apricot picking and plugging our noses

I just thought about something else that got me to smile.  I remember when we were young and you would always want to go up to Draper and pick apricots at an orchard so you could make your fruit leather or can or bottle them.  I don't know I was a kid all I know is you wanted to go and we had to go too.  We wanted to take Lucky our faithful Dachsaund so we wouldn't be bored.  I remember walking around with him on his leash and then all of a sudden he jerked away and ran off into the bushes.  We started to run towards the bushes to try and find him and soon turned the other direction plugging our noses.  We knew right away what he had chased and found in the bushes a skunk.  The only problem was he couldn't come when we called his name because the leash got tangled in the bushes and he was stuck there yelping.  He didn't like the smell either.  I can't remember who ran back to rescue him, it might have been Darrell.  All I remember was you didn't seem to either smell it or just was so interested in the task at hand and the whole purpose of being there. You wouldn't leave until you had your buckets full, that was a fun adventure.  I know the ride home was not very pleasant but you just laughed and made light of it all.  I have always admired how up beat and positive you can be even in the most trying times or struggles.  You make me smile just thinking about these little memories.  Thanks Mom,
Love Susan

Lucky to have a Mom like you

After reading Joann's post I was thinking too about growing up and mom reading stories to us.  After dinner we would help clean up the kitchen and get our pajamas on so we could snuggle down on the couch next to mom in anticipation.  I remember fondly the book series she would start reading to us and I mean start, because as soon as she would get comfortable and get to the really exciting part her voice would seem to trail off and we would look up to see she had dozed off  to sleep.  "Hey what happened you are at the best part?  I know she worked hard all day and so when she sat down she just seemed to drift off to sleep.  It took a lot to take care of all of us and believe me after having 6 kids of my own I know what it means to sit down after a long day and just drift off to sleep.Thanks for giving us the love of reading.  I think I too loved hearing the Happy Hollister's and little house on the Prairie.  When I think about Mom I also think about fresh baked bread made in tomato juice cans coming out of the oven just as we are coming home from school.  And Mom;s comment looking up from the sewing machine would be "are you home"?  I always thought that was funny because she was looking right at us.  I loved your cooking and that sparked in me the desire to want to cook and create new and exciting dishes like you did.  You did make some interesting food at times like Cow Tongue, Ugh that one I don't think I was to keen on.  I also remember fondly of the trips we took growing up like camping in the High Unitas at Grand Daddy lakes.  We would go out hiking and come back to some really yummy food cooking on the camp stove.  I also remember the trip we took in 1976 around Easter time to California to visit Aunt Gwenie and Mimi and David.  You had heard about some creation someone had made out of Junk in a place we didn't know about called Watts Towers.  I know I was very nervous as we drove over the railroad tracks in search for that massive art work you just had to see.  Later after I was married Steve, who grew up in California said you guys were crazy to go there no one goes there it is dangerous because of the gangs that were around there.  You were so in grossed in this tower I don't think you even paid attention to the stares we were getting.  This all white family of eight with BYU sticker in the back window must have thrown them for a loop and too surprised to do anything about it.  It still makes me smile and chuckle when I envision the seen.  I also loved making memories with my own children as they were younger going on trips together like Yellowstone and Bryce Canyon.  The trip we took going through Wyoming and up to Custer's Battlefield was fun stopping in those fun little towns and seeing the sights we you and Dad.  I love you so much and appreciate you more and more as I get older.  I just wanted to let you know you are the best mom. 
Thanks and I love you, Susan

Braided Candy Canes And Lincoln Logs

At Christmas time, when we were going to Oakwood Elementary School, Mom would bake fancy braided candy canes filled with a sweet cranberry mixture and send them to school with us to give to our teachers. Back then nearly every kid brought treats to give to their teachers, but none were as fancy as those candy cane pastries. As I recall they looked kind of like this:

Mom made birthdays fun too. She had a way of making each one of us feel special. Since I was born on February 12, -Abraham Lincolns Birthday, Mom would often make a cake that looked like a Lincoln log with ice cream rolled in the middle and one time she made a log cabin cake.

-Darell

Happy Hollisters

I am grateful for a Mom who read to us. I remember one of our favorite series was the Happy Hollisters. We would gather around almost every night to listen as Mom read to us. The series was about a middle class family solving mysteries from their new home on Pine Lake in Rhode Island. There were five children ranging in ages from four to twelve.  The father owned a general store called the Trading Post. The mom was always ready with handy tips and helped in finding clues.
  There were about thirty books in the series and I think Mom read every one of them to us.  There was a slight problem though. Even though the books were very exciting and full of suspense Mom would often drift off to sleep, sometimes right in the middle of a word. Every chapter in the book ended with a cliff-hanger.  Mom was usually so tired from everything that she had to do throughout the day that when she finally got a minute to sit down she ended up reading herself to sleep.  I remember all of us wanting to hear more and nudging her until she started up again.
  Because Mom read to us and made sure we did our reading on our own too we were all good readers.
Later on when I had kids of my own I would also read to them every night and they also are very good readers and have a love for reading.  I also managed to carry on the tradition of falling asleep while reading to them sometimes even  in the middle if a word.

-Joann

Resourceful Mom (part 2)

After reading Alyssa's story about how resourceful Grandma is I was reminded of a few other things.
Mom was very thrifty. She used to ( and maybe still does) save every cool-whip and cottage cheese container and would wash them to re-use for storing left-overs and anything else that needed to be stored. When we did buy bread from the store she saved the bags that the loaves came in.  She would use them to store her home-made wheat bread that she made once a week. I also remember when we were in elementary school how handy those bread bags were for walking to school in the snow.  Mom would have us slide the bags over our shoes and secure it around the ankle with a rubber band from the news paper. We arrived at school with our shoes nice and dry.

Mom also used to make home-made fruit leather but she didn't have a fruit dryer or anything fancy like that. She would pureé the fruit in a blender and pour it on cookie sheets, cover them with plastic wrap and place them in the sun to dry.  She usually put them on top of a car or two so that they would be out of the way and not disturbed. Sometimes we ended up eating a few gnats but it was always a good treat.
Mom has also come up with a handy way of transporting food and other items to family gatherings. I like to call it the Costco tray. It consists of a large shallow box or box lid the size of a cookie sheet.
Because Mom is so thrifty I feel that we learned to appreciate the things that we have and not be wasteful.

-Joann

Sunday Dinners and Yorkshire Pudding

Reading my brother Cory's memories triggered a few more memories of my own about the delicious Sunday Dinners Mom would cook. I remember coming home from church and there would be a lamb roast in the oven. It had those little pine needle things on it that I later learned was rosemary and it sure was delicious. I don't think I have had anything that tasty since except for that pheasant that I wrote about earlier. Then their were those twice baked potatoes with cheese melted on top and one my all time favorites, Yorkshire pudding, which was not actually pudding as we know it, but some kind of dough that would create mountains and valleys in the oven when it baked. Mom would call us over to the oven to look at the interesting topography that was developing in the oven. It was fun to watch and delicious.

-Darell

Memories

One of the things I remember about Mom, is how she would get me up early before school to work on merit badges.  She would have me read the Constitution and the Declaration of Independence, so that I could get the citizenship merit badges.  Before that, she was our den mother, during Cub scouts.
One of the things that the cub scouts loved, was her home made whole wheat bread, that would be coming fresh out of the oven as den meeting was ending.  About the time den meeting was finishing, Mom was already getting supper ready for when Dad got home.  I remember some of Mom's cooking back then and I liked it all except the liver.  The liver usually came with bacon and onions so we ate the bacon and had to be coerced to eat the liver.  One thing Mom cooked that I couldn't get enough of, was beef tongue.  Although, I could barely stand to look at the barbed  skin that Mom had to carve off the tongue into the sink.  There was sheep herder stew, meat loaf, tamale pie/casserole, beef stew and green beans with cream of mushroom soup. I remember the pressure cooker hissing away on the stove.  In the late Summer early Fall, Mom always did a lot of canning.  It was a lot of work but Mom always seemed happy to do it and we loved the peaches and pears through out the year.  Mom would take time to sit down and give me piano lessons.  When we had the paper route, Mom used to drive us around on Sunday mornings.  That was one year with me and one year with Darell.  Mom wanted us to learn responsibility with a paper route but meant she was almost as involved as we were.  Mom would drive Darell and I to hockey practice and back for a couple of seasons as I recall. In the summer, there were picnics, visits to the zoo, pioneer village and swimming lessons.  Mom was always there when we came home from school or playing hard outside and there was always a snack.
-Corydon

Promontory Point

Fishing at Fish Lake