I Walked to Zion

We just got back from our annual trip to Fish Lake (See this post).  And while there, I picked up and read this book (I Walked to Zion) which just happened to be in the cabin.  It is a lovely collection of short autobiographical accounts of pioneer children who crossed the plains.  I thoroughly enjoyed it. I loved reading the perspective of pioneer children in their own words. Each account is only 2-4 pages long, and thus, I could read AND FINISH an account in just a few minutes.  (As explained in my previous FishLake post, reading is something I LOVE, but when I begin reading anything that takes longer than a few minutes, everything else in my life is totally neglected until I have finished reading whatever novel/book I happen to have picked up, thus I seldom allow myself to read anything that is longer than a few pages.)

And....I must say this book was quite appropro, since we traveled to Fish Lake on July 24th, Pioneer day. 

P.S. when I looked at the picture of a certain pioneer girl in this book, I thought, "Wow, she looks just like Marjorie Hinckley!"  Turns out it was her grandmother!  How cool is that?  Also, my great grandfather. Samuel Wittwer,  is mentioned in the account of one pioneer girl who settled in Santa Clara.

Kay, Analise, Luke, Dallin, and Trent standing on "Penny Rock" overlooking FishLake. July 2014. (Dallin and Analise joined us for a couple of days from Rexburg and Provo respectively.)

The End of An Era

This last weekend we dropped off the last of the Barlow girls at BYU in Provo.  I now have NO girls (besides me) living in my house.  I am outnumbered 3 to 1.  For the past 22 years I've had a female "companion" in my home.  (Coincidentally, we dropped of daughter #3 ON daughter #1's 22nd birthday.)

Since Lynae left, the bathrooms are remarkably "tidy."  (Note I did not use the word "clean" but rather "tidy."  I suspect that although the bathrooms may be more "tidy," the cleanliness of said bathrooms will suffer.  Boys just don't clean as thoroughly as girls.) The bathroom countertops are relatively "tidy:"  free of flat irons, blowdryers, cotton balls, make up, Q-tips, bobby pins, and nail polish. Only an occasional toothbrush or comb clutters the bathroom countertops. The "pink" bedroom is neat and tidy, and eerily quiet, and the boys who now knock on my door are here to lift weights and hang out with my boys.  (In the past, it seemed that more often than not, male visitors to our home were in search of the Barlow girl(s), rather than the Barlow boy(s).)

If you know anything about me, you know I don't really like change.  In fact, the VERY first post I ever made on this blog was lamenting this fact.  My three girls are very close in age.  (Only 3 1/2 years between daughter #1 and daughter #3.)  So for many years, my life was filled with girls.  My oldest is a boy, and I had my first four children before my oldest (a boy) started school.  And prior to Dallin (my first) starting kindergarten, I was sure that I had the wildest, most rowdy girls around.  However, as soon as Dallin went to school, my daughters started to do calm "girl stuff" (like Barbies, dolls, coloring, dress up etc.)  while Dallin was at school.  Dallin had just been leading his sisters in his wild, sword-playing, action figure, wrestling, yelling, running, and jumping "boy"activities.  I love my boys.  Everyone needs a boy (or 2 or 3).  But I loved having three girls all in a row.  I loved dressing them alike and putting bows in their hair.  I loved watching them play pretend with each other and attending their dance recitals.  I loved shopping for prom dresses and watching them cheer and dance at the high school ball games.  So this last weekend marked the end of an era in our home: the end of an era of girls.  My girls continue to be the best of friends, having latenight "sleepovers," shopping together, and staying up late watching chic-flicks, eating junk food, and doing their nails.  However, more often than not, these activities are now done in apartments in Provo, not in my home.  The era of "all those girls" in our home has passed, and I am embarking on the last era of children in our home- an era  destined to be filled with football, basketball, and dirty clothes from camping trips; an era in which I go to high school football games to actually watch the GAME (not the cheerleaders and/or dancers), an era which I look forward to.  But I still look back on the era that has just ended with a bit of nostalgia.  So in honor of the close of this, the "girl era," in my life, here are some things that I have greatly enjoyed and will miss:

1-All things pink.  Pink is my favorite color, and to be honest, boys usually aren't that "into" pink.  (Although, Luke did wear a pink tie, which he found abandoned in Dallin's mission stuff, to church today-maybe to make me feel better about my lack of female companionship on our bench at church.)

Matching pink dresses-March 1996-Bryce and Becky's wedding.

2-Matching clothes.  Yep, I LOVED dressing my girls alike...maybe a little too much.  When they got old enough to protest, they did, but it was fun while it lasted....even matching swim suits.

Lynae's first birthday-January 1997

July 1999

3-Dolls, Barbies, Dress ups.  (Buying toys for little girls is just so much fun!)

March 1998-I love that Lynae has hairbows all over her teddy bear :)

January 2001

July 1997-Dressed up and playing with princesses and ponies

4- Hair bows,  nail polish, make-up.....

October 2008-Analise doing Kaylee's hair for homecoming-Kaylee was the freshman class princess.

January 2001-doing nails

Hair and make-up prep for Prom 2012 (an assembly line :) - Note the "cluttered" bathroom countertop.

5-Dance recitals

Creative Dance recital-January 2002

6-Semi-cooperative photo subjects.  My girls at least "try" (sometimes) to look nice in family (and other) pictures.  My boys....uh....not so much.

Christmas "Hardy Party" 2013.  Note the girls look great, but the boys...well... Kent is doing bunny ears (which I fail to find the humor in, but which he continues to think is hilarious), Dallin is M.I.A. (although he WAS at the party), and Trent and Luke have assumed the "unamused Zombie stares."

7-Prom/Homecoming/School Royalty:  It's just fun to be a "princess."

Analise-Homecoming Royalty 2007

Kaylee-Prom 2012

Lynae- Prom 2012

8-Cheerleaders/Dancers

Prophetic-All three go to BYU!

Lynae-middle school cheer. 2010

Kaylee-high school varsity dance team. 2011

Analise-high school varsity cheer. 2008

9-Three little girls in one room-cute "girlie" bedding and late night "girlie" giggles.

May 2001-bottom double bunk-laying "sideways." 

10-Watching my girls be best friends.

April 1997-Analise and Kaylee reading to Lynae.

April 2014-The last time all the girls were together before Kaylee left for her mission to Mexico.

Farewell to the "girl era"....

This is what met me when I walked in the door from dropping off the last of my female offspring at BYU:

Trent had just returned from a 400 mile bike ride from Provo to Logandale with his scouting group; and Luke had just returned from a backpacking hike down the Grand Canyon.....Yep, it's definitely the end of an era.

OH YEAH!  BRING ON THE ERA OF THE BOYS!!

80

Today is my dad's birthday.  He would have been 80.  He died on November 1, 2013 at the age of 79.  I have not blogged much since his death.  Life has been too busy.  I've felt guilty for not blogging about many significant events that have transpired, but as I stated when I started this blog, this blog is not about documenting my life (I have weekly journal entries which do that), but more about me being able to "yak" about things. 

I miss my dad daily.  His funeral program hangs on my fridge.  I can't bring myself to take it down.  His smiling face, just the way I remember him, greets me each time I retrieve the milk or an egg.  Sometimes on the way home from school, I drive by the cemetery.  His grave is conveniently located just east of the road that runs right through the middle of the cemetery, so I can drive by, view his headstone, and say "hi," without getting out of the car :).  I remember little things about my dad:  how his hands were so big.  (I still don't think I've met anyone with hands as big as his.)  His fingers were "thick,"  and I remember as a little girl playing with his hands during church; his hands that had been scrubbed clean from brick mortar, but still were stained dark gray in the callused creases of his fingers.  I remember the shape of his fingernails, and knowing that his hands were the biggest, strongest hands ever and would always take care of me.... and they did. Those hands fed me and changed my diapers.  (My dad was GREAT with babies and kids, and used to brag, "Diapers don't bother me.  I can change a diaper with one hand while eating chocolate pudding with the other.") Those hands gripped the steering wheel while he drove all around town in the middle of the night, checking up on me or following the bus home from late night away ball games.  (This was pre-cellphone days; the only way to check on me, was to go find me.) Those hands built the house that I grew up in and the house that I now live in. 

My dad didn't spend much time "visiting" with me.  When I called from college, he would check to make sure I was fine and then mom would spend the rest of the expensive, long-distance phone call  time visiting.  However, I ALWAYS knew that my dad loved me and was watching over me.  He now watches over me from heaven.  And I have never been so sure of anything as I am of that.  I know that just as he quietly checked on me and watched over me on earth, he continues to live and do the same from heaven.  So today I want to wish him a happy 80th.  I am so glad that he's my dad!


Dad's 37th birthday-June 8, 1971 (On Grandma Hardy's back porch):  Kay 4, Bryce 2.

Dad's 39th birthday-June 8, 1973: Kay 6, Bryce 4, Rex 2.  (Jill will be arriving in a month on July 7, 1973)  Note how Kay is trying to help blow out candles.....and we wonder where Analise gets it?? :) --You'll have to ask Analise about that one :)

Some of Dad's posterity at his grave-Memorial Day 2014

In honor of his birthday, I posted the talks from his funeral that I currently have on family search.  (Talks by Kay and Bryce and the eulogy by David.)

https://familysearch.org/tree/#view=ancestor&person=KWH3-5L6&spouse=KWH3-5LX&section=memories

Top of the morning to you! *

Happy St. Patrick's Day!

In our family St. Patrick's Day is kinda a big deal.  My great-great-grandfather John Joseph Hayes came from Ireland.  And my great grandpa, Henry Nephi Hayes, who was a judge in Richfield, was very proud of his Irish heritage, and made sure everyone knew it, especially on St. Patrick's day, when he ordered 200 green carnations to be shipped to Richfield and then proudly carried his genuine Irish Cane made from the Black Thorn of Ireland, decked with green ribbons while he delivered green carnations to every teacher in town, making sure that each of his own 10 children also had a green carnation to wear.  My grandmother, Elese Hayes Monson, made sure that green carnations were delivered to all of her family members each St. Patrick's day, and my mother continues to order green carnations for us all each year.  Since my daughters have been at college, I send green carnations to each of them to be delivered on the 17th, and my aunt and uncles that live in Salt Lake make sure that green carnations are placed on my grandma's grave each St. Patrick's day.  But that is not the end of the traditions...oh no...in our family growing up, we had to be decked out from head to toe in green every March 17th. My mom made SURE of this, even making us new green Sunday dresses if St. Patrick's day ever fell on a Sunday.  On the 17th we listened to Irish music and "decked " out the house with shamrocks and other Irish decor. 

John Joseph, Henry Nephi, Elese, and my mother, Ann were/are all great poets, putting all kinds of things into rhyme

(from notes to the teacher: 

"The reason why Grant is so late
He had to mend the water gate.
And while he worked there-planing grooving
The clock hands all the time were moving.
And ere he had the work begun,
The janitor the school bell run.
He was engaged upon my "biz."
Excuse him..the fault was mine, not his."   

----Henry Nephi Hayes excuse note for his son Grant

to letters to children, to stories of wedding courtships)

-my mom, grandma, great grandpa, and great-great grandpa could (and did) put anything into verse.  So one of our other St. Patrick Day family traditions is to read the poem "St. Patrick and the Snake," written by John Joseph Hayes almost 200 years ago...it explains, in verse, why there are no snakes in Ireland.  (I didn't include it here because it is quite long.)

And when my grandma died, we (the grandkids) sang this song at her funeral, written by my mom's cousin (the daughter of Elese's sister) the first St. Patrick's day after HER mother died.  (She said she especially missed her mother on the first St. Patrick's day following her death, and thus sat down and composed this song...in verse...of course....) I can't include the music here (and it's much nicer with the melody attached), but the words are as follows:

"My Irish Mother"
By Sherry Carr Meeks

"Do they sing Irish songs in heaven on St. Patrick's Day?
Do they celebrate the wearing of the green?
And are the Irish eyes still smiling? Do they dance the Irish jig?
Is that Irish bit of heaven ever seen?

Is there the too-ra-loo-ra-loo-ra?
Is there a bit of blarney too?
And are the shamrocks growing everywhere
And lakes of shining blue?

Yes, they'll sing Irish songs in heaven this St. Patrick's Day.
Sure the angels will be wearing green somehow.
For sure a little bit of Ireland has gone back to heaven now. 
And the angels sing the Irish songs now.
For my mother's** gone to teach the angels how."

(** we used the word "grandma" here instead of "mother" at my grandma's funeral.)

So from a descendent of Irish heritage..."Top of the morning to you!"  or in other words, "Have a wonderful St. Patrick's Day!"

*  FYI:  Meaning of the phrase, "Top of the morning to you:" 
The phrase is Irish in origin but now very rarely used in Ireland (except as a sterotypical "Irishism"). It simply means "the best of the morning to you" - perhaps from the idea of unhomogenized milk, where the cream rises to the top. An appropriate response might be a simple "thank you" although the traditional response would be "And the rest of the day to yourself."

St. Patrick's Day 1974-It fell on a Sunday-note our green dresses.  My mom even made one for my "baby Chrissy" doll.  Does anyone remember these dolls from the 70's? -They were the size of real kids (note that "Chrissy" is the same size as my little sister, Jill.)  Chrissy was "way cool" cause she had hair that could "grow" via a hole on the top of her head.  Corinne and I both had these dolls and took them EVERYWHERE-even to church-Thus, Chrissy needed a St. Patrick's day dress as well.  Look closely and you'll see my mom's green carnation pinned to her collar.

Hardy kids Circa 1977.  Matching green shirts made by my mom.  David wasn't born yet, but was "on the way," and my mom had a green maternity top to match.  Dad also had a green shirt to match.  (See... Barlow kids, I'm not the ONLY mom who made her kids occasionally dress alike and take pictures ;) 
From top clockwise: Rex 6 1/2,  Bryce 9,  Clark 1 1/2,  Jill 3 1/2,  Kay 10

Things I Love

It's Valentine's Day, and I'm back....for a minute...don't expect frequent future posts....but in honor of this day of "love" here are some things I love:

 (Disclaimer:  This list is not all inclusive and items are not in any particular order.)

• The color pink
• Chocolate Chip cookies
• Chocolate Chip cookie dough
• Roses
• The smell of roses
• Naps
• The lake or poolside in the summer
• Fresh peach pie
• Chocolate
• Cuddly babies
• A clean house
• Finishing a long run
• Reading
• A meaningful conversation
• A sincere compliment (giving or receiving)
• Comfy and cute PJs
• Being warm on a cold night (Yep, the seat-warmer in the Lexus is AWESOME!)
• Watching my children do "stuff"  (Who knew that I would enjoy watching a livestock show; but when Dallin was showing animals, suddenly watching pigs parade around an arena became  a not-to-be-missed event at the fair......and.....I haven't watched a CC Fair livestock show since.)
• Kent's twinkly blue eyes and mischievous grin
• Visiting/Reminiscing with my siblings
• Looking through photo albums
• Reading old journals/histories
• Hot chocolate with whipped cream
• The smell of rain

And...well...I'm out of time....Going on a Valentine's Day Date! 

Drowning

Webster's definition of DROWN:  to die by being underwater too long and unable to breathe.

I haven't posted in a while.  And although I have a LOT of things I want to post, I don't see a post coming in the foreseeable future.  Figuratively speaking I am drowning.  So until I get a moment to come up for air, this blog will be the the victim of my inability to breathe.

Peter Pan and Growing Up

Not the best quality pic, but a screen shot of
of Disney's Peter Pan, taken of the TV while Luke
and I watched.

My 11-year-old, Luke, had to read Peter Pan by J.M. Barrie for his 6th grade English class.  I was really only semi-aware of this fact.  (Thankfully, Luke is a kid who just "takes care of business" as far as school work.)  Then one unusual weekend night, when only he and I were home.  He came into my bedroom where I was sitting in the recliner watching some mindless show on TV and messing with my phone and said he wanted to watch a movie.  "OK," I mumbled. 

Then he asked, "Where's Peter Pan?"  We own all the Disney movies, but seldom do my kids watch them on a regular basis anymore.  He then announced that he wanted to watch Peter Pan and compare it to the book.  He wisely stated, "The Disney version is a lot different from the book."  I found him the movie and went back to wasting time. 

He then asked, "Mom, can I watch it in your room?" 

I thought that was strange.  I said, "I think you'd enjoy it more downstairs on the big screen with the surround sound." (This was one of the FEW times when he would have no competition for the best TV in the house.) 

 

He then said, "Well, do you want to watch it WITH me?"  I still didn't take the hint.  But after he got it all "set up" (complete with pillows, blankets, and snacks) and again invited me, I realized that my big, tough, 11-year-old football-playing boy wanted to watch a movie (An animated Disney movie no-less) with his mother, so there I sat with him, while he shared his hot Cheetos and hot tamales (quite generous for someone who loves them as much as he does) and gave me a "play by play" on the differences between the book and the movie.  After the treats ran out, he snuggled up to me and began to play with my hair.  (When he was a baby he would play with my hair while he sucked his thumb.  The thumb-sucking is gone, but occasionally, he still fingers my hair.)  And I relished every minute of it.  Coincidentally,  (or maybe not) Peter Pan's whole goal is to "never grow up."  So there I sat next to my "baby," who is no longer a "baby", listening to Peter Pan say "I'll never grow up, never grow up, never grow up! Not me!” And wishing that my "baby" might never grow up  (or at least grow up MUCH slower than he is.)  But for those few moments (77 minutes to be exact) I got to enjoy the fantasy of Neverland where my baby will always be my baby....

and.....if you remember.....all Peter Pan really wanted after all was a mother.

 

I really hate that this is the SECOND time I am posting this unattractive picture of me on this blog, but it shows exactly how Luke loved to finger my hair while sucking his thumb.  (*And, disclaimer-I really DID read my kids good-quality literature-I actually HATE books like the one I'm reading here.  You know those books based on kids pop-culture.  But unfortunately we own some and the kids liked them, and of course that's what I happened to be reading when this pic was snapped.)