinkle in this adorable face. Isn't she CUTE??? Every spring her yard is a riot of color...flowers everywhere. I LOVE her!


FUNERAL POTATOES

Okay. You all know this is a staple food at LDS funerals. So my question is this: If this cheesy, artery-clogging, sour-creamy casserole comes from the same Relief Society recipe, why are some cook's versions so much tastier than others? After Quinta's funeral, we gathered for a light repast of...you guessed it...ham, funeral potatoes, salad, and many kinds of Jello and cake. My eyes zeroed in on just the pan of taters I wanted to dish my "heart-attack-on-a-plate" from. I could see Darwin eyeing up that pan, too. Unfortunately, there was only enough left for my sister Marilyn and me, since Darwin was such a gentleman and let us go first. He glopped his potatoes glumly on his plate from a different pan. It not only looked different, it tasted different. (Yes, we traded bite for bite!) Mine was FAR better. It looked like the photo above, while Darwin's looked like this:

Which would YOU prefer????
(I must say that my daughters have perfected this recipe, in case you're wondering. But you should only eat it once a year!)

NUMP
My brother Norman and his sweet, loving wife Anne were there, too. Here's Norman as a young teen growing up in LaVerkin.

 

Ever since I can remember, people have called Norman "Nump." Well, today was an earth-shattering day, because I finally found out who dubbed him with this nickname. It was another LaVerkinite...Dale Wilson. He admitted it today. Here is Dale with Norman. They look like they are up to no good, don't they!

Norman is one of those kind of people who would LITERALLY give you the shirt off his back. He has taken in more needy people than I can even remember. When I was a wee young thing, we had a German lady who got stranded on the highway living with us for months..."Fergie"...because Norman stopped to help. He's a marshmallow-hearted man...one of the most giving, caring people I know!

WEATHER AND SOUTHERN UTAH
We never get rain...at least, it seems that way. If we do, it's usually just enough to make dust splatters on the windshield. It seems like we're always nagging the Lord for rain. So the monster storm we've been having the past week has been such a blessing. After the funeral today, Darwin and I took the long way home. The storm was finally breaking up...there were alternate dark clouds and bursts of sunshine...and the air was clean and clear. In other words, it was spectacular. Here are some shots, though my point-and-shoot camera hardly does the day justice!

We drove from Toquerville around to Leeds. This was taken on the old highway, looking back toward Hurricane.
When I looked back towards Pintura, the view was quite different! The storm was not quite finished...








Home again, home again, jiggety-jig!


MOLLY'S NIPPLE
Hurricane has the dubious distinction of having a mountain/hill that is famed for it's unique and highly visible topography. Growing up in the area, I didn't ever give it a second thought. When we kids talked about THAT particular mountain, we just said things like, "Have you ever been up on Molly's Nipple?"...never thinking about how that might sound to an out-of-towner. We thought we were hilarious when it snowed, and there was a light dusting of snow on top: "Molly's got a bra on today!"

Who was that hapless Molly, and who named a mountain after her, um, feminine charms?

Cousins

Oh, how I love my family...and that includes my cousins...many of whom I hardly ever see. The only time we see each other is at funerals! I just re-established a connection with my cousin Kevin at Aunt Edna's funeral. He is a great photographer. Here's one of his I especially like. He calls is "the straight and narrow."

Another lovely cousin of mine, Quinta Beatty, passed away last week. Here's how she looked the last time I saw her.

Her funeral is Saturday next at 11:00 AM in Toquerville. I am singing a song she requested--Marty Robbins' "The Red Hills of Utah." I have sung this at more funerals than I can even remember...and I am honored that Quinta wanted this song sung at her funeral. I'm glad I can do one last thing for my bubbly, energetic, creative, talented cousin, Quinta...the first-born of my Gubler grandparents' grandchildren. (Did that foregoing sentence make sense? If not, too bad, because I'm too lazy to fix it!)

I remember Quinta when she was young and beautiful...and when I was, too!!! (compared to now!) I always thought she was classy...and so much fun to be around. I think she still looks beautiful in this picture. She aged well...but no more wrinkles, blindness, ill-health for her now. She is reunited with her sweetheart in the eternities. Way to go, Quinta!!! Say hi to my parents for me!

Once there was a snowman...

Poor Harold. You had such a short life. To go from this to this in less than two weeks. I wondered how long you would last in our 50 to 60 degree weather day after day. Evidently not long!

Bye, Harold. You were fun while you lasted.

Harold the Snowman

Some people are just plain crazy. My family members ALL fall into this category. Case in point:

On New Year's Eve day, Darwin, Janna, and Julianne decided they wanted to build a snowman. One problem: NO SNOW. That didn't stop them, however. They loaded up in Darwin's little tan pickup and went to find a load of snow.

If you need snow, there's no place on earth prettier than...my mom's birthplace...Kolob!


Janna and Juje are makin' that snow FLY!!!



It was funny to watch the looks on people's faces driving by our house after they got back...there were many double-takes. Everyone slowed down to see what in the heck was going on.


Slowly, Harold began to emerge.

Paula's cute little grandson visiting from Las Vegas couldn't get enough of the snow.




As night came on, Darwin put up a spotlight and I made a sign for Harold to bring in the New Year. I am not kidding when I say that cars stopped like crazy. I mean, who has a snowman in their yard when there's absolutely no snow?

Crazy people, that's who! I married one and gave birth to a few others.

Harold the Snowman was quite a distraction for traffic on New Year's Eve. People stopped to have their pictures taken...to gawk...to goggle. We felt sort of famous. He lasted until the day someone knocked him over. I don't think he would have ever gone over on his own. His base was too stable. Dang teenagers.

There is still a small heap of Harold that dwindles each day. I think we should make bets on how long he will last. Dogs have peed on him...then we've seen children come and take a handful to eat. EEEEEYEW! Harold, you've brought joy (and disease!) to many!