I have proof!!

Little and Littlest Ms. Eris just left my house after a day of play. Ahh, the quiet is wonderful. Not many toys to pick up as Little Ms. chose to spend her quiet time writing a cute letter to Grandpa Zeus. He wasn't at home today and she really missed him. Littlest Ms. chose to do her favorite thing, looking through scrapbooks. Right now a few of them are spread all over the great room floor. At her age she is mostly looking at the past year, remembering the places she has recently been and recognizing the people she loves.

Looking through my collection of scrapbooks is a favorite pastime of all who come here, including Athena and Eris. The books contain the complete histories of their lives. Squeals of "I remember that!" and "We should do that again!" are often heard. Laughter is loud and contagious. They can look back at the fun times as well as the hard times.
Last week I came across two boxes of slides. One of those boxes will remain sealed forever, but the other one contained the images that you see in this post. These are precious memories of Athena and her great-grandparents that were taken in the summer of 1975 in Santa Maria, CA. Athena and I were there to celebrate her second birthday. In the four years that I lived in the hot desert of CA many trips were taken to the coast to visit these wonderful people. Coming across these photos reminded me how special they were to me and also to Athena and Eris.
I cherish my scrapbooks and get much joy out of watching my daughters and grandchildren pour over them at every opportunity. The books are records of our lives, where we lived, when, who was there. All of the important milestones are covered. Chances are, if you were ever part of my life I can bring out photos to share with you. A few times disputes have been settled just by finding the proof in one of these books (San Diego, anyone?).

When the day comes that I really *do* have that stroke I'll simply pull out the books, one at a time, and smile. And smile. And smile.


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What do you get when you cross..

A. a Buddhist Reverend from SLC,
B. a Buddhist Clinical Psychiatrist from the Phillipines,
C. a Catholic WSU Professor of PolySci from NY,
D. a Catholic UofU Professor of PolySci from NY,
E. a Jewish homemaker from PA,
F. a Buddhist USU Professor of Religious Studies from Chicago,
G. the Numismatist
H. and Zeus?

The answer: Very lively and intelligent dinner conversation and a pleasant evening with friends.

What do you think would happen if we added LDS and NASCAR to this ecclectic mix?
Scary.

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One for Muriel

I came across this photo last week as well as a few others that will be posted in the near future. The year was 1974. Are his eyes still that blue?

Stay tuned....

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(The guy is Muriel's Dad, my BIL)

Happy Easter!

Easter 1978

1977

1979 1982

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Today's treasures

A golf ball, a gift card
and THIS!!!!!

Same lot, different snowpile.
I KNOW the other pieces are out there. Damn, damn, damn, damn......

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Hittin' the slopes

Today was the rest of Mr. Eris, Jr.'s birthday celebration. When I got up this morning I was delighted to find fresh snow on the ground with warm temps, just perfect for a day of skiing with the kids. This is one of my favorite days of the year!
Zeus, Athena and the rest of the gang joined us for lunch and cake. Even the Wolf Mountain Wolf came in to help sing Happy Birthday!

Littlest Ms. Eris and the Princess also came for the party and then went home with Mr. Eris to recuperate from the festivities. They also played hard last night so a long nap was really in order.

After lunch, back to the slopes. Little Ms. improves each year. This year Eris even got to ski facing forward!

The Duchess told us that Wolf Mountain reminded her of the small ski area in New York where she learned to ski. It was great to have her join us.

A big Thank You to Bubba for always being such a great guy and a big help to the other kids. Don't know what we would do without him!

Also, a big Thumbs Up to Kelsey. She struggled with her board but never gave up! What a trooper!

It was a fun day! Can't wait to do it again! As for now, I'm taking my aching knees and going to bed!

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Another birthday wish!

Happy 9th birthday to Cholla! She is such a sweet, special dog! She was given to Bryson on his sixth birthday in May 1999. Grandpa believed that all little boys should have a puppy!

(Athena, are you crying yet?)

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"Look what we made!"

Ten years ago (March 11th) those were the words that a tearful Eris said to Mr. Eris when she first held her new baby boy. The last few months waiting for his arrival were pretty scary but he turned out to be perfect!
It was obvious from his first appearance and still to this day that he is an exact duplicate of his daddy, both in looks and personality.

This is one of my favorite pictures. It was taken when he was visiting us in Arizona.

Handsome Jr. at Dead Horse Point in 2005.

Enjoying time with the guys at Grouse Creek. They go out often with Grandpa to ride the ATVs and shoot their guns.

We will be celebrating his birthday for the third year in a row with a day on the slopes. He and Bubba are always the last ones to come down off the hill.

Soccer is a major part of his life (like his daddy) and he is very good at it. The games get more intense as he gets older.

Let's hear a big "Happy Birthday" for Mr. Eris, Jr.!

remodeling

What started a few months ago as a "closet-cleaning" for my mother has now morphed into a major remodeling project in her family room. Last night Athena and Littlest Ms. Eris began the process of removing the old wallpaper and getting ready to repaper and paint. Watching this brought back a not-so-pleasant memory from the year, I believe, 1979.Home decorating has never been one of my talents but at that time Athena and Eris were in a small bedroom that needed some new wallpaper. Okay, easy enough. It was an older home with many previous layers of paper that all had to be taken off. It was a slow process but I finally got it all scraped off and prepped for some pretty blue and white paper. After a few days the new paper was hung and I was pretty pleased with myself.
It hadn't been up for even a day when Eris decided that it must come down. I found her in the bedroom with a screwdriver gouging long strips down the cute paper all across the long wall. Oh, she was so proud of her work and helping Mommy. What did I do? Walked out of the room and cried. She was the same age as Littlest is now. Wait a minute, is Athena showing Littlest Ms. Eris how to poke a screwdriver in an electrical outlet? Oh, that's not good....When it was time to go home Littlest wanted to go with me. We had a fun sleepover.

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Loss of focus

Yesterday morning I went out to walk/run and "clean up" the streets before the storm arrived. The huge snowpiles around the parking lots are now melting quickly and the snow is filthy. Over by McDonalds I see an odd piece of paper sticking out from under a melting pile. Eureka! Paper money! Unfortunately, just a PIECE of paper money. For the next hour I can't concentrate on "round", "shiny" or "diameter" because I'm looking at dirty pieces of paper hoping to find the rest of this bill. It will take days to get focused again!

It turned out to be part of a five dollar bill. Do you think I can take it to the bank and get at least a dollar?
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