Places I've Lived (And my favorite so far) - Blog Challenge 2016 Entry #3

In order, I have lived in the following places:

Ann Arbor, MI - 1960 to 1971

Grand Junction, CO - 1971 - 1981

Vernal, UT - 1981 - 1983

Clifton, CO - 1983 - 1984

Broomfield, CO - 1984 - 2006

Montrose, CO - 2006 - present

And my favorite place (so far) (drum roll please..............) BROOMFIELD!

The reasons are obvious - I lived there longer than anywhere else in my life, and it's where the 2nd half of my children were born, and where all of them were raised. It is the hub of the axis of my kids' lives, and even though there were many, many difficult years, the blessings and memories we built there overrule the trials!

Favorite Time Wasters - Blog Challenge 2016 Entry #2

I wish that my response to this topic was unique and creative.  It isn't. My favorite time wasters are Facebook and Words With Friends.

Quite awhile ago, someone posted that Facebook was like going to the refrigerator and staring into it...you know there's nothing good there, but you can't help opening the door over and over again. That pretty much sums it up for me. These days I seem to spend more time "hiding" things than I do reading them.  But yet I go back, and go back, and go back.  It's worse in the summer, because I have so much more down time.

But it's thanks to Facebook that I have a stronger relationship with my extended family than I ever have. I can participate in the major and minor events of my Michigan relatives' lives. I can also keep tabs on the "kids" I went to high school with. Many of them weren't close friends when we attended good ol' FMHS (class of '78), so I have loved getting to know the funny, amazing, inspirational people they are! And I am also grateful to be able to maintain my friendships with my beloved former co-workers and church friends.

Then there's "Words With Friends". Kelli recently said "You're still playing that game?" Yep...I'm kinda addicted. It doesn't even matter to me how many points I score, I just like to challenge myself to play the best word I can. My average word score is around 17-19 points, and I rarely have more than 8-10 games going at once, but that's OK. I often choose a word to play because it opens up the board, not because it'll give me the most points. After failing to reach the Weekly Challenge goal for the 3rd week in a row, I turned off that notification (It annoyed me when they created that, anyway!). It's just for fun...plus I learn all these interesting words like "ki", "qi", "qat", and so on.  No, I don't know what they mean, I only know that the game accepts them!

True confessions 101.

Someone I Admire - 2016 Blog Post Challenge - Entry #1

Well, for starters, I hadn't figured on this topic until later in the summer, so I haven't had time to ponder it.

But do you know who comes to my mind right away? My friend Janela Karlson.

Janela and I have known each other for more years than I can remember. I met her and her husband Jesse when they only had one child (and that child just got married!).  Jesse, Michael and another dear friend, Hans Christiansen, all co-owned a silk tree plant business.  For awhile, our three families lived the closest thing to the United Order since Joseph Smith's day....we were all desperately poor, and shared vehicles, food, and even housing (not us, but Karlsons and Christiansens lived together for awhile).

Janela has to be experienced.  I cannot do her justice, but here's the general scoop--she is the most sincere, the most genuine, the most guileless person I've ever met in my life. She is amazingly intelligent, incredibly gentle, and has the sweetest temperament and spirit of anyone I've ever known. I would be shocked to discover that she had ANYONE who didn't like her, because her love for others just radiates out to the world. In spite of all that, she in not a push-over. She sticks to her principles, and cannot be swayed when it comes to questionable choices.

Janela can bring a smile to the grumpiest of faces. Nobody can resist her earnest heart. She is very humble, and exemplifies the true definition of meekness in that she is quiet and gentle, but strong and stalwart as well.

I'm a better person for having her in my life. I hope she know that. I can never be as good as she is, but I'm sure that I'm a bit more kind, a bit more faithful, and a bit more Christ-like because of her example.

https://youtu.be/uzrGFQysfYU

Of Trail Mix, Detours and Family

I have been creating this post in my head for a month, so it's time to put it on "paper", so to speak

.

The Setting: In February, I went on a little adventure with my parents and my youngest daughter as we headed over to the Front Range for my nephew's wedding. Darian and his bride-to-be decided to get married on February 23 (a Tuesday), so that meant taking a couple of personal days at work and coordinating travel plans with Kelli and my mom and dad. Yes, we were nervous about the weather. And our fears were well founded--there was a large, brutal storm that hit the state days before our planned departure. It triggered a rock slide that damaged the highway between Grand Junction and Denver, which led to highway closures during the day and a one-lane pilot car-led route that only operated after 9 p.m. So we had to decide which detour to take...the southern route, over Monarch Pass and then up, or the northern route--a long U-shaped trip north to Craig and Steamboat, then back down to I-70 at Wolcott and east. Our cast of characters included:

My mom: Bound and determined to get there for this grandson's wedding, since she missed my son's wedding 12 years ago because of winter storms.
My dad: Absolutely dead-set against going, not because of family, but because he hates the Front Range and hates long driving trips. Not to mention the weather.
Kelli: Our chauffeur. She and Darian are the cousins who are closest in age, so it was important for her to be there. She offered to drive and take their truck.
Me: I, too, was bound and determined to go. Darian is my oldest nephew, this was the first big family wedding for my sister's kids, and I wanted to be a part of it!

Things weren't looking good. By the night before departure, after much discussion and repeated visits to cotrip.org, we decided to brave the southern route--meaning that Kelli would pick up Grandma and Grandpa, come down to Montrose to get me, and off we would go. But more weather was expected overnight, so even then, plans were not set in stone.

Tuesday morning, I was up even earlier than I normally am for work, to once again check the road reports for both detour options. Monarch Pass was horrid--I'm grateful for those cameras on the web site!  I called my mom and Kelli and said that we needed to take the northern route, which meant that I was going to have to get up, get ready and head up to Jct. so we could leave from there. When I arrived at my parents', the mood was, shall we say, less than festive. The Grand valley itself was socked in with gray, threatening clouds, and my dad was no better. He was still trying to convince my mom to change her mind, but it wasn't happening.  I told him that we were going no matter what, so, while mumbling that, if Mom wasn't going to change her mind, he might as well go too, he climbed aboard.  I offered a prayer--something the Mahans always do before road trips, even the sunny and clear ones. And off we went.

Trail Mix: We were definitely on a tight schedule, since the detour would mean that the normally 4 hour trip would take over 7. The wedding was at 6 p.m., and we left Junction before 9:30 a.m. Dad had made some trail mix for the ride, so we could snack and not have to make extra pit stops for food.  Good thing, cuz we still had to make a few potty stops. It's what happens when you get old--our driver was probably the only one who could have made it the whole way without a bathroom break!  Anyway, the trail mix provided the first of many fun stories shared during our journey--Dad recalled a time when he and my brother, Dan, who was about 13, were headed out on a hunting trip. Dad had made trail mix, and offered it to him as they drove. When he went to have some a bit later, the mix was missing every single M & M--and nothing else!  Kelli said, "Isn't that what trail mix is? M & M's with obstacles?" -- and we were on our way!

Detours: Prayer WORKS, people!! By the time we were out of DeBeque Canyon and headed toward Rifle, where we would need to turn north, the sun was out and the roads were clear. And folks, they STAYED dry and clear the ENTIRE way.  Yes, the snow in the fields on either side of the road was piled so high that you could barely see the tops of fence posts, but the sun shone and all clouds were light and thin. My dad was VERY happy to be oh, so wrong...but then, we all were!

Poor Kelli, though...she had no recollection of EVER driving this route before--and in truth, she only had been this way one time, many years ago, when we had to take this detour at Thanksgiving because a boulder put a hole through the highway. Deja vu--but she was young and not paying attention.  This time, as the driver, she had to. But she didn't know where she was going, and had no familiar landmarks to help her mark the journey, so it felt like we were going into the middle of nowhere, sssllllloooooooooooowwwllllyyyy. When we got up to Craig, ready to turn east toward Steamboat, there was a sign that said that Baggs was only 55 miles away, and I joked that we could just keep going for an hour and visit Wyoming. Kelli was shocked---"WYOMING?! How far north ARE we???" Poor kid! Add that on top of the responsibility she felt for getting her grandparents safely to that wedding, and it was a little stressful for her! She was a trouper, though, and received the ultimate compliment from her Grandpa--he was so impressed with her driving that he told her he was going to hire her to drive him on any future long trips! At least the drive back home the next day was a little better--she had a better idea of just how long (and how far) the trip would be, and we weren't on QUITE as tight of a time schedule.  I say 'quite', because she had to be back to her school by 3:30 for an event...which meant that we were loaded up into the truck and headed out of the motel parking lot at 6:30 a.m. the morning after the wedding!

Family: ...makes it all worth it. It took 7.5 hours to get to our destination, but we talked, Dad told stories, we listened to music, snacked on trail mix and did a fair amount of laughing! We got to the motel in plenty of time to check in, catch our breath, and change clothes for the wedding. Then we hit our biggest snag....that annoying Siri, or Google maps, or whatever it was on Kelli's phone, took us way too far north from the wedding site!  After all that traveling, we ended up being almost a half hour late, and they held up the wedding just for us. My sweet daughter lost it, blurting out "What the hell!!" as she hung another u-turn to get us into the event center's parking lot. (That was a highlight for my father--his sweet Mormon granddaughter succumbing to such foul language!) Yes, my own son got married in that same spot 12 years ago, but things have built up in that area a LOT since then, and we got lost!  All's well that ends well, thankfully--it was a sweet ceremony, and made even sweeter because we were all together!  5 of my 6 kids were able to attend, and watching my parents soaking it all up was SO worth it! They got up and "won" the couples dance, as they were the last on the floor because they had been married longer than anyone else in the room! Dad had a sweet daddy/daughter dance with the MOG, my sister Cathy (who looked like Cinderella in her gorgeous mother-of-the-groom dress!). I didn't join them because of my cane and because it was her moment. We soaked in a couple of hours of quality, chaotic, fun family time, and then headed back to the hotel for well-earned sleep!! It is going to mean so much that Mom and Dad are in those wedding photos. For all of us. 

Detours, Take 2: As I said before, the return trip was a little less stressful now that we were a bit more familiar with the route. We saw deer, elk, turkeys and sheep along the way. We marveled at the acres and acres of pure, untouched snow that stretched over wide fields and up beautiful mountainsides. We shared memories, talked about other trips my parents had taken up that way (hunting trips and vacations), and laughed at the F. M. Light and Sons signs that appeared in both directions for miles on either side of Steamboat. Dad said that they've been up for 30 years or more...apparently quite the western wear/outdoor supply standard for that area! Kelli said that it sounded like the kind of place she could take Tyler to...and that he'd never leave! More music - Kelli's Pandora station was on a roll, playing lots of great old classics that all the generations in the car could enjoy - and then Dad and I singing a rousing chorus of "The Tattooed Lady", which had us all in fits of laughter! (If I can find it on youtube, I'll attach it--it's an old folk song sung by the original Kingston Trio that I grew up listening to in Michigan.) I gotta tell you, though, we all breathed a sigh of relief when we were finally back on I-70, headed west from Rifle to the Grand Valley. I noted that this was the first trip I've taken with BOTH my parents since our last family vacation, which happened in the summer of 1978.  We drove to FL that year to go to Disney World and Busch Gardens.  I got married the next summer, and that was that. 

Conclusion: I wouldn't take away one minute of this tumultuous trip. It is now a memory that I will treasure always. I hope Kelli feels that way, too....what an opportunity to spend some close, intimate time with her grandparents. They are terrific people, and to have the chance to share this adventure with them was worth every mile. Two crazy, long, wonderful days. I'll always be thankful for them.  And I'll always smile when I pick out the M & M's from the trail mix.   

"The Tattooed Lady" by the Kingston Trio

Here's to 2016 (or, How My Life Usually Goes Better in Even Years)

It's therapy time--otherwise known as "The Yearly Birthday Reflection". I don't really care one way or the other about turning 56--it's just a number.  But I'm feeling frustration with the many things that I had hoped would NOT be difficult by the time I reached this age, so I need to turn it around and list the things I enjoy or am grateful for as I head downhill toward 60. Call it superstitious if you want, but I've always felt like my even-numbered years have been better than the odd-numbered ones (with the exception of 1985, 1987 and 1991--wink, wink). So I'm looking ahead with a hopeful eye.

1. Spending time with my parents: With each passing day, I am more grateful that they are still here with us. Healthy, independent, and living the dream. A loving example to me and my posterity.
2. Paying off one car: I can't remember the last time we were driving a vehicle that we weren't making payments on.  I'm gonna guess around the mid-80s. Hope I didn't just jinx it.  Keep running, Mazda!
3. Finishing up my 10th year of employ at the Montrose County School District: --and my 19th year as an employee of the Colorado Public School systems. Retirement is now a pin dot of light on the horizon. 
4. Warm weather: once the holidays (and my birthday) are over, it's time for winter to be done.  Yeah, I know, there are officially two more months until the calendar says spring. A girl can dream......
5. 2/3 of my kids being in their 30's: This was effective Dec. 9 of last year, but I'm getting a kick out of being the mom of 4 thirty-plus-year-old children!  My 30's were a fabulous time, and I look forward to that for them, as well!
6. Michaela turns 6, starts 1st grade: my oldest grandchild finishes kindergarten and moves on to 1st grade this year. She is brilliant, creative and only slightly obnoxious--it comes with the age.
7. Quincy starts kindergarten: Miss Q has thrived in preschool the past couple of years, and will continue to do so as a kindergartner.  Her teachers will have to be on their toes with her...but her mom is well aware of her quirks and gives her creative freedom and firm boundaries to grow in.
8. Monroe starts kindergarten: So hard to believe! She is a summer baby, so will be barely 5, but I have no doubts about her academic abilities!  She is a sensitive soul, so this new step could take some adjustment on her part, but she is already a friendly, outgoing girl, so she'll love school!
9. Tessa turns 4: Another summer baby, she'll finish her first year of preschool and barrel on into the next. It will be interesting for her to be the "oldest" kid at home for 1/2 a day, as Q will be in all-day kindergarten. She is sweet, sensitive and persnickety.  She'll give you all her love--if she's in the mood. 
10. Paisley turns 4: 2 weeks after Tessa. She has the good fortune of attending preschool at home--Mom is a certified Montessori teacher, and has been raising our Miss P with those standards from the beginning! She's strong-willed, energetic and creative.  Dancer, gymnast and puddle-jumper.
11. Lucy turns 4: She just started a twice a week preschool, and I'm sure she'll eat it up!  She's a charmer, and it will be interesting to watch her find her own niche. She'll be an expert big sister by the end of this year, as her new baby sister grows!
12. Mara turns 3: Not until September, but this will be such a fun year with her! I love 2 year-olds (Terrible Twos were never as bad as Terrible Threes, in my experience!) She makes everyone around her smile, because she's so funny! One of a kind, that kid! We'll see if she decides to be a T3 or not!
13. Beau turns 1: Our Earth Day baby, and first grandSON, will be so fun this year! I just so enjoy the growth that babies do during their second year of life! He is a happy, secure little guy, and it'll be fun to learn more about his personality as he becomes mobile and learns to talk!
14. Hunter turns 1: a whole 6 weeks after Beau.  Right now, the age difference is still very noticeable, but by the end of my 56th year, it'll be fun to watch that gap shorten as they grow. Hunter is sensitive--a happy, content little Puffalump! I hope I can spend some more time with him this year so he becomes more familiar with me.
15. Adaline turns 1: Weeelllll, yes, technically that will happen in this year, but not until 3 days before the New Year! I'm excited to watch her grow, and see what her little personality will be like!
16. Future grandchildren: ?? The year is young, so who knows--our ranks could still grow before I bid 56 a fond farewell.........
17. Green: It's my favorite color. It's my favorite color because it means spring, summer and warmth--things I look forward to EVERY year.
18. More reading: I think there's something wrong with a librarian who is so busy she can't find time to read like she wants. Thank goodness for #19...
19. Mahan Girls Book Club: I have absolutely loved our monthly book club chats. Thanks to Google Hangout, we see each other every month, all together, to rate our book and laugh. 
20. Time spent with Michael: Other than the summer months, he and I do not have a day off together. Sundays don't count--it's not much of a day of rest for him as a bishop, and we travel separately to church and home. So lately I've been taking the occasional personal day at work on his day off, and I've loved it. We don't necessarily do anything special--it's just nice to be at home together.
21. Travel: My itineraries consist of travels to UT, TN and the Front Range--in other words, grandchildren territories! I have taken the train 3 times now in my life, and will probably take advantage of that mode of transportation again! 
22. Showing appreciation for my husband: He really has been a good sport about sending me off to do the Gramma thing on multiple occasions, and I just need to be more vocal about how much I love him for it. I'd rather we could go together more often, but that isn't economically feasible, so we try to make the best of it.
23. The end of the Presidential campaign: Right now, the process is arduous, frightening and so, SO far away from being decided! But I'm praying that by the time I'm finished with 56, we will have sworn in a decent, intelligent leader who actually wants what is best for America. Is that so much to ask!??!?!??!??
24. Calves and corn rows: Not the bottom of your legs and the hairstyle. One of the things I enjoy about living on the Western Slope is the cycle that unfolds around me every year. When I start seeing baby calves in the fields, and then the farmers start plowing under the old stalks in preparation for planting, it just makes me so HAPPY! I also do the dance of joy when the irrigation water comes back.
25. Cleansing and purging: No, not a new diet regimen. I'm talking spring cleaning on steroids.  We will be in this house 10 years in June, and it's time for a big yard sale and a few trips to Salvation Army (not to mention the recycling center and the dump!). I'm determined to downsize the clutter and get ruthless with memorabilia. A part of that will be making my kids take their stuff out of my house and into their own...you are forewarned, children!
26. Goodreads: I really enjoy adding the books I've read to my list, and reviewing them.  I hope to be able to do more of that this year.
27. Puppies: NOOOOO, I am NOT planning on getting another dog.  But I can look forward to possibly finding a way to play with a puppy or two that belong to someone else....they're just such good therapy!
28. Jennifer, Adam, Stefanie, Holly, Lisa and Kelli: I know, it seems harsh to lump all my kids together when I listed all THEIR children separately. I just love spending time with my kids--I love the weekly (or more often) phone visits. I love to Facetime with them. I love it when they ask for advice, or just want to vent to me. I love sharing books, recipes and funny stories. I love that they have made this world a much better place because of the people they are. 5 college graduates, one Marine, 4 amazing parents. All of them are devoted to their spouses, each other and their children, nieces and nephews. And speaking of spouses---
29. Nick, Kara, Matthew, Eric, Hondo and Tyler: I need to continually express my love to these wonderful people who are my kids' partners in life. Our family has only been strengthened by them. I'm grateful to the parents who raised them to be hard-working, dedicated, loving and fun! (Not that my kids would have chosen anyone who wasn't!!)
30. My faith: Is it a natural part of aging, to ponder on our eternal purpose more often?  I just feel the influence of a loving Father in Heaven more and more all the time. I see the large and small blessings I am given each day, no matter how challenging. I need to spend more time expressing that gratitude in prayer, and taking the love I know my Savior has for me and spreading it around to all those I can love and serve. It helps me at home and at work. I feel it when I'm alone and surrounded by others. God has a plan for me, and I can only hope that I've done some things well. Onward and upward.

TEST: Congratulations!  You've suffered all the way to the end of this post, so now I have a question for you.  What one thing will YOU be looking forward to the most in 2016? Share it in the comments, here or on Facebook--maybe you'll give me more ideas!

Pumpkin Cookies

I thought that I had posted the famous Pumpkin Cookie recipe on this blog before, but apparently not...so here it is!  This recipe was clipped from an issue of our church's children's magazine, The Friend, and it quickly became a family favorite, and then a friends-of-family favorite!  And now I've discovered another frosting recipe to give us a choice!  So here you go....

Adrianne's Pumpkin Cookies
by Vicki H. Budge

1 cup shortening
3 cups sugar
2 eggs
2 cups (1 16 oz) canned pumpkin
2 tsp vanilla
5 cups of flour
2 tsp baking powder
2 tsp baking soda
1 tsp salt
1 tsp cinnamon
1 tsp nutmeg

1. Cream the shortening and the sugar together.
2. Beat in the eggs, pumpkin, and vanilla.
3. Sift the dry ingredients together, add to the mixture, then mix well.
4. Drop the dough by rounded teaspoonfuls onto a greased cookie sheet. Bake at 400 degrees for 10 minutes or until lightly browned. Frost when cool. (Makes about 5-6 dozen)

FROSTING
3 oz. cream cheese, softened
1/2 cup margarine, softened
1- box (1 pound) powdered sugar
1 tsp vanilla

1. Mix all the ingredients together until creamy.
2. Frost pumpkin cookies.  If desired, decorate with candy corns, chocolate chips, decorative gel.

CINNAMON CREAM CHEESE FROSTING
(I found this on a Pinterest recipe, and although it was fantastic on the pumpkin cupcakes, it was even better on the pumpkin cookies!!)
6 TBSP butter, softened
4 oz cream cheese, softened
2 cups powdered sugar (more, as needed)
1/2 tsp vanilla
1 plus 1/2 tsp cinnamon

1. Beat together butter and cream cheese until light and fluffy. 2. Add the powdered sugar slowly and beat until light and fluffy. 3. Beat in the vanilla and cinnamon. 4. If necessary, add more powdered sugar until the frosting is firm enough to hold its shape but still light and fluffy.

Pink Eye, Cellulitis and other Exciting Developments

The pharmacy at our local grocery store is getting to know us very well these days.

To begin with, the extended Mahan Clan hasn't had the greatest week of their lives. In the last 9 days, my son had a very terrifying incident at work, one of my granddaughters fell while running through the sprinklers and got an occult fracture(new term to me....)of her elbow, Michael is battling cellulitis and I spent yesterday afternoon in Urgent Care to get a prescription for pink eye. Oh, and the new iOS update for my iPhone won't load...but that's another story. (The phone is a 4s, and I am just afraid that iOS 9 is just too much for the poor little thing.  Only 3 months until I'm allowed an upgrade...may that be the absolute LEAST of my worries!)

The kids are in charge of their own tales, although I can say that the boy is fine, the granddaughter now sports a bright orange "Bronco color" cast (she's 3 and requesting Denver Bronco things - her parents are SO proud!), and so far, the other children/grandkids are doing well. (Well, there is one highly emotional pregnant daughter, and a son-in-law who is recovering from surgery to repair his blown-out knee, but at this point, they're almost yesterday's news--although no less noteworthy!)

But the PARENTS!!! Good heavens, have we somehow angered the residents of Mount Olympus??! 

Mikey's adventure started on Wednesday.  He came home from work an hour early with his right earlobe swollen and sticking out at a right angle to his face. So we went to the ER. No bug bite, no allergic reaction (my guesses)....just a small scratch behind his ear that somehow got infected. Pharmacy trip #1. By the next morning, it had doubled in size and was oozing all over his pillow; so, while I headed to work, he headed back to the ER! He proceeded to spend his day off going back every 6 hours for IV antibiotic treatments.  By the time I met him in the ER after work, he and the ER staff were on a first-name basis.  Hey, I'm all for making new friends, but YIKES!

So, I made 2 separate trips to the pharmacy that day, and I think he went again Friday or Saturday (he's alternating two types of oral antibiotics now). Then it was my turn. I've been coughing/congested for a week -- my usual "Welcome Back to School and this Year's Germ Pool" event -- but on Sunday morning, when I woke up and opened my eyes, one of them wouldn't open. I had a Sunday School lesson to teach, so I got up and showered. After I got out of the shower, I actually looked in the mirror and Whoa! my left eye looked like it belonged to Marshmallow, my son's white rabbit! So I went to church, dropped off my lesson materials with my husband, and then went to Urgent Care. Aaand then - you guessed it - back to the pharmacy for drops and my very own antibiotic!  I mean, it's like I was feeling left out or something.  

And so I'm home sick today. Pink eye is not something you mess with.  It's very contagious and I see 7 classes each day. I'm all for spreading the LOVE, but not the disease. I'll be back in business once I've been taking both for 24 hours.

Is there a quota to be filled here? Because if there is, I'm submitting that ours is complete. To whom do I turn in that form? I want it on the record and notarized! Enough already! 

Have a nice day.  And if you need to drop by the City Market North Pharmacy any time soon, mention our names at the bell and they'll attend you.