Borrowed

George Armstrong Custer

Chief Sitting Bull

(notice the butterfly pinned to his hat)

This week has been a productive week. I worked hard in the yard (repaired the porch and walking path), sewed a quilt top (Yellow Brick Road pattern), sewed the binding on two quilts, sanded and refinished a table (the one my Dad made as a microwave table 28 years ago and now D will be using as a bedside table), finished a book (The Last Standby Nathaniel Philbrick), did my daily exercise 6 days in a row, wrote in my journal, and read the scriptures.

Concerning the book The Last Stand, it was a bit of a challenge to read. There was a lot of historical background. But all of it was necessary to understand the situation. Philbrick does an even account from both sides. He presents Sitting Bull and Crazy Horse as individuals who were trying to save their way of life. He presents Custer with first-hand accounts; what a man he must have been! Full of ego and bravado, and just the type of man to lead a charge into dangerous territory. However, the battle scenario was a bit too graphic. I sort of felt the same way I did after reading Flags of Our Fathers by James Bradley --

too much information in some areas.

Haunting information.

But in circumstances of war, it is haunting. Hand to hand combat is not pretty.

I've also read Crazy Horse and Custer by Stephen Ambrose. I will re-read it to see of it parallels The Last Stand. I remember thinking at the time that the historical aspects of Little Bighorn are complex and not easily explained.

There is a little bit of hero and villain in both Custer and Sitting Bull.

Since I didn't have any photos of my own,

I borrowed some photos from

L's blog.

She borrowed some photos from someone else's

so I figured it would be okay.

When you see how cute the photos are,

you will understand why I wanted to borrow them.

Don't you agree these pictures are darling?

Happiness

Now isn't that happiness.

This is more happiness!

It was love at first sight.

L always talks about how sexy it is for her man to hold their baby. I will have to agree, except this time it is my man holding our new darling grandbaby.

We went to the cabin for a week. It was a very lovely week. On one of the days, Bob rode his bike from the cabin to Kamas and then back again (about 90+ miles) Wow! what a guy. The same day, I drove to 3 different states: Utah, Wyoming, and Idaho. Lin and I drove to Bear Lake to meet with one of her friends, and while she was visiting, I took the dogs on a little drive. I had heard Idaho wasn't too far away so we drove to the border to see what we could see. I was very proud of the three dogs. It was a lot of time in the car and they were very well behaved. Except for when Buster ate the leftover Twix bar.

We had some of Randy's co-workers over for dinner and I made lasagna with whole wheat pasta. It was pretty good. Yummo.

We have some furniture now: a real bed and a comfy couch. Yeah for furniture. Yeah for RC Willey and their determination to deliver. They couldn't quite find the place but didn't give up all day.

Not much in the way of reading; I'm still working on the book about Alexandria. I plan to read The Lacuna by Barbara Kingsolver again. Also I am going to do The Help by Kathryn Stockett for a book club in November so I will need to read it again. The next book on the list is The Botany of Desire: A Plant's-Eye View of the World by Michael Pollan. I've read it once before and I know I will enjoy it again.

"To read a book for the first time

is to make an acquaintance with a new friend;

to read it for a second time is to meet an old one."

Thanksgiving

"take upon you the name of Christ;

that ye humble yourselves even to the dust,

and worship God, in whatsoever place ye may be in,

in spirit and in truth;

and that ye live in thanksgiving daily,

for the many mercies and blessings

which he doth bestow upon you."

So grateful for the past 24 hours. Our whole family together in one spot. Our little spot of heaven here on earth. We took a quick trip up to the cabin to see L & R, and baby D. It was beautiful. We saw sand hill cranes, three different pair. They were majestic. We didn't get pictures so we will have to remember them in our minds. It was fun to see the men work together cutting down trees. R is a good teacher and both D and B learned a lot. While we were on our walkie with the dogs, L and I picked wild strawberries. Little ones, but very sweet. On our way home to the desert, we saw an incredible lightening storm. It was truly a day to see the handiwork of God.

". . . all things denote there is a God;

yea, even the earth,

and all things that are upon the face of it . . ."

The Difference . . .

We tried grooming our dog, Buster.

The clippers stopped working half way through the job

The new clippers worked but only have one setting.

What is the old saying?

The difference between a good haircut and a bad haircut is few days?

Something like that.

He seems a little embarrassed, but we really think he is enjoying not being so hot all the time!

Do you want to know what I could do all day? Here's a good example:

I am trying really hard to let L take care of the pics of baby D, but these two just took my breath away. The story behind the fiddle is too funny. The bass fiddle was Grandpa O's and we've had it for about 20 years. It is missing a string. I remember how hard Grandpa worked to refinish it and he would play for us once in a while. It is one of our family treasures. The photographer wanted to give it a try but we were worried baby D would fall off so L hid behind it and held him up. She folded herself up really small because you can't really even see her shadow. The blankets that he is wrapped in for both of the photos were crocheted by Grandma G. Again, family treasures. All of our grandparents have "gone the way of all the earth." We miss them, we remember them, and hope they are smiling down upon us. We look into the eyes of baby D and hope he met them before he came to Earth. Sometimes we don't want to think of the whole circle when it comes to the circle of life; we just like the beginning or the middle, but the ending becomes the beginning again. It seems like just yesterday that we took a six-day old baby up to the cabin and now she has her own baby. It is a joyful thing to see L & R as parents! They are so cute as a couple and I knew they would be great parents too! The circle keeps moving and it is our turn to be the grandparents. We are glad to have that responsibility and look forward to what the future will bring.

We went to Yosemite for a few days and rode around on the bike trails. Not only was the scenery so incredibly beautiful, it was a lot of fun to be out on the bike. After looking at the picture, I realized "wow, my legs are really white this summer!" We had a great time together and it brought back some fun memories from B's childhood. His family used to go camping a lot and Yosemite was one of their favorites. It is certainly a place of magic and awe.

New Book: Work Song by Ivan Doig.

It is a follow-up book to The Whistling Season and its main character is Morrie, the school teacher who is now a jack-of-all trades librarian. Again, Ivan Doig knows how to use language to convey feeling, action, history, and knowledge. I really liked it but then again I have enjoyed most of his books. I'm going to have to give Sea Runners another try. I'm also in the process of reading a book about Alexandria. What a place! I wouldn't have been considered a great thinker/scientist/philosopher but I would have loved to see the manuscripts in the great library and toured the great museum and stood at the top of lighthouse on Pharos. I liked reading about the legend of how the Septuagint (first Greek translation of Hebrew scripture) came to be.

Went up Webb Hill today x 3. It was hard but then again it really isn't ever very easy. My only goal at this point is to make it down on the third time without collapsing and so far so good. One of these days, I will move the goal up to actually keeping up with my walking partner.