Bob and Jeff Priest

When my brother was 11, his best friend was 10 and his name was Jeff Priest.  We called him "Geeko" because he always wore a GEICO jacket or sweatshirt (He kind of dubbed himself Geeko).  The interesting thing is that Jeff and his family have remained friends with our family to this day.  Jeff is a "Gas Passer" (inside joke with the family) and helped my mom, her last few years with her intense pain by coming up with nose sprays that stopped the pain.  He is a DR that people look up to and ask for in the Utah area.  He is a great man and has a wonderful family.  I saw these pictures and they made me smile.  

Bella

As I was looking at this picture, I was thinking of the difference between siblings.  By the time Bella was 3 she had had several different hair styles, and her mother was able to style it several different ways.  Her hair is thick like her mothers and fun to do.  Evie, Bella's little sister, has wispy hair and in her first 3 years had so little hair, Heather was afraid to even cut it!  When I saw pictures of my mother and talked to Aunt Norma about it, I found out that after generations of wonderful hair, Evie has my Mom's hair!  How funny is that!  Mom always complained about her thin, hard to style hair.  (I think Anneke may have a bit of this too).   That is in truth, why Mom went to get her hair done every week.  She simply could not do anything with it herself.  When she couldn't afford to do it herself, when I was young,  she kept it in a French Twist or a Chignon with extra hair wrapped in it so it looked fuller.  Those were the only  two styles she could do alone.   (I might add, she did them beautifully, like everything else she did.  Aunt Bernice Hill taught her how.)

Bob's First Birthday

These are pictures of my brother, Bob Brugger on his first birthday.  My mother made "Bunny Cakes" for our birthday's when we were little out of seven minute frosting on an angel food cake and then decorating marshmallows to look like bunny faces.  You see from this picture how cute they were.  She made several for her granddaughters but I know of no pictures.  I made daisy cakes, using somewhat the same principle but cut the marshmallows in quarters or eighths (depending on how big the marshmallow is) and dipping them in colored sugar, then arranging them in flower shapes on the cake.  I Then cut a miniature marshmallow in half and dipped it in a contrasting colored sugar for the center of the flower. If I felt really creative, I would roll a few of the quartered marshmallows flat and dip them in green sugar for leaves.  It was quick way to decorate a cake and little girls loved it.  I now decorate my Exotic fruit salad top this way, making poinsettias on top.  After all it is made up of mostly marshmallows and there is always red and green sugar around from the baking that has been done during Christmas.

These Boots Are Made for Walking!

I have to say that this is one of my favorite pictures of Bella.  Every time I see it - it makes me smile.  Whenever I see it, I think of the Nancy Sinatra song: These Boots Are Made for Walking!  This is such a cute retro outfit anyway.  I had a dress like Bella's skirt when I was in High School but mine was orange (I had a big orange floppy hat I wore with it - much to Mom's chagrin and sometimes orange stockings).  

The Bridge of Peace

This is a beautiful book.  It is about an Amish woman that has a birthmark on her face.  She teaches school and loves her students but there is one family that does not think she deserves to teach and they make her life miserable.  This is intertwined with "Ada's family" of which this series is named.  I couldn't put it down and finished it in one sitting, letting everything else go until I  had come to the end.  Part of that is because I want to do my book review and so somewhat like homework, I want to get it done.  But if I do not enjoy the book then I will not read the book quickly.  I have had other books to review and they have taken me over a week to read.  This is a wonderful book and Cindy Woodsmall has kept up her usual high quality of writing.  I would give this 4 stars.


This book review is for Blogging for Books sponsored by Waterbrook Press.

Bob's Blessing Outfit

I was five years old when my brother, Bob was born.  Since he was born in March, he was blessed in April.  In my mind - and maybe it is true, Easter and Bob's blessing were the same day.  This is his blessing outfit but Mom also used it for his Easter outfit and Marianne had her Easter dress on.  My Easter dress matched Mom's but had a fuller skirt.  I wished I looked as good as Mom after I had my girls, but then I didn't wear a girdle.  She wouldn't have been caught dead without one in those days.


In those days we had Fast Sunday on the first Sunday of April.  General Conference was not telecast until I was in my teens and then just for Sunday morning.  It was a big deal when satellite dishes were made available to the buildings so we could watch broadcasts in ward buildings.  Now we can watch or listen to them at home, all over the world, via internet.  How incredible is that!

March is...

March is one of my favorite months because three of my favorite family members celebrate birthdays this month.  My brother Bob, Bella, my second granddaughter and Heather, my second daughter.  Above is a picture of Heather on Clyde's shoulders - a favorite place to ride.