Maria Clews
   My great grandmother.  When I got a copy of this photo it was horribly scratched and pitted.  Joe taught me how to digitally restore photos and it took me hours to get this photo cleaned up.  Working on it I concentrated hard on small areas and didn't see the whole photo until the last view and when I saw her face completed, I gasped.  I see myself in that face, especially the eyes.  I'd love to know her real story.  I've been told she was deported to Australia because she was an unwed mother and that she never married, but I've seen conflict to that story.  One day I'll find out more and add to this.

Mabel Rixon and her sister
   Finally found this photo with a great pile of other photos and am so delighted to see it again.  My grandmother and her sister as teenagers.  Notice the purse and the watch on the wrist.  I couldn't help thinking the first time I saw them, "their in style today"  How fun to see the past and realize the life those two must have had.

I should look up the date of this one.  William Charles Bell & Mable Rixon Wedding photo.  The flowers in the bouquet are what catch my attention, an amazing display.  That photo must have been expensive for it's day, but well worth it. 

Mable Rixon Bell
    I was told this was taken before she was married.  Glorious hat.  Aunt Gwen told me in her later life she had to have one of her ovaries taken, she thought maybe cancer.  But the doctor's told her that she would never be able to have girl babys because the ovary they took only produced girls.  Imagine their surpise when she had two more daughter. Audry and Marie.
Oh, there's more

William Charles & Mable Rixon Bell
  My Grandparents from Australia.  I was cleaning the old office into the new office and found this old photos,  There's a few more, and I'll add them later and I get them scan, cleaned up and ready. (Thanks Joe for teaching me how to hide scratches in photos).  Maybe as I'll clean more, I'll find more of their story.  Don't know if I can gather all the bits & pieces I heard to make a co-adhesive story. He was a milk man at one time. She died of cancer. Aunt Gwen once told me "Oh who knows what killed her, it was 1948 and out-back Australia.  I have a photo of the family in front of their house that want on pilings because when it rains in Australia, it REALLY rains..  The photo show the house 5 or 6 feet off the ground, but mother said she remembered opening at trap door in the floor to get a bucket of water.  Thank goodness for the edit mode. 

Larson Loonie Byne

Del McCorey sings this, but I live it.

I’D LOVE TO DO SOME LIVING

Well, it was quite a party; it was really getting started,

But I thought it smart to say my adios.

As good as I was feeling then, I knew the time was closing in

When I would hear that lonesome whistle blow

I’d love join with everybody howling at the moon,

But Monday morning rolls around; I’m singing a different tune.

I’d love to do some living but my life gets in the way,

For a little bit of heaven there would sure be hell to pay

And I’d spend all tomorrow feeling yesterday. Hey,

I’d love to do some living but my life gets in the way

Well it wasn’t all that long ago, when I’d have been the last to go

But now you know that I’m the first to pay.

Tell me when did all the thrills turned into a stack of bill waiting on someone to get ‘em paid.

A pair of shoes, the rent is due, a car that needs new brakes

Living now, means, tell me how much of one you can make

Chorus

Sweet temptations got me at this fork here in the road.

My survival’s down, if I stay or if I go.

I’d love to do some living but my life gets in the way,

For a little bit of heaven there would sure be hell to pay

And I’d spend all tomorrow feeling yesterday.

Hey, I’d love to do some living but my life gets in the way.

 

This day nearly took my breath away.
Some 20 years ago Patsy & Gene (George) Sawhill became almost family.  I was teaching Patsy sewing and she invited me and my family to the Sawhill ranch, about 15 minutes south of Boulder.  It became our "get out of Dodge" place.  We've camped out there, roasted marshmallows and tennis shoes at the pond.  The kids rode horse, chased chickens and consider her, just one of us.  Last May we lost Gene after 2 years of accidents and broken back and several visits with my dulcimer to the nursing home he was in.  We were fortunate enough to be able to attend his funeral at the  Valmont Pioneer Cemetery.   You'd never know it was there if you didn't know someone in the area.  I was very saddened to see how badly kept the cemetery was and could not help but feel there was graves buried under the debris and overgrown bushes.   It took until today, and with a bunch of help, Josh Mount, from the ward, gathered up some people and tools and we all went up to the cemetery and for his Eagle Project, did a WHOLE bunch of cleaning.   Weeds, galore, dead trees, and we took down one of the three VERY overgrown lilac bushes. 

I stared at that stone several time, the R was not very clear in the morning light, thinking "this can't be" "I don't know any other Sharps in Colorado"  HELP.  I can find nothing on this man...so far, except his marker stone.  The Lord works in very mysterious way.
We were able to get several fallen headstones back up and found 6 more headstones that were buried in bushes and debris, but this takes the cake.
We got more we can do up there, anyone know a Scout needing an Eagle project?
But the Sharp marker will get better treatment!  Patsy and I intend on setting up things on that area, so they won't get buried again, and I now have a wonderful place that really needs the extra soil that I need to get out my backyard.  But I'm still "gobsmacked"  Will be for awhile, I can tell.

September 2, 2014 A new life starts.  MINE.
3 years of working for the rudest company I have ever seen.  Finally figured out after 6 months there why NO ONE greets you in the morning.  They figure you won't be there very long.  No one is.  Apparently I broke some kind of record.  They've never had a CSR for more than 2 years and I hit 3 before I bailed out.  And just like bailing out of a plane, the free fall feels great.  I have no remorse, no worries.  Yes, the budget might get tight, yes, I'm going to look for another job, but no I don't regret a decision I should have made weeks ago.  Being told by a new manager that you're doing your job wrong, first things out of her mouth, is definitely the wrong foot to start with.  And it just went down hill from there.  Enough.  Rear view mirrors are there so that you can make sure you got safety past an obstacle, and you never look backward for very long.  I'm moving forward and have more that enough to keep 10 people busy.  Deep breaths are wonderful and cleansing, be they physical or mental or (in this case) spiritual.    This is me, moving forward

There are days when I tired of being a Mormon.  I get tired of being stoic, of being reverent, and singing with half my voice so I don't drown out the rest of the congregation.  I have no allusions that I have a great voice, but I do have a good voice, and I enjoy singing, WITH ALL OF IT!.
My brother, Doyle, is a bit of of a reprobate,( I say that will all the love in my heart and with hugs to him) He left the church many years ago, and I'm not sure I blame him at all.  (long story, that.)
He called me many weeks ago and told me he had recently moved back to Santa Monica and was living in an apartment building over looking  "THAT" LDS building.  (Of course I knew what building that was, another long story belongs here, another day)  and he asked me a question.
"Leanne, do Mormon's sing? anymore?
"I remember as a kid the church just really sounding good with song, and now, I watch members walking into the building and then...dead quiet"
I, like him, rather doubt that the Church has gone into that building and remodeled with sound insulation, and I was....ashamed. 
D & C 25: 12 For my soul ^adelighteth in the ^bsong of the ^cheart; yea, the ^dsong of the righteous is a prayer unto me, and it shall be answered with a blessing upon their heads.
And frankly, I'm a glutton for blessings.
I been to a couple of "other" worship service and in some of the music rocks, some of it literally  Admittedly the ones with the rock band have gone over the line, in my opinion.  BUT, singing, with ALL of your voice is why the Good Lord gave you a voice in the first place.  Every instrument on the planet has ONE purpose, and that is to IMITATE THE HUMAN VOICE.  Every instrument on the planet is "jealous" of the human voice.  We can make tones and find 1/2 tones and 1/4 tones that most instrument can't even try for.  It wasn't until computer generated tone generators that an instrument got close.   
I told my ward my brothers "question" and informed them that If they don't like my voice they have one option, SING LOUDER.  I don't hold back, but today in choir, I had to, and I'm pretty darn tired of being a half voice Mormon. 

Larson Loonie Byne
I think I shall climb on my soap box.  I've been labeled Celiac by a blood test. Took a while to figure it out and suggest my Dr. look for it.
Wondering.  Are "WE" the canary in the "mine" of food on this world?   Celiac has been labeled a fad because it has recently come to the public eye.  IT IS NOT A FAD.  Here's the simple version of what is happening to a celiac's body when they eat gluten.  There is something in gluten that causes microscopic holes in the intestine.  Once that hole is formed, microscopic particles of food go out those holes into the blood stream.  Once there the white blood cells that have the job of attacking anything that doesn't belong in the bloodstream and getting rid of it.  The problem happens when excessive amounts of food particles confuse the white blood cells.  There's so much stuff to attack it quits trying to differentiate between those food particles and the actual parts of the your own body.  Thyroid is one of the first to go.  Weirdly enough my thyroid is in great shape.  But my arthritis is really, wonderfully, reduced now that I've totally given up gluten.  Have to wonder how it would be if I had stopped much sooner.
Now, here some of the things I've learned of late.  The human family is NOT eating wheat. Wheat is a tall, slow growing grain that has several problems.  It gets some of the nastiest diseases, and it's production is one NINETH of the production of Triticale.  The grain being called Wheat is really a 9 inch tall semi dwarf that was breed in combination with several other grains.  It's a hybrid.  It's made.  But it's 9 times more productive that that tall red wheat of my childhood.  I would like to have someone with an electron microscope examine the stuff at the "bottom" of a stomach after the "patient" has ingested a chunk of bread made with triticale and then after the same patient has ingested a chunk of bread made with good old fashion red wheat.  I'd like to see what "slivers" come out the other side.  I think someone would find that the slivers from triticale are not being broken down by the human stomach acid.  That's your piercing devise.  Wish I could prove the theory.  Call it a gut feeling.  (Sorry)
NOW, let's quit feeling sorry for ourselves.  We can't stop for a donut on the way to work, McDonald's is out of the picture.  Pizza 3 times a week? Forget it.  A sandwich in your lunch sack? Nope.  So sad.  Now hold it.  That sandwich?  It was built for a lazy man playing cards. And it goes downhill from there.  Look again at that list of food.  Convenient, easy to obtain, and dangerous.  S. A.D. Standard American Diet. Toast and Coffee for Breakfast (gluten and caffeine)  Hamburger and fries and soda for lunch ((gluten, fats, sugar, salts, with tomato and lettuce)  Dinner?  KFC?  Pizza?Chinese take out?  ( now that list goes on and on) 
Now, let's try a gluten free day.  Breakfast, scrambled eggs, with turkey bacon (ok I'll give you the salts) but throw in some spinach for pete's sake.  Homemade GF oatmeal with fruit?  Fruit and sausage.  Hash browns with sausage and orange slices.  "You mean I've got to cook????"  Yes, I mean you have to plan, shop for the plan and cook to the plan.  Yes,. I've whined and shed many tears of frustration. But I DO feel much better.  The brain's less fuzzy that it used to be.  I could almost sense it clearing up.   There's more, but it's late.  Another day

Larson Loonie Byne
Magic in the Kitchen from a newly diagnosed Celiac.
Hunting for a "cheese sauce" to go onto rolls of thin sliced turkey ham, wrapped around fresh asparagus.  Had  some banana squash still in the freezer.  Grabbed a chunk and threw it in a pan to defrost.  Once soft and mushing I hit it with the stick blender, added more water, a bit of dry milk and while that heated up put a few tbsp of AP -GF flour in some cold water.  Blended that till smooth, then threw into the watery squash.  Thicken up quite quickly.  Added, not as much cheese, as a good cheese sauce calls for.  Oh, my it was good.  Lovely color, heck, I'll bet you could make mac & cheese for the kiddos and they'd never guess they were getting a healthy dose of vitamin A, & veggie fiber.   Should have added nutmeg, dry mustard and/or parsley.  It was still yummy
Dad said so.  I'll be doing that one again.

Larson Loonie Byne
His name is Lee and we got to play together for hours.
From the start.  I was invited to play at the Joy Fest at Miner Pickin' in Idaho Spring.  Susan, and her husband John own the place and we've been up a few times to join in the Sunday night Bluegrass Jam.  We arrived around 1pm and didn't leave until 6.  My back is till a bit not happy with me, buy my soul is totally enraptured with the joy and fun that day.  She invited Lee up from Black Hills and between Mark on the banjo or guitar, Bonny on the mandolin.  Good times were had by all.  Even Robert.  You can actually hear him sing on one song.  He say's it was to get Bonny to sing, but I think he was just caught up in the moment

Using the past to help the future
What feels like 100 years ago I was a new missionary in Minnesota.  Got to talking with the mission president's wife, Sr. King, about cooking.  She gave me her family recipe for pie crust.  Odd thing.  Required 5 or 6 cups of flour, darned if I can remember how much shortening, 1 or 2 eggs and 1 or 1/2 & cups milk. (Notice, no vinegar, lots of milk based pie crust recipes do).  Just cannot remember the amounts, lost it years ago, because it has some draw back.  The first being that it made 6 or more pie crusts.  Once or twice upon a time I remember making it, rolling out the pie crusts, freezing them. But it became a bother, so I lost it.  Fast forward 40 years and I'm gluten intolerant.  How to make a pie crust with flours that don't bind like gluten does.  Oh, an dI didn't want to make 6 pie crust.  So I played.  Only wanting 3 pie crust, I used 2-1/2 Cup Bob's Red Mill All Purpose Gluten Free Flour. Mostly because it's highly accessible. I think I will play with other flours as time goes by.  3/4 cup shortening, the natural stuff, 1/2 egg (you figure that out, it's really easy with a stick blender) and 3/4 cup milk.  I'm thinking I'm going to play with a whole egg next time.  This time it was a bit dry, but.  Mix together just like any pie crust and roll it out just like any pie crust.  It worked.  Yes, you have to dust your board and pin, frequently. And the smaller pies that I like to make were a lot easier than the big pumpkin pie I made for the family.  BUT, IT'S NON GLUTEN AND IT HELD TOGETHER.  I won't say it was as easy to use a regular flour, but I learned a lot, and I learned not to fear it.  This is all about adapting.  I've been saying I was getting "bored" with the normal food we've always eaten. Time for a change.  Should have made the change awhile ago.  To bad the Dr's are fighting it.  I really think everyone should get tested, just like you do for cholesterol.

Larson Loonie Byne
So I've started a new blog.
The Eggcellent Collection.
With all of the redecorating we've doing around the house, I had to empty the egg case and have taken the opportunity to photograph each egg, so I'm going do document all of them.  I've decided to put a penny in each photo for comparison
Hope people enjoy them.

I think I shall rant a bit.
Some SD idiot has announced that it's OK to partake of caffeine if you LDS. What kind of madness is this?   When are people going to learn CAFFEINE IS A DRUG!! And a dangerous one at that.  I tried to heart attack at 27 when I had my second child and the doctor prescribed a caffeine look-alike to help the pain meds get into my blood stream faster.  That's what caffeine does. Accelerates your heart rate.  Guess who is clinically allergic to it?   And people feed to little kids and wonder why they don't do well in school? 
Let's look at the facts. Joseph Smith drank tea.  Herbal Tea.  Everyone in that day and age did. Why?  Care to guess the quality of the water?  LOUSY!! Water purification?  What is that?   Everyone new if they drank pond water they could and usually did get sick.  40 to 50 year lifespan was normal. Germs were all over and not boiling water made people ill.  Boiled water, plain, tastes lousy.  Throw a few leaves into it, add a bit of root or bark, hey, this stuff tastes pretty good.  Add a bit of honey? even better.  Drink it hot? Are you kidding?  #1 it burns!  I lived with a lady on my mission who had no taste buds.  Burnt them out of on hot coffee.  She was the skinniest person I ever met.  Eating held no joy and she often forgot to do it.  Try putting a piece of meat into a cup of HOT water and guess what you get. COOKED MEAT.  Guess what happens to your tongue, throat and stomach lining when it gets repeatedly hit with HOT water.  You are, after all made of "meat"
#2 If you take hot water and bits and pieces and then drink, why did you put the bits and pieces it.  If the water is still hot, there's no flavor from the bits in the water AND NOT OF THE BENEFITS EITHER!.   There is a lot of good in those leaves, bark and root.  Don't believe me, try making a tea with catnip, oh plan to do it on a day when you rest, cause you won't want to do anything else for several hours.  It's a muscle relaxant.  God put those plants on this planet for our benefit, and then we toss them aside for a manufactured stimulant.  Whatcha gonna do when you get to the other side and find out God don't make caffeine. 
One of the main reasons we are here is to try and be like HIM.  How going to do that when you're so hyped up you can't think straight.  I thought LDS people were suppose to rise above the world, in the world but not of it.  What's next?  Whose re-thinking homosexually?  It's a darn slipperly slope and guess whose busy greasing it.
Me? NO CAFFINE NO CODINE, NO LOOKALIKES. WE MEAN IT!!

One of my dad's favorites.
The preacher has chosen to preach on the need to have no enemies and goes on, quoting this scripture and that to bring his point home.  He's well into his surgery and the need to make friends with everyone and to helps his point get across the thunders across the congregation "I need to know if there is anyone here in this family of friends that can honestly say they have no enemies, I need to have some one rise to their feet and tell us how they have come to the point in their life that all around them are friends, that hey have no one they hate. I need that person to rise to their feet and teach us all how it is done."  WAY in the back old brother Jones rises to his feet (takes a couple of moments to get there, I did say OLD brother Jones) and he says "Reverend, I ain't got no enemies."
"WONDERFUL, brother Jones, tell us all how you did that"
"I OUTLIVED THEM ALL"

Don't think that was what the Rev was after.


LL

Another joke came to mind.

Dr. Christian Bernard, who pioneered heart replacement surgery told this one on himself, and it's one of my favorites.
When you open a patient up to replace a heart, you only have about 6 hours to get the new heart in and wasting no time is critical.  As he was getting ready to install a new heart, he put his hand out of the "cat-gut" It's what they still call surgical suture material, I understand it really was cat intestine years ago (Let us sing praises for better technology) and was handed a "wad" of knots.  Not happy at all he starts "attacking" the wad to untangle it, muttering $#@@%& under his breath.  His surgical nurse asks. "may I help? Doctor" to which he replies " NO THANK YOU. I've been a surgeon for 20 years, I ought to be able to do this" and back to "#@%$^&#$#" A moment later the surgery nurse gentle takes it from his hand and twists that and tugs that and the whole mess untangles in her hand.  She smiles and hands it back and he asks, no to politely "HOW DID YOU DO THAT?" She replies "I've been doing embroidery for 40 years"  

Cruising the web one day.  I cannot believe what I found http://www.twirlgoround.com/
My parents bought one of the ages ago.  We called in the Whirley-gig.  We only had the two man version, but oh my the hours we spend on it.  It was blue and red and got rusty as the years went by, but we rode it to death.  I don't recall any of us hurling on it, but I believe one of the cousins or two did.  They don't make an adult version, yet.  Can't help thinking it would a great exercise and gotta wonder if you could use it to generate power.  It's nice to have a childhood memory my sibs havn't tainted.

pai

I'M OK,so why don't I feel ok. My husband has been in hospitals 3 Thursdays running.First was to remove the 3rd bladder tumor he' had in 4 years. He spent 1 hour with his bladder full of chemo.  I couldn't be there.My stupid job hadn't hit the year mark and if I had taken a day off, I could have been fired.  And I'm carrying the health insurance for us.  Luckily, Le & Ly were able to be there for him.  The following Thursday he finally had that Dmmmm carcinod removed from his sinus.  It's been there for years apparently, the Dr's term was "grossly deviated septum" It was over 5cm but it must be benign, as a week & 1/2 later the "tumor panel" cannot decided if it's enough threat to need a follow-up chemo or radiation. We know that radiation will cause cataracts 2 1/2 years later, we are going to tell the Dr, "No Thanks"  Because of the 2 surgeries a week apart, R was on heavy duty pain killers for 2 weeks running and the third week we were in the emergency room. Robert was impacted, he was unable to pass ANYTHING. They cathed him, the cath didn't come out till the following Monday.  Then they tried several concoctions as well as an enema and "digital manipulation" (that has nothing to do with a computer"  Nothing was happening and they literally kicked us out of the hospital.  We came home and I brewed him a cup of "Smooth Move" tea and an hour later "the dam" burst.  I couldn't get him to take the tea earlier.You'd have to ask him why.
Meanwhile, Lo calls me the 2nd Thursday to tell me that she wouldn't be coming to see her dad. Her DH got tossed off his bike on the way to work, busted up his shoulder, he looked like hamburger on knee & elbows when I saw him a few days later.  Then Jo announces he's lost his job.  He has an offer now, but it's in SLC, that a long drive away from his family.  Meanwhile, Le was 13 days over due when they decided to go for a birth.  2 painful exhausting days later she gives birth to a beautiful boy.  Nearly an angel except for a repairable clef lip, Just the lip, but oh my his eyes are glorious.  I've met his face before, but I can't decide if I'm looking at one of my sons or my father.  Then my wonderful daughter-in-law takes a fall a work and totally crunches her wrist.  A plate & 7 screws later, she's in a cast for 2 weeks and while I would have love to take their  2 year old off their hands, I'm too darn old to take her on with 3 other grandkidlings.  I take the Saturday off to go to the Ren fair on a 90 degree day and my feet hurt so bad, but we had fun.  I come home to find Ly w/ car troubles, and I can't help her at all.  Prius is beyond anything I understand.  I don't understand hybred.  Meanwhile the LA saga continues.  Those loons won't do what my parents expected us all to do.  SHARE. FAIRLY.  Everyone claims they did it all, no one will see we all had a hand.  LU washed, I dried, Jo broke. Still at it.  That was my foot that ended up with the steak knife sticking out of my big toe in Buena Park as I was unloading the ugly old dishwasher. Dad told the story many times about how I let the rototiller get away from me and that's why the back fence didn't fall during any earth quakes, and why I call the rototiller in my back yard, MY rototiller.  I put up that mirrored wall in the living room.  It was my knee cap that broke while we were taking  wallpaper off the kitchen wall.  I'll be decorating a daughters wedding cake, one more time, just like Mom taught me in her kitchen so that we could build a wedding cake for another wedding that we catered, and I never got paid for the hours I put into mom's "catering company"  No, that was household money.  The same household money that paid for mom's fancy diamond ring.  How many Saturday's did I completely have the kitchen cleaned. And how many Saturday's did that kitchen look like a disaster area 6 hours later, and I still had to put 1 or 3 hours on the piano, depending upon the season.  But, I only learned piano so I could play for church, or so dad said.  Little did he know.  How many walls did I paint.  I know I did the living room at least twice.  Weeds pulls? Truck loads, despite the rose thorns. I fed 5 kids, well, because Mom insisted I cook, how many chocolate applesauce cakes have I made?   My daughters are making Chili Relish, with relish. I've got mom's recipes.  Ro loves Dad bread stick recipe, makes the best pizza dough.  No I'm not Ok, I feel abused, worn out, tired and very frustrated, and not a darn thing I can do about it.

Another Joke came to mind

Husband and wife are in a car, going down the road, and she's not happy.
"We used to sit together when we went any where. You used to put your arm around me and we'd listen to music and talk. Don't do that anymore." On and on she went and finally turned to him and said, "Don't you have anything to say?"
He took a moment and at a stop light, turned, looked at her and said "I havn't moved"