Happy Birthday Nancy

I was going to get a nice post written last night but I got distracted with personal things that are happening here, so this will just have to suffice for now.
Happy birthday to you, my daughter, Nancy. I hope you can have a little bit of a relaxing day today. You are a great daughter to your parents, wife to your husband, mother to Tyler, sister to your siblings, and friend to all. Remember when you said you were going to be a comedian? You always kept us wondering what you were going to say next and you sure came up with some silly things. Have a great day!

Labrum Family Reunion

On Saturday we went to the Labrum Family Reunion in North Ogden. We had a great time with family that we haven't seen for a while. It was nice to visit and catch up on what the kids are doing. We ate lots of food and had lots of fun fishing in the little ponds, if you can call it fishing. It was really just hooking some fish. The fish are from their own hatchery, with many fish in small ponds just waiting for a chance to get out. You didn't need to bait a hook to entice them to come, just throw out a little bit of bait and they came swimming right over. Tyler had fun because all he had to do was splash the hook up and down and he would catch a fish. Maxwell would have loved it because he wouldn't have had to wait a long time between each fish. Here are a few picture of our fun.

Another Happy Year

August 19, 1977. What a great, wonderful day. The day we got married in the Ogden LDS Temple for time and all eternity. We finally met each other on June 19, 1977 and decided on that day that we would get married. On the weekend of July 4th, we drove to Pete's Hole in a bad rain storm no less, up the very dangerous White Dugway. Garth met my parents and family, along with all the relatives who were camping. To everyones utter shock, we announced that we were going to get married. Everyone immediately pulled out their calendars and told us which days we couldn't get married. It was narrowed down to just before school started. If I knew then what I know now about starting school close to my anniversary, I would have just gotten married the next weekend instead of two months later!
The next day we drove to Lewiston to be with his family for the rest of the holiday and made the big announcement there. After all of that, I was busy finishing up my 22 credit hours of college and getting plans made for the wedding. I was so busy I don't remember anything except Mom making my wedding dress.

I am sure everyone thought we were crazy because we really hadn't known each other. I suppose you really can't count the 22 months of writing while he was on his mission. We only wrote, didn't meet until he got home. We did exchange a few cassette tapes, but what do you say to someone you have never met? Perhaps we were crazy in love, but hey, it has lasted 33 years! That should say something.

I can honestly say that Garth is my best friend, and I have lots of special friends so that says how special he is to me. I would rather be with him than anyone else. I don't like to do things without him. I could, but I don't like to. We are an "item" as my Grandmother Olsen would say. I love him with all my heart. He spoils me by doing everything, and I mean everything. He does laundry, dishes, windows, lawns, garbage, cooking, cleaning, .... everything. And in return, he gets my deepest love. He is a great father to our children, and our grandchildren think he is the greatest!

You have made my life so wonderful. Thank you for 33 years of total bliss. I love you! You are the man at the end of my rainbow!

School Starts

This time of year has always been a very busy time. We have several family birthdays coming up, our anniversary, and the beginning of school. So there may be several posts in the next few weeks, which will really be a change because lately there hasn't been much to write about.

I think most people's lives revolve around the traditional school year and vacation times. Even though I grew up in the home of an educator, school starting was important because we were actually going to school, not just because our dad started working in his usual place.

Mom would spend hours making all of our clothes. We were lucky that she was such a great seamstress and could make such beautiful clothes. I think making clothes was a necessity because we really didn't have anywhere to get clothes. Back in those "olden-days" girls always wore dresses to school. It wasn't until I was in high school that we were "allowed" to wear nice slack pants to school. I remember one year it was so cold in the mornings that we wore pants under our dresses on the bus, and took them off when we got to junior high. Anyway, Mom made lots of dresses for us. When I got older it became my job to do the hemming on all those clothes. I would spend hours pinning them up and hand-stitching the hems in. I didn't know you could do hemming on the sewing machine. Mom insisted on a hand-stitched hem. Then I would press all of them. I don't think I had a store bought dress until I got my formal for junior prom.

Our first "beginning of school" activity, outside of fabric shopping, was the annual mutton fry picnic for all the high school teachers. I think they had the faculty meeting in the morning, then we traveled to the mountains for a big family picnic. I remember going to Old Folks Flat up Huntington Canyon and jumping around on the big rocks as the men fried the mutton and scones. I remember eating corn on the cob there. A few years we were in Indian Creek, but I remember being older then. The high school faculty was a very fun group who enjoyed getting together. I meet my friends Natale Johanson and Peggy Jorgensen there and we always had lots of fun.

On the first day of school we would pose for the traditional photo shoot. This picture must have been when Ruanne was in high school and I was still in junior high because Ruanne is in contact lenses and I still have glasses. (We weren't allowed to get contacts until we were starting high school.) And we were still in dresses. Look at that early 70's flipped up hair-do with bangs! You can't see my skirt here, but it was gold with big pleats. I am sure I have gold knee-hi's on as well. What wonderful fashion.

Now school is starting again. I am looking forward to a new class full of new challenges and lots of fun. I am excited for my grandchildren starting school again. I love that they are excited to learn new things and that they are good students. I love hearing about what they are learning and look forward to those phone calls full of excitement about their fun in school.

PS. I just looked closer at the photo. Notice the clippers sitting on the window sill. That was their traditional place! If we didn't put them back there we would never have found them again. Such a silly place to put clippers, but you always knew where to go to get them. What a funny memory.