Wisconsin

What a wonderful privilege I had to travel to Wisconsin and meet baby Jacob Kenneth and spend a week with the Mackrorys. It was a crazy, busy week as they were also preparing to move into their beautiful, new home. But it was so fun to be there and be part of it all. I gained tremendous respect for young mothers. I don't think I've worked that hard since I was one! All the cooking, cleaning, dishes, nose and bum wiping, reading, laundry, sweeping, shopping, errand running, bathing, cuddling, rocking, and loving can wear a person out! We did a lot of box packing, too. But I loved every minute of it and treasure the memories made. Thank you, Mackrorys for letting me come and be part of one of the most special weeks of your life!

Time to check out and go home!

Baby Jacob all ready to go home

The Last Supper

It didn't take long for Jacob to find his thumb

Jacob's first bath (he loved it!)

The kids shooting rockets in the back yard

Jared and the kids made us fortune cookies

Bedtime story

This is one of my favorite pictures:

I love this one, too:

We asked Nathan to build us a temple with his blocks (trying to keep him busy while we packed) I think he made a marvelous temple:

Those stickers remind me of one of the sweetest memories of the week: For FHE, Jared gave each of the kids a page of those stickers and told them to put stickers on the things they wanted to move to the new house. He then asked them what they could take with them when we move to our new house in heaven someday. He then put stickers on all of us and said we can only take our families and that's all that's really important. It was such a sweet lesson and I felt the spirit so strong. Little Nathan sat right in the chair by me the whole time. I especially loved hearing those little ones sing "I Lived in Heaven" with all their might. They had sung it at FHE just one week before while still anticipating Jacob's arrival.

Welcome to earth, Baby Jacob! We are so glad to have you here!

Hinton Sibling Reunion, 2010

I took the shuttle home from the airport, went home and repacked for the Hinton Sibling Reunion in Pine Valley. The rest of the family was at Tuachan's "Crazy For You." Ken picked me up after the show and we headed for the Dixie cabin in Pine Valley. We had a great time with all eight Hinton siblings and their spouses. Mark and Lorene were in charge this year. We had lots of fun game show competitions including:

Fear Factor

Wizard

Minute to Win It

Kathy was amazing at getting the oreo from her forehead to her mouth with no hands!

and Singing Bee. We watched a movie, visited, reminisced, attended the temple, and ate great food. I came down with a cold and had to leave early, so felt bad to miss the end. As Jim and Leslie have their papers in to serve a mission, we'll see what next year brings. Thank you everyone for a great time.

Jacob Kenneth is Here!

Jacob Kenneth Mackrory made his appearance last evening, Tuesday, October 5 at 9:53pm. He was a whopping 9 lbs. 8 oz. and 21'' long. It was just a two hour labor (easy for me to say "just") and Mom and baby are doing well. He is grandchild # 5 for us: three boys and two girls. He tips the scales, so to speak, in the Hinton family. Always the girls have outnumbered the boys until Caleb's birth in January, when he evened the tally. Now, the boys outnumber the girls. That is a big switch to our original family of three daughters. We love him already! I leave early in the morning to fly to Wisconsin to meet this precious, little boy and help the family. They are moving into their new home next week, so this is a time of great transition for the Mackrory family. We thank Heavenly Father for Jacob's safe arrival!

Do You Love Me as Much as My Mommy Does?

This is the question my sweet granddaughter Brielle asked me one evening when I was putting her to bed when we were tending her last summer. She was crying, missing her mommy. There were only two times when she got sad during the week we had her, and this was one of them. Ahh. How would you answer that question?

I did what most moms and grandmas do in those situations, I prayed mightily that I would say just the right thing, and said, “No one loves you as much as your mommy does. Except Heavenly Father. And He loves you way more than your mommy. But no one loves you as much as your mom and dad. But Grandmas and Grandpas are the very next. We love you second most.” I then ran and got the phone and we called Mommy. “Brielle is feeling a little bit sad.” Within minutes, Mommy had said just the right things and Brielle was across the room playing happily, comforted in her Mommy’s love.

2010 is a red-letter year for me. As of this year, all of my daughters are mothers themselves, and now they all understand just how much I love them. Before you are a mommy yourself, you just don’t get it. I love to talk to my daughters and read their blogs and feel and see that mother love coming from them. It gives me a tiny glimpse of what Heavenly Father must feel as he lets us be parents.

September

We had a busy and fun September. September is always one of my favorite months as it seems it's a time of new beginnings and renewal for me. Here are some of the highlights of the month:

1) Labor Day barbecue with Don, Ada, Melanie, Tiffani, Rick and Samuel (forgot to take pictures)

2) Restarted voice lessons after summer break

3) Restarted Keynote rehearsals after summer break

4) Ken went on two Saturday day hikes

Melanie and Ken

Steve and Melanie

5) Bottled peaches and made peach jam

6) Attended seminar in Vegas (Ken did, I tagged along)

I went to the Vegas temple while Ken was in classes.

7) Choir sang twice in church

8) Still don't have Choir Christmas program or Keynote Christmas program written though my "to do" list nags me to do it every day.

9) Cleaned out under bathroom sink after months of nagging from my "to do" list

10) Attended temple (several times), book club, high priest social, Tabernacle program, wedding reception, and watched BYU win once and lose 3 times (4 if you count Oct. 1st)

11) Gave away lots and lots of peaches to family and neighbors and still have one shelf full in the fridge.

12) Talked, emailed, and skyped with kids

13) 14 trips to the gym- well, the pool- for me

14) too many to count walks and bike rides for Ken

We're looking forward to a great October when we will welcome a new grandson and I'm sure I'll get those programs written!

The King of Torts

The King of Torts by John Grisham
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

There's nothing like a Grisham to grab your attention from the first page, and keep you turning them. This one is about Clay Carter, a young public defender in Washington DC who becomes the King of Torts and extremely wealthy in a very short period of time. I learned a lot about Tort law(I didn't even know what that was) and human nature. This book is a study of the power of greed and it's destructive force. Though not my favorite of Grisham's books (I didn't really connect with the main character,) it was an enjoyable read.

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I Capture the Castle

I Capture the Castle by Dodie Smith
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

I can't imagine why this book isn't wildly popular. My niece, Melanie found it on a list of books with great opening lines: "I write this, sitting in the kitchen sink." It is the journal of Cassandra, a seventeen- year-old girl in the 1930's, who lives with her destitute family in an ancient, dilapidated castle in England. Her relentless ambition is to "capture" the castle in which they live and her family members in her writing. As it turns out, she does a pretty good job of that, but mostly, she captures herself and allows the reader to know her intimately and watch her grow up in the course of her year-long journal writing. Though her circumstances are anything but delightful (she's hungry, cold, has a dysfunctional family), Cassandra is a delightful, funny, and believable child who we watch evolve into a woman.
This book is a lot more than just description and character analysis, though. It comes complete with adventure, romance, joy, sorrow, and even a "made-for-movies" chase scene.
And now, here I find myself trying to "capture" this book in writing this review (though I'm in a soft computer chair- not with my feet in a kitchen sink!) I see your struggle, Cassandra. This is hard! Okay, here's my attempt at "capturing" this book: It's "Jane Eyre" meets "Little Women" meets "Pride and Prejudice"(which, in all honesty, I haven't actually read, but I've seen both versions of the movie more than once. I know- I need to READ it!) meets "The Glass Castle." If you liked those books, you'll probably like this one.

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What We Did Today . . .

What I Need to do Next . . .

August

Since our last vacation, Ken's entered his audit busy season at work, and I've entered my music busy season at home. I lead the ward choir, a women's group called Keynotes, and I teach voice lessons. We take a summer break for choir and started back up on August 15th. Keynotes start next week. With both groups, I have to listen to, choose, study, order and prepare lots of music for the "season"- through Christmas. I started voice lessons this week. So, I had to ban myself from blogging to get that all done. Well, and we haven't done anything too exciting. We did go to the Shakespeare Festival twice. First, we saw "The 39 Steps," an Alfred Hitchcock spoof which was hilarious and so well done. Then, for our anniversary we ended the evening back there at the festival and saw the musical "Great Expectations." It was SO good. We spent that day in the mountains, and had dinner at our favorite place at the mouth of Cedar Canyon, Rusty's. The Coconut Shrimp there is worth the drive.

Last weekend, Pam and I traveled to Patty's to have a short sister retreat. Joan came from Boise. Patty prepared a nice lunch for us on Friday, then we went shopping in Salt Lake- my first IKEA experience. We had a delicious Thai dinner, then Red Mango which IS practically health food. On Saturday, we had a delightful ancestor tea party with all the girls in the family who could come. They all brought delicious goodies. It was so fun to see everyone. I love those girls- big and small. Us old sisters (sorry!) shared memories of Grandma and Grandma Gabrielsen after the tea party. . . lest we forget!

It was such a fun, little trip. As we left town on Saturday (I told you it was short,) Pam and I bought corn and tomatoes that have been SO good all week. We've had corn every night and I made Summer Tomatoes with those delicious tomatoes. I should post that recipe. Those are my favorite summer treat. We've enjoyed peaches from our own tree, and our second one is just coming on. Time to bottle!

While I was gone, Ken gathered a group for a day hike on his favorite Whipple Trail on Pine Valley Mountain. They had a great time. Ken's brother, Don went and our niece, Melanie along with friends from the ward, Kurtis and Steve . They had a great time and even found where one of the aforementioned carved their name in a tree up there years ago. We won't say who!

So there you have it, August in a nutshell or a peachskin or something.

Cedar Mountain

We stopped to look at this little cabin that was for sale. It was a no.

Grouse on our property on Cedar Mountain

We stopped at our mountain property to dream about having a cabin there. This would be our view!

At the Shakespeare Festival (though we didn't actually see any Shakespeare plays) That's us with Will.

Sisters at Patty's ( I know! Look at that lunch!)

Sister Thai Dinner

Red Mango

Tea Party!

Princess Lucy

Princess shoes

Patty, Pam, Kay, and Joan

The girl cousins

Their mommy's: Tricia, Sara, Kelly, Allison

Allison, Eleanor, Joan, Sara, and Zachy (he was the only boy there)

Precious Penny in the Envelope

I was doing some cleaning and straightening today and found the envelope Brielle and Nathan sent with a thank you note from Nathan for his birthday gifts and a cute note and picture from Brielle. We so enjoyed those pictures and notes when they came a month or so ago. I don't know why I even kept the envelope. It should have been thrown away. As I went to do so today, I felt something heavy and hard in there. Upon investigation I found a penny nestled down in the corner. I burst into tears. Something about knowing that Brielle or Nathan (I don't know which) was thinking of us and wanted to give us what they had to give really touched me. That little penny is worth far more than that to me. It's precious!

Tea Time For the Traditionally Built

Tea Time for the Traditionally Built by Alexander McCall Smith
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

Need a break from real life, but can't go on a vacation right now? Then do the next best thing and pick up "The No. 1 Ladies Detective Agency" (book 1 in the series) or which ever one is "next" for you. This one is #10 in the series. I think I've read eight of them. If you love action adventure thrillers, then these books are NOT for you. But if you love quiet, character-driven, subtly humorous books, then this delightful series set in Botswana, South Africa are the perfect "vacation" for you. Much like the Ramona Quimby series for children (I've said for years these are among my favorite books), or Jan Karon's Mitford series, these books are modern fiction about day to day life. Their focus is on their delightful characters (who before long become the reader's dear friends) and their day to day adventures, challenges, interactions, and dreams. Being "traditionally built" myself, I especially love the leading lady of the series, Mma Ramotswa. I can't wait to read #11. The television series based on these books, season one now available on DVD, is also wonderful. The casting is fabulous and the setting, authentic.

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