Wandering Woodwards

Coltwood Facelift

2011-12-04T13:39:00.000-08:00

We finally settled with Uncle Sam over some taxes so I promptly decided to spend it on a couple of long awaited house projects: downstairs painting and replacing carpet and tile a new laminate floor. My good husband probably would have preferred it in the bank, bless his heart. So here was the process, in order, I hope. Many thank to my wonderful friends who gave advise and put up with my moaning and groaning over paint color for several weeks. The one picture is not blurry, that is dust in the air. I am so glad it is over with and everything is clean again; I love the results. If you need the name of a good painter, give me a call; I was very pleased with their work.

Baby Blessing

2011-12-04T11:59:00.000-08:00

Finally! Pictures of Miss Kathryn Jean's baby blessing. It was a windy day; please ignore bad hair and blowing clothes. Many thanks to Mary's friend Celeste for the pictures.
Mary, Kathryn and the very talented dress maker Cheryl.

Stuart's oldest brother Cody, daughter Sarah with Kathryn

Cousins.

Happy Birthday!

2011-12-04T11:24:00.000-08:00

November is birthday month for all the animals in our house.
Rio, my still energetic walking partner, great watchdog and faithful companion turns 7 years old.
While my fluff ball kittens are now grown up cats. They are still pretty playful and very affectionate. Both of them are into everything, Gus especially - do not ask me how he got inside there.
I know understand the saying, "curiosity killed the cat". He had to "help" the dryer repairmen and I wasn't fast enough to grab my camera as they "checked the work" of the piano movers.
They lead a hard life! LOL!

Elder Woodward update

2011-11-20T16:22:00.001-08:00

Alex continues to love his mission; do you think we'll be able to get him to come home in a little over 6 months? Wow! Time is flying!
He is still in the Antelope area, which is a northern suburb of Sacramento. It is amusing to sometimes think that he is currently serving within 20 miles of the hospital where he was born and a 45 minute drive from where he lived until he was 15 years old. Hey, Vintage Park Ward friends, does that staircase look familiar? As I said before, one of his current buildings is a twin to the building we attended for years in South Sacramento.
As with most missionaries, he is doing lots of service for anyone - members, non-members, investigators, inactives, you name it. This is a part of one of his letters last month:
Saturday was a day of Service. We started at 9 in the morning by helping Sis. G put up a new back fence. It was really fun (at this point Elder Gardner (his companion has a hurt foot) had the boot so he couldnt do much other then sit in a chair and supervise, and I enjoyed working with some of the good fun Ward members to put it up. At first we didnt have a nail gun so we did the first dozen or so slats "Amish Style" (hammer and nails) as Bro. T. put it. I was working with Brother Chad B, the Sunday School President, and we were the main slat attaching team. I gave him his nails, dug out a trench for the boards to all fit even, and we talked and joked the whole time. After the first dozen though we got a nail gun. The funny thing is that it wouldn't shoot a nail everytime, sometimes it'd only shoot air. So Sis. G's fence has quite a few extra spots in it (they don't go all the way through) due to the compressed air gun being so strong lol. After we finished with that we headed over to Sis. A.'s because she was being evicted from her home. She was moving up North to Redding with her daughter and son-in-law. It was an interesting move because she lived ina trailer but had a lot of big heavy things in there. So when we first showed up I realized that we needed a heavy lifting squad (the Elder's Quorum all bailed!!! Bishop H. himself showed up, and us, but no other males from the Ward!!) so I called up Bro. Chad B. The call was kinda funny as it went "Hello?" "Hey Chad, what are you up to? Are you laying down yet?" "Hehehe, yeah, why? What's up?" "You ready for round 2?" "With what?" "Sis. A. has moved and everyone else in the quorum bailed and I need some extra muslce cuz there's not very much stuff but there's some big heavy stuff." Chad agreed and showed up 10 minutes later. It's really cool to see how willing Ward members are to help each other and us, even when called on a Saturday morning after having an already long and strenuous morning. I've decided I want to be a member like that in the future, when I get home.
(names edited and emphasis added). We were thrilled and very proud to hear of his resolve. There are so many reasons Missions are great, and this is one of them.
He recently enjoyed a "sweet" ride in a member's sports car on a P-day and above, a recent baptism.

A Sweet Moment

2011-11-20T15:45:00.000-08:00

I remembered I wanted to share a wonderful moment during our holiday in Orlando.
We decided to have breakfast together on our last morning so Roy and I took Scout, Isaak and Gracie in our car on our way to Cracker Barrel. I don't remember who started the impromptu little concert but the kids started to sing the hymn "Praise to the Man". They have all been learning this song for their Primary program this year and it was just so sweet to hear our three oldest grandchildren singing this beloved hymn about our prophet Joseph Smith.
Grandpa with our beloved singers the night before.

Orlando, again.

2011-11-06T19:26:00.000-08:00

I know, you're thinking; "wait a minute, wasn't she just there?!" Yes, I was. But this time Grandpa was with me and we had some important family business to attend to and important people to see.

We were excited to be there and privileged to participate in Blessing beautiful baby Kathryn on October 16th in Mary's Ward. What made it extra special was having Becky and her family with us; they were able to coincide their vacation trip to DisneyWorld to join us. Ok, so where are some pictures? Silly me forgot my camera and friends that took some have yet to send them to Mary. As soon as I get them, I will post some. A friend in Mary's Ward crocheted Kathryn an absolutely, amazingly beautiful Blessing gown; I cannot to show ya'll a picture.

Since we had all the grandkids together, I thought it would be a great time to take pictures of them together and with Mee-Maw and Grandpa. Six children: an 8, 5, 4, two 2 year olds and a newborn. Gulp. But Mary was lucky to find an amazing, very patient photographer that I would love to recommend if you are ever in Orlando: Lisa Lyon Photography. We were able to get some good ones, I think and on the whole, the kids were very good. Thank goodness for Mary's package of jellybeans in her purse; it was a

great bribe.

So we spent 5 days there; sometimes together and

sometimes doing our own thing. Very fun! Stuart took Roy fishing and caught the biggest fish! We took Roy to see Blue Springs State Park (Manatee winter home); poor guy still didn't find the

two birds he has been hoping to see

our last couple of trips there.

The kids really enjoyed the pools at our nice Marriott Resort.

The Fowkes's did DisneyWorld for three days; we joined them for a long but very fun day in the Magic Kingdom. Thank goodness for

strong stomach Mary on the Tea Cups! Brave Space Mountain riders (minus the baby and Ellie)

We are blessed with two wonderful son-in-laws that we dearly love but this was just not Gerald's photo trip......

Chattanooga Tennessee

2011-10-30T14:56:00.000-07:00

Roy came home and we drove northeast to visit with my sister Marilyn and brother-in-law John in Chattanooga and Roy wanted to do some fishing in Eastern Tennesee.

We had a fun day sight seeing at the Chickamauga Battlefield, which is actually in Georgia.

The battle was the most significant Union defeat in the Western Theatre of the Civil War and

involved the second highest number of casualties in the war following the Battle of Gettysburg.

We also rode the Lookout Mountain Incline Railway to the top of where? Lookout Mountain, of course! LOL! The railway is approximately one mile (1.6 km) in length (single track except for a short two-track stretch at the midway point, allowing operation of two cars at one time), and has a maximum grade of 72.7%. It is billed as the world's steepest passenger railway, a claim that can be disputed. No offense to the good people of Chattanooga or the Incline Railway but we can personally support that claim. We rode a similar small railroad in the Blue Mountains in South Wales, Australia, with the same claim. LOL!

Anyway!

They say on a super clear day, one can supposedly see seven nearby states from the top of Lookout Mt. Can you name them? I also believe The Battle of Lookout Mountain

was a Union victory during the Civil War.

Chattanooga is also home to the "Chattanooga Choo-Choo" from the song: "Pardon Me boys, is that the Chattanooga Choo-Choo"...... written in 1941 and performed by Glenn Miller and his orchestra.

Then unfortunately (at least for my sister's car), on our way back to our hotel, we were reminded that life is never to be taken for granted, family is precious and cars can be replaced. In crossing an intersection during rush hour, we were hit on the right side of our car by an on coming car. The Good Lord was watching us for us though and

all involved walked away from it with barely a bruise. After calming down, getting the car towed, police report taken then getting a taxi back to our hotel, we were able to enjoy some great BBQ at Sticky Fingers; the best BBQ I've had outside of our favorite BBQ place right down the street here in Texas.

Roy went fishing the next day on the Hiawasee River, as previously mentioned, and had a good time although as usual, the Woodward curse had followed us. But as they say, any day fishing is better than, well, almost anything.

The next day we headed for Orlando Florida and our family get together there.

Oh, the 7 states you can supposedly see from Lookout Mountain, which is also in Georgia: Tennessee, Alabama, Mississippi, South Carolina, North Carolina, Kentucky and Virginia.

Book Recommendations

2011-10-30T14:21:00.000-07:00

To my fellow Bibliophiles:
During my recent "take it easy" time I read not one but TWO great books and would like to recommend them with two big thumbs up!

Both books are fiction but author Lisa Genova, who hold a PhD in neuroscience from Harvard University did extensive research in Alzheimer's Disease and severe brain trauma to write both books.

'Still Alice' was a little scary to read as Alice and I are close in age but also wonderfully thought provoking.

I enjoyed 'Left Neglected' just a little better. It was very interesting to watch Sarah adjust to her new life and come to a peace with her slower but more fulfilling life. At least in my opinion.

I enjoy books where I learn something intellectually but also make me ponder and evaluate.

Beautiful #6

2011-10-09T13:51:00.000-07:00

Introducing our newest grandchild and fourth granddaughter, beautiful Kathryn Jean Pitre; born 15 September 2011, 7 lbs 13 ounces. She definitely looks like a Pitre and there is still much discussion about whether we are going to call her Kathryn or Katy on a daily basis.
She gave us all a little scare as she inhaled some meconium when she was born via C-section so had to be transferred to the Newborn Intensive Care Unit. Thankfully she was able to come home after 4 days to her anxious mother, father, and big sister Gracie, who said - "my little sister needs me"! Big brother Zach seems to like her and isn't too jealous. Both are good helpers to grab frequently needed diapers and wipes.
I went to Florida to help Mom and baby for a few days on Sept 23rd. We mostly stayed home and enjoyed a couple of entire days in our PJ's. We did venture out one warm day to go to a small lake beach near Disney.
Gracie and Zach enjoyed playing games on my IPad.
Good ol Max.

We did have some excitement one night when this pesky raccoon returned to raid Max's dog food container on the patio table. I chased him off three times before finally surrendering and bringing the food and Milkbones inside.

What? Not again!!!

2011-10-09T13:11:00.001-07:00

After helping Mary and the kids get home to Orlando, I came home and promptly came down with bronchitis. Again. For the third time this year. Not fun.
So on the advice of almost everyone I know, I took my new super duper antibiotics and tried to take it easy. It's not exactly in my nature to lay around so this was a real challenge.My sister-in-law once said years ago, "you Sindel's (my maiden name) don't know how to relax" and I now realize she is right. So I reread some favorite books, watched a few movies, and slept late. Many thanks to our wonderful nearby friends who kept tabs on me. Thankfully it all seemed to work and by the 23rd of September I was feeling great.

Correction

2011-09-04T18:30:00.000-07:00

Roy tells me that is a SUNRISE.
which he sees a lot of as he has to catch the boat for the island at 5:30am.

HOT August in Houston

2011-09-04T11:27:00.000-07:00

To keep myself busy after Roy left, I made our soon-to-be granddaughter a baby quilt. I decided to step outside my comfort zone and try something new rather than my usual all flannel quilt. The center rectangles are super soft minke and the borders flannel. Hopefully she will like it.
Mary and the kids came for a visit the first two weeks in August. As the song said - we did a few of our favorite things:
The Zoo and the Children's Museum.

Zach and Gracie enjoyed getting to know my kittens again. I cannot say the same for the kittens. Between the kids wanting to love them and Mary"s big mastiff Max, they took to hiding out on top of the refrigerator or the kitchen cupboards.
Houston has had record heat this summer and I think it was over 100* every single day this month. If there can be a plus side to this wicked heat, it would be that it has burned off most of the humidity, which is usually horrible this month.
All of Texas is suffering from a horrible drought in fact. You know things are getting desperate when everyone is praying for a hurricane or tropical storm to come our way.

Roy sent this beautiful sunset pictures from Auz.

Elder Woodward update

2011-07-24T18:09:00.001-07:00

Alex was transferred South last week to the northern edge of Sacramento. He is excited to attend Church in the twin of our big building of his youth in South Sacramento, and to be 10 minutes from the Mission office. He enjoyed his first interview with his new Mission President, John G. Weston.

He continues to sound great and happy with his service.

When he rides his bike like this then I'm not surprised when he crashes and looks like this --- LOL!

Love you Favorite Son!

Roy in Houston

2011-07-24T16:52:00.000-07:00

Roy spent a sometimes busy and sometimes not, week back home after our holiday in Virginia. Doctor and dentist appointments. He ate Mexican every chance he could. (you know you're craving when Taco Bell sound good). Dinner with friends. Taught a lesson at Church. Backed up both computers. Did a massive yard clean up with some hired help. Took several long naps. Watched lots of baseball on TV. Made friends with my cats. Got beaten in cribbage and Sequence by his gleeful wife. (I don't win very often so I am pretty happy when I do! tee-hee). Went to the movies to see the last "Harry Potter" and "Buck" and enjoyed both; especially Buck, which is a documentary about the real "Horse Whisperer". Played his beloved piano several times. Walked the dog with me a few times. Drove the car and managed to stay on the right side of the road. He didn't even turn on the wind shield wipers when he wanted to make a turn! Attended a session at our beautiful Temple with me. Went through an organized pile of mail on his desk. Enjoyed a home cooked meatloaf dinner and several meatloaf sandwiches. Re-organized our garage. Ran errands with me. Got a haircut at his favorite barber. Helped me stock up our pantry. Enjoyed eating too much at our favorite Texas BBQ. Regrets missing some live country music at our favorite cafe in Old Town Spring. Had his return flight to Auz cancelled right in front of him when he checked in at the airport. We didn't complain about an extra day together.

Probably his (or our) biggest project was to update our 72 hr. kits. I'm embarrassed to tell you how long it has been since we last did this. 5 years? Also video taped our house. I don't want to say this out loud (whispering) but I think we are ready for hurricane season.

Do you want to appreciate your husband more? Send him away for several weeks at a time! Thank you My Love for all our hard work here at home during your "break".

Family Reunion

2011-07-17T12:59:00.000-07:00

--let me apologize again for messed up pictures --
We rendezvoused in Northern Virginia for a family reunion the last week in June and had an absolutely GREAT time!

We missed Alex but are confident he is exactly where he should be and doing what the Lord would have him do at this time in his life.

We enjoyed a day at a local small water park, a day in Washington DC, lunch at Chuck E. Cheese,

swimming at our motel pool, attending Scout's swim meet, and Roy finally got to visit the Antietam National Battlefield in Maryland (it has been on his Bucket list for years). And yes, the Woodward travel curse (rain) caught up with us as we walked down to see Burnside Bridge.

On July 4th Roy and I were lucky to see the Show and Fireworks on the Mall seated on the steps of the US Capitol - a HUGH thank you to Chris and Jen Dean for sharing their great seats with us! :)

Happy cousins and ice cream; life doesn't get much better than this!

The #1 reason we all happily gathered together was to attend a special baptism on July 1st; it was truly a wonderful evening. Roy played the piano, Mary conducted the music, both Grandpa's spoke, Grandma's said prayers and Gerald baptized his daughter, Lucy Abigail Fowkes, aka Scout, our oldest grandchild.

I Survived!

2011-07-17T12:04:00.000-07:00

"Survivor" was the theme for our 2011 Stake Girls Camp at BSA Camp Bovay and I'm proud to say I again survived another year even with record breaking heat - 105* every day! - and less than great food; something that looked like a corn dog one morning for breakfast? really?!

I tagged along with the First years and organized the heart pillow (for the Breast Cancer surgery unit at a local hospital) sewing/stuffing free time activity. (the girls stuffed and sewed closed 60 pillows! well done!)

A special thanks to:

our wonderful Bishop for his delivery of some "medicinal" beverages and Dove Dark Chocolate; what a great guy!

Karen, my partner in crime. Did I say crime? my lips are sealed.

and Lissette for helping me load the trailer :)

Deb at home in May

2011-05-29T20:04:00.000-07:00

Now you may be wondering what Deb has been up to back in Houston..... Enjoying being home! Adjusting to a too-hot-too-soon summer temps. Yuck!! Playing catch-up. Missing Roy.

Sewing. Which makes Deb a happy girl!

The kittens are getting big! They are recovering from neutering and declaw surgery. Sometimes they are worse than toddlers! into everything. Came downstairs last week and found Gus on top of my kitchen cabinets! Didn't know cats could sit up, did you?

I recently hosted a party for my Beehive class and I did promised them I wouldn't post these on Facebook but I didn't mention my blog....... Ok, no names. This was a fun game we played with some flour. As you can see, they are a wonderful, fun group of young women.

Australia update

2011-05-29T15:57:00.000-07:00

Roy continues to work in Gladstone for now; loves being on a construction site, dreads the meetings and is constantly updating reports on the computer. The plus side is being able to get outside several times a day and see what might be new on the site. Roy with his new assistant Rob Ferguson in the project 'uniform"

There was big excitement last week when the Australian Prime Minister, Julia Gillard came to visit the project site.

You never know what might show up on his desk. This is baby lokikeet he babysat one day until it could be taken to the mainland to wildlife hospital. He said it was incredibly noisy when it was hungry! Quite a change from baby to beautiful adult!

This is a sugar glider before release to safe area away from the construction and machinery.

Elder Woodward update

2011-05-29T14:04:00.000-07:00

Alex was transferred north to Redding California near the end of March, just before his birthday. A member in Gridley was super nice to bake him a birthday cake and catch a ride for it to Redding for him. He was pretty jazzed with that as well as the brisket we shipped him from our favorite BBQ place here in TX.

He is now in a bike area and learning about hills, biking in rain or hot sun and crashes. He loves his new area, is a happy Junior Companion to Elder McGinnis. He lost his first companion in the area, Elder Clarke to an ankle injury. He broke his thumb on a P-day but assures me it is Ok.

This is one of their baptisms and I'm sorry to say, I don't know who this is.

The missionaries bid a sad farewell to President and Sister Pendleton this month as a new Mission President is coming next

month - President Westin, I believe.

We cannot believe he passed his one year mark (or Hump Day) the first of May. wow! time is flying!

Now I ask you, why would you really put a big guy on the top bunk?

Some thoughts on Australia

2011-05-29T11:27:00.000-07:00

First, let me say that I love Australia; it will always have a special place in my heart and I do not mean to offend.

That said, I thought it might be interesting to mention a few things that are done a bit differently Down Under.

Take Road signs:

I can see the above sign, near an airport for new arrivals, but miles into our drive on the Great Ocean Road? Kind of late for a reminder, don't ya think?

The yellow sign made me smile - just incase you might forget that you are in the country with 9 out of the 11 most poisonous snakes in the world!

This is called a 'hook turn' and is done in Melbourne. Since there are no right turn lanes (remember you are driving on left side of the road) due to the tram tracks, this is what you must do to make a right turn. Drivers pull over to temporarily park perpendicular to stopped traffic - as in right in front of them - then when the light turns green, you very quickly make your right turns before the oncoming traffic runs you over! no joke. It was amazing to see and since everyone does it (or very courageous drivers in my humble opinion! or maybe very desperate ones!) I didn't hear any angry horn honking to say "get the heck out of my way" ya Grub!

Have I mentioned my new word? Saw a fight started during a rugby game on TV over one player calling another "a grub". I love it!

City and town names: I challenge you to pronounce these: and I'm not kidding, these are real towns that we drove through or near.

Jindabyne, Wangaratta, Porepunkah, Koo-Wee-Rup, Murrumbidgee, and Errinundra.

and we think our gasoline is expensive? Gas is sold by the liter and was running between AU$1.33 - 1.49 while we were there. That is almost US$6.00 a gallon my friends!!!

Miscellaneous:

Yards are called 'gardens'.

On the whole, they are very family oriented.

On a two lane highway, which most rural roads are, pulling a caravan (travel trailer) they can be VERY stubborn about pulling over to let stacked up traffic pass. There is also very little roadside 'rubbish' (garbage or trash); the US could take a big lesson in that.

They still love their morning or afternoon tea break with a tasty snack or sweet (or sometimes called 'smoke-O').

We discovered that almost every town has a wonderful Information Center which has numerous maps and brochures and friendly employees ready to tell you what is interesting to see in the vicinity. All free :) As travelers, we appreciated the abundance of clean public toilets.

We were a little unlucky with this trip in that the Aussie dollar was very strong which made everything a little more expensive for those of us with US dollars. One US$1.00 = AU$1.08

In case you're wondering if Australia should be on your 'Bucket List', let me say, very strongly, YES! Remember it is as big as the USA but if you can only make it to Sydney - preferably on New Years Eve to see the spectacular fireworks in their beautiful harbor - it would be well worth the long air flight. We have yet to see Cairns or snorkel on the Great Barrier Reef so I can't recommend that. Yet.

more April in Australia

2011-05-15T14:59:00.000-07:00

Week two:

I should mention, we finally saw some kangaroos our last night in Bright at dusk. Several grey kangaroos including one big fellow; the biggest we've ever seen!

After crossing the Snowy Mountains, we enjoyed a few days in the resort town of Jindabyne, which is near the ski resort of Thredbo. Can you believe they ski in Australia? I don't know about you, but when I use to think of the land Down Under, I thought of beaches, The Great Barrier Reef and the dry Outback, not snow skiing. Well, there might only be a hand full of ski-able mountains but the Aussies love it.

We took the ski lift at Thredbo to the top of a mountain to hike near the the highest mountain in Australia: Mt. Kosciuszdo 2,228 km (7,310 ft). We had out run the "curse" and it was a beautiful warm, sunny day.

Since neither one of us are skiers, we had never ridden a ski lift before so that was a first and very fun :) I find it a little amusing, with the Aboriginal names all over the country, that the highest mountain in Australia was named by a Polish explorer, Count Strzelecki after a grave of Polish officer back home in Krakow. Now here is something you don't see coming down a hiking trail everyday..... LOL! Yes, that is a bagpiper!

Roy had another good day fishing near Jindabyne while I finally found an Internet cafe with free WiFi. Letme tell ya, they were few and very far between over there; we are very spoiled here in the US.

Unbeknown to me, Roy thought it would be fun for long time horse-loving me to also ride in the Snowy Mts. so he booked

me a morning ride. It's been 30+years since I have been on a horse but Bella and I got along ok. Actually I did very little steering; she knew her job and I let her do it. It was wonderful to just sit

back and look at the beautiful eucalyptus forest.

Needless to say, I paid the price and was very sore for several days afterwards, but it was worth it:) We sadly bid the mountains good-bye and headed north to see some of the Australian capitol city of Canberra in the Australian Capital Territory.

This is the 'new' Parliament House opened in 1988 costing a cool $A1.1 billion. We wandered around inside for an hour and it is beautiful with lots of native woodwork and a stunning wall length tapestry. Like our Capital, it has a House of Representatives wing and a Senate wing, each with it's own color.

We continued north to Orange,

Cowra, and Armidale. We stopped to see the beautiful Dangar Falls and met a few friends along the way. I think the dark one is a Bearded Dragon, and the other is a Water dragon.

We also saw our first poisonous snake - a red bellied black snake. I feel bad, but thankfully it was dead on the road. Isn't this a beautiful little chapel we found out in the country?

It was great to arrive back in Brisbane and see the Storey bridge. We were lucky to see a replica of The Endeavor (Cook's ship) that is currently touring Australia as it entered the Brisbane River. On Sunday we enjoyed seeing many dear friends at our beloved Chermside Ward as well as our wonderful former neighbors, Juelle and Ken. Thank you for an absolutely delightful lunch.

It was a beautiful Easter Sunday and reminded me what a great gift Jesus Christ gave us with his death and resurrection. Because of him, we will be able to have many happy reunions just like this one.

Monday was Anzac Day (like our Veterans Day); a day to

commemorate when the armies from Australian and New Zealand fought together in the Great War. We got really lucky and were able to grab some standing space with a great view to see the Brisbane parade. Since every veteran or active military can march, it is a very long parade. There were also several school bands and many other groups (i.e. Scouts) marching but our favorite was the Brisbane Taxi Drivers Brass Band

with their black shirts and orange tires.

It was hard to part with Roy at the airport as he flew back to Gladstone and I to cross the Pacific. It was such a great trip from start to finish; Roy had planned our itinerary so well. Thank you My Love, it was a fantastic anniversary present; our 35th.

Many, many thanks to my sister and favorite brother-in-law, Marilyn and John, who kept Rio while I was gone. Also a thank you to my young neighbors and friends, Brittani and Ciara who daily looked after the kittens here at home.

I flew into Nashville just behind those killer tornadoes; it was a bit bumpy the last several minutes and we applauded the pilot when we landed, albeit with a hard bump.

I give a heart felt thanks to my Heavenly Father for another safe flight (s) (I hate flying over water!), 1600 miles driven in safety here in the US and 3939 km (2400 miles) in Auz.

April in Australia

2011-05-15T11:52:00.000-07:00

Roy got a 2 week holiday from work so I flew over and we happily continued our Australian exploration.

Week One:

We began our adventure in the Southeast State of Victoria, beginning in Melbourne where I flew into after a 15 hour flight from Los Angeles.
Many, many Thanks to Adele Begovich and son Paul, who was a wonderful hostess and tour guide. (unfortunately Dave had to stay in Gladstone and work). They have a beautiful home in the small town of Healesville; an hour and a half northeast of Melbourne.

Our first stop was to head South to Phillip Island to see the nightly emergence of the 'Little Penguins' from the ocean to waddle ashore to find their nests up in the low brush. They are the smallest species of penguins - only about 13' tall. Unfortunately the Woodward curse is alive and well Down Under so we got a little wet

waiting for twilight when the little guys come ashore. It was well worth the wait; they are so darn cute! Roy was excited to add his first penguin to his Aussie bird list :) No flash photos were allowed, so thank Wikipedia for the above picture.

Another day Adele drove us an hour to visit the town of Marysville; which was very humbling. 45 people died there when the Murrindindi brushfire in Feb 2009 came too fast and there was no way to get out. 90% of the town's building were destroyed. The town is slowly rebuilding; we especially enjoyed Bruno's restored Art & Sculpture garden there.

We toured the beautiful city of Melbourne which, by the way, the Aussies pronounce "Mel-bun".

Birdwatcher Roy was thrilled to see the second species of Lyrebird found in Australia. We had been hiking around a National Forest, actually quite close to Adele's house, hoping to see it; had almost given up and were walking back to the car and what comes walking down the

road towards us? Not one, but two, very noisy beautiful Lyrebirds! We were so amazed and awed with their little show that I forgot to take a picture! darn it!! (thank you again Wikipedia)

We bid farewell to Adele and headed West to drive The Great Ocean Road along the South

eastern coast. Built by soldiers returning from the Great War (World War I), it is 243 km (151 miles) long and probably most noted for the limestone "stacks"formations called The Twelve Apostles.

We were thrilled to see some wild koalas near the scenic Cape Otway LightStation.

We turned northeast and enjoyed a day in Ballarat learning about the

Australian Gold Rush beginning in 1851.

They found some amazingly large gold nuggets in the state of Victoria!

We spent 3 delightful days in the small village of Bright on the edge of beautiful Snowy Mountains. Now remember, I had left Houston in Springtime and crossed the equator to find Fall in Australia.

We were very surprised to find so many

deciduous trees in Victoria; sometimes we had to remind ourselves we weren't in New England. Roy enjoyed a day of fishing.

Driving through the Snowy Mountains was absolutely fantastic! (as in the movie - The Man from Snowy River) and look what we found? There is some controversy if the poem written by "Banjo"

Patterson, was based on Jack Riley or a compilation of several local bush riders. Fun to see nevertheless.

Look was we saw crossing the road? It's a wombat! isn't he fantastic? Wombats are marsupials herbivores that dig extensive burrows. Have I mentioned we haven't seen a kangaroo yet? Contrary to popular belief, they are not as easily seen as we non-Australians might think.

March 2011 - part two

2011-03-31T19:11:00.000-07:00

From Florida it was on to a week in chillier Northern Virginia with Becky, Gerald, Scout, Isaak, and Ellie. It was fun to supervise Scout doing some homeschool, hear Isaak practice violin as he started lessons in January, watch swim lessons and I so enjoyed reading aloud at bedtime to Scout and Isaak. (Super Fudge by Judy Blume) Ellie is almost 2 and it was cute to hear her answer most questions with "sure". She and I also read many books together; why her favorite book seemed to be about a baby pig growing up is still a mystery.

We enjoyed a great day in Baltimore at the National Aquarium; especially the dolphin show and the special exhibit on Australia!

My "adventure" for this trip was a fun day/aka "field trip" with Scout as I was determined to try again to see the Library of Congress. So away we went on the bus and Metro into

"the District" and three cheers, we made it!

What an incredibly beautiful building, not to mention all

the books, maps and other treasures there. To me, it is the crown jewel of DC or at least a very close second to the Smithsonian museums.

I was also able to give Scout a sewing

lesson and she and I together made pillowcases for all 3 kids. She was a good student and even though Becky's sewing

machine was a little grouchy, she did a great job. It was a good team effort with Isaak cutting threads.

I came home, developed bronchitis and spent the next 2 weeks recovering with the kittens who are now half grown cats and acting like teenagers. I am quite proud of myself for finally figuring out how to download an Ebook from our library to my Ipad, which I read during said recovery.

So I pass along a good book recommendation: Hotel on the Corner of Bitter and Sweet by Jamie Ford. Excellent book!

March 2011 - part one

2011-03-31T18:10:00.000-07:00

I was able to spend the first week this of this month in Florida visiting Mary, Stuart, Gracie and Zach; I don't need to tell ya, I had a great time! New pillowcases for them too!

I watched Gracie's dance class, attend the beautiful Orlando Temple with Mary and just hung out. Unfortunately our trip to the strawberry festival was rained out so we went to the movies: Gnomeo and Juliet - very cute. The highlight of my trip was being there to celebrate

Gracie's 4th and Zachary's 2nd birthdays!

Of course you can't visit

Orlando and not do something Disney so this time we

went to the Wild Animal Kingdom, which I've never been too. Thank you Emily, a Disney employee friend of Mary's, for checking me in! :) I still cannot believe I rode the Everest Expedition roller coaster with Mary; how she talked me into it is still a mystery to me.In all truthfulness, I think it was my idea; maybe just to prove to myself that although I may be over 50, I still have a bit "wild and crazy" left in me! LOL!!! The up and down wasn't too bad, it was the backwards in the dark that got to me, I think. Never again.

Ok, I had a picture but I've loaded it several times and just can't get it where I want it, so you will have to trust me that I truly did it!!!

On my last day we took a day trip to Blue Springs State Park to see where some manatee's spend their winter in a natural warm springs creek there. The water was so unbelievably clear; we were able see several kinds of fish and even a manatee that apparently prefers to hang around rather than migrate into the nearby St. John's River. It was great to see one in the wild, even at a distance! They are huge!

A quiet February, family update and some Southern humor

2011-03-18T12:50:00.000-07:00

I was recovering from some minor surgery in January so spent a quiet month here at home being crafty and enjoying my kittens, who are growing like weeds!

I finished my 2010 cross stitch
Christmas ornament.

I also made 2 more stars for my Moon Glow quilt. 5 done and 8 more to go.

Elder Woodward continues to serve in the Gridley Zone and Stake; he was made a District Leader this month; which means he supervises 5 other missionaries in his area. You can check out the mission blog at: http://californiarosevillemission.blogspot.com for occasional pics of Alex. On the right under Transfer board, you can see a small picture of his companion, Elder Grover.

Roy continues to work in Gladstone right now. Here is the view from his patio where he is staying, so you can have a glimpse of the town. The large cranes in the background are part of the huge deep water port. He reports it continues to be very hot and very humid as summer winds down.

To close, an attempt at humor.....

Yes, Texas is in the South, but as far I know, they consider themselves "Texans" rather than Southerners. Recently a friend sent me a funny email about Southern women and Southerners, and as I have learned, many of them also apply to Texans, I will include a few.

Southern women know their summer weather report:

Humidity

Humidity and

more Humidity

Southern women know the movies that speak to their hearts:

Fried Green Tomatoes

Driving Miss Daisy

Steel Magnolias

Gone With the Wind (except for me; cannot watch that movie - I loathe Scarlett!!! )

Southern women know their elegant gentlemen:

Men in uniform

Men in tuxedos

Rhett Butler (now I like him! )

Only Southerners make friends while standing in lines,...... and when we're "in line," ..... we talk to everyone!

In the South, y'all is singular, all y'all is plural. (and everyone uses this term, lettme tell you!)

Only a Southerner knows instinctively that the best gesture of solace for a neighbor who's got trouble is a plate of hot fried chicken and a big bowl of cold potato salad.

If the neighbor's trouble is a real crisis, they also know to add a large banana puddin'! (what is it with the South and banana pudding?!! )

No true Southerner would ever assume that the car with the flashing turn signal is actually going to make a turn.

And a true Southerner knows you don't scream obscenities at little old ladies who drive 30 mph on the freeway.

You just say, "Bless her heart"..... and go your way.

Safe and sound at home in January

2011-02-01T17:19:00.000-08:00

Nothing too exciting to write about, just normal, maybe boring to some, life here at home in Houston. Yes, I am home!

Roy is back in Gladstone Australia; looks like he will be jumping across the Pacific for awhile working with the office here, and the clients and Queensland government there as Bechtel gets very close to the start of construction on this huge Liquid Natural Gas Plant. Good thing he can sleep on airplanes! He has been safe from all the flooding and recently the forecasted cyclone fizzled out before reaching Gladstone.

To keep life exciting during these winter doldrums, I got two new kittens. Oh yes, Rio is very jealous and will barely look at me; well except at dinnertime. LOL! Hopefully he'll soon come to the conclusion I still love him too.

I named the little gray and white one - Woodrow F. Call; the orange one - Augustus McCrae. I wanted some good Texan names and these are the two main characters from one of my top 10 favorite books - Lonesome Dove. If you haven't read it, repent and do it asap! The TV mini-series is almost as good. anyway the kittens are about 9 weeks old males. They're fun and I had forgotten how they

get into everything or why in the world they have to decide to play tag on the bed at 1 am!

Gracie is confused by the name Call

and thinks since I have a Gus, I should also have a Jack, like the mice in Cinderella. She is so cute!

I started sewing on my Moon Glow quilt agian today and have 5 more of these to

make and 6 more of a slightly different color variation, plus 11 additional stars. A great way to spend these cold winter days.

Well, time for another normal every day happening: Rio's nighttime walk before bedtime. Tonight's walk will be a very short one as it is super cold outside, very un-Texan like. I just checked the current temperature online at The Weather Channel; it "feels like" (with wind chill) an unbelievably 14*!!! Yikes! This winter has been very strange, like a child playing with the temperature dial - too warm and then too cold. Tonight I am doubly thankful for my warm house and comfy bed to crawl into. Ya'll keep warm and safe!

Happy New Year 2011

2011-01-11T17:57:00.001-08:00

I knew I would forget something!

We are not big party attendees but Roy surprised us with tickets for the Houston Sportz Comedy Club on New Year's Eve, so away we went! waaaa-whooooo! It was very fun and funny evening!

and that is sparkling apple juice folks.

January 2011

2011-01-11T15:36:00.000-08:00

We took a crazy pill and sprinted to Florida on New Year's Day; yes, yes, I know, more traveling! The absolute crazy part is that we returned home 5 days later!

So what to do in Orlando? dah! We went to DisneyWorld! (thank you Stuart for the free employee check-in - he moonlights there occasionally). This picture of Stitch and I is for Alex - he loves him, don't ask me why!

Miss Gracie-Princess Kitty.

Pitre's on the Teacups - not motion sickness me!

Grandpa loves pillow fights!

Meanwhile Roy was desperate to find some new Florida birds - imagine bird watching in the Magic Kingdom?! He was able to find 4 new birds on the trip though; happy guy!

Merry Christmas ya'll!

2011-01-11T13:57:00.000-08:00

Now, I ask you, where but in Texas can you find armadillo (or "armidillAs, if ya'll want to talk like a Texan) Christmas decorations!

This is a a little wall hanging I've had in my project stash and was finally able to make and finish this year! :) The little figures are buttons.

Roy arrived home from Australia on the 23rd; Mary, Stuart and the kids came on the 24th

New Christmas Eve pajamas.

Christmas morning......

some assembly required.....

Max did not appreciate our lack of couch so he resorted to sleeping my my LoveSac.

Roy took the Pitre's to our local arboretum and took some nice family pictures.

In case any of you are wondering about our annual Christmas letter, it's coming as a Happy New Year's letter, we promise.

Elder Woodward update

2011-01-11T13:08:00.000-08:00

Alex was transfered in November from Auburn and is now serving in Gridley, California. Gridley is down the hill into the edge of the Northern Central Valley, north of Sacramento, west of Auburn and south of Chico.

This is Sister Rosie, he and Elder Adams recently taught and baptized.

Yes, they might not genuine Tim Tams but he was thrilled to find them. We all fell in love with these biscuits (cookies) in Australia.

We are super proud of Alex for continuing to lose weight - other than a few Tim Tams - can you believe he asks me NOT to send him sweets in his care packages?

The top picture is of the beautiful Sacramento Temple; I'm not sure when he was able to attend but I love the picture.

Thanksgiving

2011-01-11T10:58:00.000-08:00

I know that many of you think that we don't stay home much. Well, just for the record, I've been home since the first of September. Now I can't say that for Roy, since he left in late October to do some work back in Gladstone, Australia. Thankfully, he got home just in time for Christmas. :)

Rio and I had visitors for Thanksgiving which was very fun. My sister Judy came from LA and then John and Marilyn came South

from Tennessee. Judy helped me finished a

super hard jigsaw puzzle I had thought I could do myself - HA!

Everyone helped cook a wonderful Thanksgiving dinner. We invited the missionaries and two Aussie friends that are temporarily working here in Houston: Hans and Dave. Always knew that big dining room table would come in handy, other than to do puzzles on! LOL!!!

The week after Thanksgiving,

John, bless his handyman heart, tackled my "to fix" list. We got a sensor lights over the garage, new deadbolts, an Instant Hot Water gizmo for my sink, to name a few. It was great! A huge Thank You again, John!

Virginia

2010-11-08T19:55:00.000-08:00

We made a quick trip last month to see Becky and Gerald but more importantly to visit Scout, Isaak and Ellie. We had a great time! The weather was perfect; we enjoyed seeing some real Fall color and other than a flat tire on our rental car the first morning, it was a perfect long weekend visit.
We enjoyed a fun day at the Pumpkin Patch;
found some pumpkins, and made some new friends.
We made a day trip to Harper's Ferry in West Virginia where John Brown raided the Federal Arsenal in 1859. He made a stand in what is now called John Brown's Fort - below. In case you don't know, he was captured in the Fort, tried and later hung. Some historians agree that the Harper's Ferry raid escalated tensions that, a year later, led to secession and the American Civil War.
I delivered the quilt I made for Isaak and he loved it! whewww!!
We took Scout and Isaak to the National Zoo for "Boo in the Zoo" which was a very fun evening.
We enjoyed watching movies, swimming in our motel pool, and had a fun pillow fight.

The capitol of Texas is.....

2010-11-07T16:17:00.001-08:00

Austin!
Last month we decided it was time to explore the state capital some and took our Aussie friend Dave with us. Dave has probably seen more and knows Texas history better than some Texans! Of course we weren't able to see everything but we got a good start.
The capital building was built in 1885 - 1888 out of pink granite quarried here in Texas.
It is a beautiful building inside and out with many incredible details and the woodwork is amazing. I'm cheating and downloading a picture from Wikipedia rather than my pictures - they were working on the outside and scaffolding was all over it.
The rotunda is taller than the US capitol (of course! remember this is Texas; everything is bigger and better!)
The mosaic on the center of the rotunda floor shows the seals of the six different countries that have governed Texas. Can you name them?
Spain, France, Mexico, Republic of Texas, Confederate States of America, and USA.
Just down the down the street is the Texas State Museum, which has what out front? A huge star of course! Remember Texas's nickname? The Lone Star State. Stars as decorations, are very big down here. It's a wonderful museum.
We left 6th Street and the music scene for another trip - Austin rivals Nashville in country music. In fact the official city slogan is: The Live Music Capital of the World.
Right across the street from the museum is the University of Texas at Austin campus; home of the Longhorns! So we walked around a bit. A nice co-ed asked if we were lost. Haven't I mentioned; Texans are just down right friendly.
Now you may be wondering as I was, do they really have a Longhorn cow as a mascot? and the answer is yes!
Meet Bevo XIV (also called Mighty Bevo or Bevo the Great). Bevo? well, apparently there are conflicting stories how that name came to be. Yes, there have been thirteen other steers beginning in 1916.

The Mighty Bevo makes appearances at all home football games of the University of Texas, as well as many away games. He also typically makes appearances at important pep rallies, such as the ones in the weeks before the games against Texas A&M and the University of Oklahoma. Following commencement ceremonies, he is typically on hand for photographs with graduates and their families.

Since 1945, the care of Bevo during his transportation and appearances has been entrusted to an honorary organization of undergraduate students called the Silver Spurs.^[13] Bevo rides in a special burnt orange livestock trailer with his name on the side.

During football games, he typically stands or sits placidly behind one of the end zones (the south end zone in Darrell K. Royal-Texas Memorial Stadium) and is occasionally greeted by UT players when they score touchdowns. Contrary to popular belief, Bevo is not drugged during football games.^[14] Bred to be docile, he is riled only in the most extreme of circumstances, such as once during a lightning storm during a game against Rice University, in which he broke away from his handlers. (help!) He is 1800 lbs (820kg), stands 5'8"(1.7 m) tall and his horns measure 72"(173 cm) tip to tip.

Isn't he great? I would love to see him in person! Guess we''ll have to go to a game sometime.

The best part of the day was, well, after the amazing steak dinner - thank you Dave! The bats!

The Ann W. Richards Congress Avenue Bridge over Lady Bird Lake houses the world's largest urban bat population. When the bridge was refurbished in the 1980s, the new design created crevices underneath the structure that happened to be ideal for bats to roost in. In the summer, the colony has up to 1.5 million Mexican Free-tailed Bats. The bats can be seen emerging by the thousands from under the bridge every evening throughout the summer, before they migrate to Mexico for the winter. I know you can hardly see them in this picture; but bats are dark brown and it was dark, so look hard.

many thanks to Wikipedia (in blue) for the info; they say it so much better than I can.

It was a fun day! Austin is about a 2 hour drive West of Houston.

Some Fall thoughts

2010-10-15T18:17:00.000-07:00

I love Fall! because:

the cooler temps
Halloween candy (too much!)
College football - we can't decide who to cheer for since moving to Texas; the University of Texas Longhorns ("hook 'em horns!") or the Texas A&M Aggies since Roy was accepted there for his Ph.D long, long ago. (we chose to attend the University of California at Davis instead for many reasons and became Cal Aggies). We definitely cheer for BYU all the time though.
colorful leaves; yes we do have a little color here but nothing like New England or even Wisconsin, sigh......
the thought of making some yummy apple pie, cobbler or cake! or pumpkin recipes - especially LaRee's spicy pumpkin bread!
finally, the thought of making soup or chili is not a crazy idea
good-bye to Daylight Savings with an extra hour of sleep!
General Conference - We thank thee O God for a Prophet!
but the best is the MLB baseball playoffs and the World Series! Come on Giants! and the Texas Rangers! beat those Yankees! you might remember I hate the Yankees!!!

I recently finished a big boy quilt for my oldest grandson Isaak. It has lots of things he likes: motorcycles, construction equipment, music, camping and any kind of sports ball. I wish I had known about the Batman request when I was fabric shopping......Here is a sneak peek before we deliver it to him in a few weeks.

This is the back and when I asked him what was his favorite color for the binding? Black.

Elder Woodward update #2

2010-10-05T15:42:00.001-07:00

Elder Woodward transfered to Gridley California this last week ; he will be serving in the Liberty Ward. Gridley is in on the edge of the Central Valley of California so he tells us it is "very flat here!" His new companion is Elder Adams from New Mexico. They are in a half car, half bike area and he says there is plenty of work in the area. He also tells us that in total, he has lost about 12 lbs since he's been out = happy missionary!
best quote from last letter: "I loved General Conference"!
and he actually sent some pictures! Waaahuuuuu!
Above is the beautiful Sacramento Temple and below a very happy Alex covered in Lab puppies. (if you didn't already know it, our family is very partial to Labs).
If you would like his new snail mail address, email me.

August/September Adventures

2010-10-03T14:07:00.001-07:00

The locals told us that if you possibly can, leave town in August; as it becomes so wicked hot and humid here. So I did! But where to go? Would you believe Omaha Nebraska? Well, it was a first stop in what would turn out to be a 4500 mile adventure. Emmy Lou (my blue Ford Edge) and I headed north to Omaha to deliver a snow blower we had from Wisconsin that we sure don't need now in Texas! Hopefully our friends who just moved there will find it handy.
A beautiful Nebraska sunset. On the right is my friend KK, her granddaughter, and me on a bridge spanning the Missouri River, or the "Big Muddy" as some old timers call it. We are each standing in two states - Nebraska and Iowa.
KK and I drove to Utah together only stopping at a couple of quilt shops on the way, honest! We did stop at the Martin's Cove Church History Site in Wyoming. Left is the well known pioneer landmark called "Devil's Gate". It was a humbling feeling to stand in the actual place where those brave handcart pioneers suffered so much. It was a sunny, warm day; I cannot imagine being there with 18 inches of snow and temperatures below zero, not to mention with little food.

A quilt top I made in my spare time while I was in Utah and I'm actually going to keep this one for me!!

My good friend KK and I with our new University of Wyoming t-shirts; we made a brief stop in the exciting town of Laramie on our little road trip. She made me get it, saying she actually feared for my life since at the time I was wearing a BYU-Idaho shirt. The Cowboys are not great fans of BYU; any BYU.
Roy joined me in Utah to do some fishing and then he and I drove home together. We had such a great time!
We saw some beautiful country in Eastern Utah and finally visited the Four Corners area; a place we've wanted to see for years. Mark that off the bucket list!
We were also able to see the incredible Mesa Verde National Park in southwestern Colorado. A must see!

We found ourselves with an extra day (still can't figure out how that happened but we're so glad it did!) so we took a drive through the beautiful San Juan Mountains in Southwestern Colorado; more incredibly beautiful country! Silverton is a fun little town.

We sprinted through Northeastern New Mexico and into Texas, stopping first in Armarillo to see the American Quarter Horse Museum there. I was horse crazy as a kid and so appreciated when they sent me a free poster of a beautiful Quarter horse. :)
The final stop of our wonderful trip was the Palo Duro State Park, just south of Armarillo. Now you're probably wondering as I was, why are we stopping here? It is the last holdout of the Commanches; the US Calvary finally defeated them there.
After a night in Lubbock where we drove by the beautiful Texas Tech campus, we headed for home which would take us the entire next day. Texas is huge - have I mentioned that before?
Rio was very happy to see us finally get home.

Elder Woodward update

2010-08-08T10:12:00.000-07:00

Alex is doing great on his mission; he writes to tell us he loves the work and he is learning a lot from his second companion. Bless the members of the Lake of the Pines Ward for taking such good care of their missionaries. We cannot believe he has been gone 3 months already.
Meet Elder Bear; a recent gift from dear friends in Sacramento. They sent him to keep us us company while Alex is away - Thank you so much Barbara and Dennis! Needless to say, he sits in Grandpa's chair in the family room with us. Alex also asked me to remind anyone and everyone that he loves getting mail.........

Oh, what do you do in the Summertime?

2010-08-08T08:14:00.000-07:00

You go sightseeing!

In an air conditioned car, of course. It is getting wicked hot here.
We visited the nearby San Jacinto Monument along with its neighbor, the retired battleship USS Texas; the only battleship to serve in both World Wars. The Monument is the world's tallest obelisk monument (12 ft, or 3m) taller than the Washington Monument (you have to remember this is Texas and everything is bigger and better! LOL!) and is located at the site of the decisive battle of Texas Independence.
In case you didn't know, this is the 25th anniversary of one of the best Western novels ever written - Lonesome Dove by Larry McMurtry. You haven't read it?! Or seen the mini series staring Robert Duvall and Tommy Lee Jones? Also one of the best book to screen adaptations ever done; in my humble opinion. Read it! Watch it! ASAP! So on that note of Texas Rangers, we ventured 150 miles (200k) north to Waco, Texas (pronounced Wake - O, not Whack - O) to visit the Texas Ranger Museum. Beautiful museum and a chance to see more of central Texas. The Rangers were once the arm of the law especially in fighting back outlaws and the Comanches. Nowadays
they are a small elite arm of Texas law enforcement - kind of a Texas FBI. We had a great lunch here and thought the name of the burger place was hysterical considering what they serve. Health Camp burgers were rated as one of the best burgers in the US and we can second that! Waco is also home to Dr. Pepper; created in the 1880's by Charles Alderton; cannot thank that man enough! As well as Baylor University (the Baptist version of BYU). We had a fun trip stopping in a quilt shop and a couple of antique stores in little towns - on the look out for certain crockery pieces.

Family comes for a visit:

Mary, Gracie and Zach came to help me celebrate my birthday. Mary drove solo with the kids and their dog, Max; what a brave girl!

We went to our favorites - the Children's Museum, and braved the Texas heat at the Zoo to see the new cute little baby elephant, Baylor.
Mary loves to experiment with cookie recipes so we enjoyed taste testing those - yum! We also experienced our first big Texas thunderstorm and lost power for 3 hours. Had a wonderful time helping Roy practice his Primary songs (he is substituting as their pianist this summer) with lanterns and flashlights.
We also enjoyed our neighborhood swimming pool (we'd never used it before - the water temp is in the 80s this time of year) and the kids discovered our empty cupboards make great hiding places. They returned home this week (their Dad, Stuart, returned from his summer military service) and we hope they come again when the weather is cooler and we can do even more outside.
Do I need to tell ya; we had a great time!

Weather and the Woodwards

2010-07-04T19:49:00.001-07:00

In the beginning for many years we were sure we were cursed with a camping rain curse. It seemed like no matter what time of the year we went or where we went, we had at least one day of drought-breaking rain. I can give you the name of several friends who will attest to this fact, many who in fact, had second thoughts about ever going with us on our adventures again.
Then due to the fact that this phenomena seemed to follow us even when we weren't camping, we eventually had to change the name to The Woodward Weather Curse. Of the three winters we were in Wisconsin, two had record snow fall amounts! We're sure we brought the rain that ended the drought in eastern Queensland Australia (this was a good thing). So now here we are in southeastern Texas and the beginning of hurricane season; and what kind of a hurricane season are they predicting? The worse in years. I kid you not! But our new local friends tell us the weathermen say that every year; we're getting very prepared nonetheless.
We're happy to report that we have safely come through our first hurricane, not to mention that it's funny it was named "Alex", though he's safe in California. It hit land 300 miles south of us but we had 2 days of good rain from it and saw nearby stormwater ditches flow the highest we've ever seen. Living in Houston means we're bound to get hit eventually, but our house is brick, we've plenty of food, water, lighting, and cooking fuel and, given our track record, will assume the storms will follow us.
Stay tuned!

Teenagers and toddlers

2010-07-04T18:27:00.000-07:00

I survived my first Texas Girls' Camp three weeks ago. Waaaa-huuuu! It was down right warm but not killer hot and thankfully no rain. I was the First Level leader during the day, which meant I kept tabs on 18 twelve year olds and then went back with our Westfield Ward girls and tried to convince them that 2 am was not an acceptable bedtime. This year's theme was a hospital theme (hence the scrub shirts) - ER. or Eternal Rewards.
Two days after returning home I left for some grandparenting time with our favorite family in Northern Virginia! Scout is now 7, Isaak is 4 and Miss Ellie is 1.
Scout continues to improve on the violin and both she and Isaak are on a small local swim team. We enjoyed McDonalds and reading stories at bedtime.

Mee-maw Mee-maw (that's me) took Scout and Isaak to see the new Toy Story 3 in 3D. Pixar as usual did a great job and the kids enjoyed it but I thought it was a little too intense in some places for small children.
Scout and I enjoyed pedicures my last afternoon.

I couldn't decide which picture to put include, so what the heck - here's both.

I had so much fun with our adorable little girl!!!

Back to Vicksburg

2010-06-09T18:02:00.000-07:00

Warning: techno geek me cannot get these pictures to line up with the correct picture - but you'll get the idea.
Now you may be wondering - do these people ever stay home?
Well, Memorial Day weekend turned into a four day weekend, so we decided it was a perfect time to return to Vicksburg, MS.
So we headed northeast out of Texas, through beautiful, green Louisiana and once again crossed the mighty Mississippi River.
We enjoyed an unhurried day in the Vicksburg Military Park; the National Cemetery was very moving being so close to Memorial Day.
Every state that fought in that battle and siege has a memorial built around the Park - this is the one for Texas.

It was a little sad to have to find the Confederate soldiers over in the town cemetery. Yes, you can't quite see it, but those are small Stars and Bars flags. Remember where you are.
This time we also had time to visit the USS Cairo Museum on the other side of the Park. It was a Union ironclad gunship that was the first ship sunk by a naval mine in 1862. It was discovered around 1960 and raised in pieces in 1965.
We were able to drive home on the Natchez Trace for about 50 miles. The Natchez Trace is an old indian trail turned into a trader's trail/pathway that ran from Natchez Mississippi to Nashville TN in the north, about 440 miles. It is now a Scenic Highway and a dream to drive - very peaceful; very little traffic and big trucks are forbidden.
You gotta love the food variety in the South!!!

Elder Woodward update

2010-06-02T19:17:00.000-07:00

Alex survived the MTC; said he loved the Spirit there and enjoyed learning how to teach as well as playing volleyball during gym time with the missionaries going to Sweden and Estonia. He said it was great to hear all the different languages in the cafeteria. Tie trading on Saturday evenings was a fun activity and he assured me he came away with most of his "good" ties. Elder Woodward arrived in the mission field on May 25th.
President and Sister Pendleton with one of their nine new missionaries!
He is currently serving in the foothills of the Sierra Nevadas and his companion/trainer is from Salt Lake City. He is thrilled to be back in California and is enjoying meeting the new Ward members. Elder Allen took him tracting for the first time and Alex reports that most everybody was polite with only one door "forcefully shut" in his face. All his moving experiences and muscle came in handy when they helped an investigator move last Monday. Apparently they have a car and live in a small house behind a member's home.
He mentioned again that any and all snail mail letters or postcards would be greatly appreciated. I'll repeat his address - it comes through the mission office in Sacramento. (Antelope is a northern suburb of Sacramento).

Elder Alexander Sindel Woodward
California Roseville Mission
8583 Watt Ave
Antelope, CA 95843-9117

Visitors

2010-06-02T17:33:00.000-07:00

Look who came for a visit!

For those few who may not know, this is our daughter Mary and her children, Gracie and Zachary.
You've heard a picture is worth a thousand words, so here are lots of pics.

At a nearby Mall playground. This is Gracie's new friend Jacob who announced a few minutes later that she was his girlfriend. It was very cute.

In case you're wondering; Gracie is doing great health wise.

Old Favorites and some new Sights

2010-05-16T18:46:00.000-07:00

After we dropped off Alex, we pointed our rental car South to hopefully escape the cold weather, revisit some beautiful country and do some visual family history research.
My mother was born in South Central Utah in the small town of Escalante. Family lore says my grandparents went out there to raise sheep and she was born there in 1914. Maybe they lived in a cabin like this reconstructed one in town built in 1890. After driving there, my admiration for my grandmother has increased 10 fold! Escalante is way in the heck gone out there! We traveled over the Boulder Mountains and through some of the beautiful Grand Staircase-Escalante National Monument. (Highly recommend seeing both!) We stopped several times as Roy was hoping to see a new bird that lives in that area, the rosy finch, but sadly it wasn't to be.
Escalante is a small town with a population of 818 in the 2000 census. We saw the turn off to the Hole in the Wall that the pioneers traveled 60 miles overland from town down to the Colorado River and then continued on to settle the Bluff area, but didn't think the rental car owners would appreciate that rough road. A great book about these courageous pioneers is Gerald Lund's new book: The Undaunted. I need to re-read it, now that I've seen some of their route.
From there we meandered towards the St. George area, stopping at the Petrified Forest State Park just outside of Escalante where Roy did see a new bird (black-throated gray warbler)! That is a petrified log Roy is sitting on!
This is just outside Bryce National Park. (already been there, done that.)

We stayed with a wonderful fishing buddy of Roy's just East of St. George; thank you Bob! We were able to enjoy his beautiful home and blooming cactus garden. We had a wonderful evening on the patio watching the stars come out in the desert and enjoyed a session in the beautiful old St. George Temple - the first Temple built West of the Mississippi River.
All in all, nice trip to visit friends, see some beautiful country and we really felt good about Alex starting his mission.

Elder Woodward

2010-05-16T18:03:00.000-07:00

On May 5th, we dropped Alex at the Missionary Training Center in Provo, Utah. To tell you the truth, I wasn't too wild about this new curb side check-in idea but I have to say in hindsight it was very well organized and worked out for the best.
If you haven't already heard, Alex will be serving in the California Roseville mission. The mission home is in Antelope, California and the mission boundaries stretch from there almost to the Oregon border, east to Soda Springs (the crest of the Sierra Nevada mountains), west to the Coast Range; pretty much all of the northern central valley of Northern California.
The mission has a blog: http://californiarosevillemission.blogspot.com
As of right now Elder Woodward's address for mail is the mission home, or will be after May 26th.
Elder Alexander Sindel Woodward
8583 Watt Ave.
Antelope, CA 95843-9117
his email address is: alexander.woodward@myldsmail.net
I was going to be super ambitious and do a separate blog for him, but in all honesty, I can barely keep this blog up to date, so that just isn't going to happen. So stayed tuned for Elder Woodward updates here.
We've already heard from him and he is doing great. He said it took him about an hour to adjust to living fulltime in a suit but I think it was at least a whole day. So far he's been able to attend the Provo Temple and hear Elder Holland speak (lucky duck!). He also reports the food isn't too bad.
We're very proud of him and his preparation getting ready to go. Please write to him if you get a chance and I'll try to update this as much as possible. It will be so much fun hearing of his experiences and we're very blessed to have such a wonderful son.

FINALLY!

2010-05-16T16:31:00.001-07:00

On our recent trip to Utah, we were finally able to stop and visit the Golden Spike National Historic Site near Promontory Summit - West of Brigham City. We've wanted to go there for so many years and gone zipping by the exit saying, "we have to go there!" too many times to count. Well, after about 30+ years, we finally made it. Many thanks to Doug and Karen for giving directions and braving the cold with us.
For those of you that may not know, this is where the Central Pacific Railroad (from the West) and the Union Pacific Railroad (from the East) met on May 10, 1869, to form the first Transcontinental Railroad.
We are standing in front of the Jupiter from the Central Pacific Railroad and the other is the 119 from the Union Pacific. These are restored operational steam locomotives.

And once again, the Woodward Travel Curse was alive and well. The temperature dropped 30* the day before we got there and this is what we woke up to on Sunday morning! I kid you not. Snow on May 2nd. What the heck!!!! I brought new sandals to wear!
A few days later it cleared up and we enjoyed this incredible sunset over the Great Salt Lake.

April Showers brought us.......

2010-05-13T18:40:00.000-07:00

A great weekend trip to New Orleans to see the new World War II Museum. It was especially nice to have my sister Marilyn and favorite brother-in-law John join us there. (BTW, John is my only brother-in-law, LOL!) We are huge history buffs at our house and we enjoyed this beautiful museum from start to finish, definitely in the same league as the Smithsonian.
We really enjoyed:
- yummy Beignets at Cafe Du Monde for breakfast and a dinner cuise on board the stern wheeler Natchez; one of the two remaining steam powdered steamboats on the Mississippi today.
- as well as wandering around some of the French Quarter.
We did NOT enjoy:
- the ticket we got from the Central Parking Lot while we were in the museum. Boycott their parking lots or beware of the small print on the parking stub!!! (it's a long story)

A family get together that included:
- a trip to our beautiful Houston Temple; it was a indescribable experience to be together as a family in that sacred place.

-family pictures that probably took twice as long because we were laughing too much; which was the prett y much the theme of the weekend.

Sorry Mary, I just can't resist. Our Love Sac got the best of her at one point. LOL!

and last but not least, Roy stumbled into our bathroom scale one night. ouch!

Poor Roy, see what he has to put with!

34 years and counting!

2010-04-23T13:27:00.000-07:00

"Grow old along with me

the best is yet to be

when our time has come
we will be as one

God bless our love,

God bless our love.

Grow old along with me

two branches of one tree

face the setting sun

when the day is done

God bless our love,

God bless our love.

Spending our lives together

man and wife together

world with end,

world without end.

Grow old along with me

whatever fate decrees

we will see it through

For our love is true

God bless our love,

God bless our love."

(John Lennon)

Happy Anniversary today, my love.

top picture: Spring 1976

bottom picture: Fall 2007

Bluebonnet time in Texas!

2010-04-22T14:26:00.000-07:00

Spring has finally come to Texas after a record breaking cold winter ( just our luck!) which means the Bluebonnets are blooming! Along with some beautiful Indian paint brush, evening primrose and the neighborhood azaleas have been stunning!
Did you know the bluebonnet is the Texas state flower? well, now you do. Never know, it might be a final Jeopardy question someday.......
My good friend Karen came from Utah to help me unpack; man-o-man, she was a real slave driver (LOL!) but we got a lot done and then had time to go play and of course, do some quilt shop hopping.
As with all of our visitors, we took her to Galveston so she could do some wading in the Gulf of Mexico. As you can see, Rio loves these trips!

She and I also took a day trip northwest to Brenham and on the way got the above wildflower picture and not only did we find a cute quilt shop there, we could not pass up the chance to tour the Blue Bell Creamery, home of Blue Bell ice cream. Yummy stuff!!! If you know me, anytime there is ice cream involved, it is a good day!
Many, many thanks for coming KK!

March

2010-03-28T08:43:00.001-07:00

MARCH brought us:

a Mission Call for Alex to the California Roseville Mission; he reports to the MTC on May 5th and it goes without saying that we are super proud of him. He opened his call, laughed and said, "I'm goin' home!!" His mission extends from the north side of Sacramento almost to the Oregon border, east almost to the Nevada border, and west to the edge of the Central Valley.

some Adventurin'! We took a long weekend drive (1100 mi) to Pensacola Florida on one of the main highway arteries of the South - Interstate 10. On our way there we detoured a hour north for some bird watching in Big Thicket National Preserve in eastern Texas near the Louisiana border. The scenery was beautiful; the bird watching wasn't so good as we seemed cursed with a family of small noisy children that mysteriously seemed to choose the same trails we did. We stopped for the night in Louisiana and OMHeck do those good folks know how to cook!!!! We just waddled out the door of "Guidrey's Reef". Catfish, shrimp, crab (all fried, of course) and seriously the best seafood gumbo I've ever eaten - well, except, it does give you pause when your first spoonful has small crab claws in it. LOL! The little tuft of meat on them was yummy though! and we just couldn't pass up dessert, right? Peach cobbler and bread pudding with praline topping. My mouth is watering just remembering this! Onward to the East through those two little toes of Alabama and Mississippi - wow, you almost blink and you are in another state! We made another detour; this time south of Mobile to the Gulf of Mexico and out to Dauphin Island for.....? You guessed it, more bird watching! Roy is trying to turn me into a birder. I do enjoy it, especially the walking; can't decide if I'm serious enough to start a birds-sighted list though....... whereas it is Roy's other passion (fly fishing being #1) and his list is quite extensive.
Unfortunately our time in Florida was brief as we passed our extra washer and dryer to Mary and Stuart and enjoyed an all too quick visit with Zach and Gracie.

Roy fished on the Guadalupe River; as you can see he had a really fun day!

Alex is working full time at Joe's Crab Shack and had a quiet 19th birthday celebration by himself as we were "adventurin" not to mention, he had to work a double shift that day.

and last but not least, a new Home. We have purchased a house nearby in our same northern suburb; so it is looking like Texas will be our home base for a good long while, I hope because I am thoroughly sick of packing and unpacking!!! Looking forward to hanging our pictures and unpacking all the books. More about that later as we move this coming week!

Reviews

2010-03-07T10:30:00.000-08:00

On this quiet Sunday morning I thought I might share some book and movie reviews.

In the Young Adult department I enjoyed "Princess Academy" by Shannon Hale but had to fight my way through most of "Goose Girl" by the same author. I just felt so sorry for Princess Isi- everything seem to go badly for her so much of the book but I was happy in the end. Did I just give it away? This is the first in the Books of Bayern trilogy; I will most likely read the next one now that I got started.

For a true story:

I enjoyed "Dewey, the Small-town Library Cat who touched the World" by Vicki Myron and Bret Witter. A cute story about a kitten adopted by a library in rural Iowa. I know the book store cats I have met are very soothing.
Maybe more libraries need cats?

I also read "Julie and Julia: My year of Cooking Dangerously" by Julie Powell. I did enjoy Julie writing about all the cooking which was amazing for someone who works full time! Some of it sounded so good and very fattening, other recipes, well, let's just say, didn't appeal to me but most were just too much work for this semi-lazy cook. I was proud of her though for finishing what she set out to do. Warning: in my humble opinion, the language in this book is atrocious! Do people really talk like that in real life? Not in my small world . I also got very tired of Julie whining in both the book and the movie. I just wanted to slap her! There is very little about Julia Child in this book I should also warn you- they added a lot more in the movie. I did enjoy the movie,`Julie and Julia -well, at least the Julia parts - didn't Meryl Streep do such a great job as Julia Child?! Stanley Tucci was a wonderful Paul Child. If you want to read more about Julia Child, try "My Life in France" by Julia Child. She had an amazing life!

One of my top ten favorite books of all time is "Tuesdays with Morrie" by Mitch Albom. I haven't liked his others since then but I asked for his newest "Have a Little Faith" for Christmas (thank you Mary!) and enjoyed it very much.

I am currently reading "The Blind Side: Evolution of a Game" by Michael Lewis because I enjoyed the movie so much. Loved it in fact! No offense to Mr. Lewis but I have to admit I have skipped several chapters that are completely about football; I'm more into the incredible story about Michael Oher and the wonderful Tuohy family. I'm not a huge Sandra Bullock fan but she does a great job as the indomitable Leigh Anne Tuohy.

Last but not least, Mary brought me Stuart's copy of Dan Brown's newest "The Lost Symbol" while she was here. Ok, I have to say that this: like all Brown's books, this is a real page turner, and I really enjoyed all the trivia about Washington DC but the bad guy is really bad, borderline just plain evil, and that got to me after a while. I was reading it one evening and Roy walked into the room - I jumped a mile! Roy said, "no more reading that book after dark!"

What else is on my book shelf? hmmmm..... a couple of long overdue classics: Persuasion by Jane Austen and Wuthering Heights by Emily Bronte. The Robe by Lloyd C. Douglas in time for Easter and Mao's Last Dancer by Li Cunxin. This was recommended to me as well as a gift by a wonderful Aussie friend - thank you Adele!

Fun with Mary, Gracie and Zach

2010-02-23T12:54:00.000-08:00

As previously mentioned, Mary, Gracie and Zach came for a visit this month and of course we had a great time!
We enjoyed playing with our Wii, watching the Olympics, playing with Play Dough and Disney movies with Gracie as well as watching Zach perfect his walking skills. His favorite toy became an empty milk jug of all things and he was fascinated by our garbage can - it has a lid! Thankfully we quickly discovered he was putting things in there; unfortunately we lost his sippy cup and probaby some kitchen magnets first. Thank you Papa - as they insist on calling Roy - for putting it up on a large box much to Zach's dismay!

The weather cooperated somewhat and we were able to enjoy a day at the Zoo and a very fun evening at the Children's museum.

Good dog Rio again put up with more grandchildren crawling all over him; he drew the line at Gracie chasing him with the baby doll stroller though and retreated to hide upstairs.

We did our best to turn Gracie into a Texan.
I managed to sew the binding on Gracie's quilt so she could take it home with her.
We were glad to able to celebrate Gracie's 3rd birthday with her one day early. Ice cream, a cherry and a balloon = one happy little girl.

Mary is a great cook and always trying new recipes; she made us this new cookie and man-o-man, it is wonderful! I decided I had to share it ya'll. (a Texan favorite term). Enjoy!

Mary and Paula Deen’s Monster Cookies
3 eggs
1 ¼ C brown sugar
1 C granulated sugar
½ tsp. salt
½ tsp. vanilla
1 12 oz. Peanut Butter – crunchy or creamy
1 stick butter
½ C chocolate candies (M&M’s)
½ C chocolate chips
¼ C raisins (optional)
2 tsp. baking soda
4 ½ C quick cooking oatmeal

Preheat oven to 350*. Line cookie sheets with parchment paper or non stick baking mats OR spray cookie sheets with non stick spray.

Combine and mix well:
Eggs and sugars

Add:
Salt, vanilla, peanut butter and butter
Mix well.

Stir in:
Baking soda, Chocolate chips, candy, raisins and oatmeal

Drop by Tbsp. onto cookie sheets.
Bake 8 – 10 minutes. DO NOT OVER BAKE!
Let stand 3 minutes on cookie sheets before transferring to cooling racks.

Some Winter thoughts.......

2010-02-11T00:35:00.000-08:00

We talked to our oldest daughter, Becky, who lives in Northern Virginia last Saturday (Feb 6th, in the middle of the first storm); this is a picture out her front door she had just sent me.
So I've been thinking......
I like snow when:
- I can watch it fall from inside a warm living room with a fireplace crackling and a mug of hot chocolate in my hands.
- I tromped through fresh new snow in my warm Sorrel boots or snowshoes with Rio, ( who loves snow anytime! ) in the fields and woods behind our house in Wisconsin or walked Deny (our beloved old yellow Lab) up to the lake in New Hampshire. It's so quiet and beautiful.
- I can cross country ski in it. Thank you again Feltus and Ruth Ann for teaching me to CC ski in New Hampshire. I would like to do more of that sometime.
I do not like snow when:
- you have to shovel or use the snowblower to clear driveways and sidewalks.
- having to drive in it.
- having to walk on slippery icy sidewalks and parking lots.
- the cleared roads that freeze overnight and you worry about black ice.
- after several days and it's all dirty and slushy.
- the snowplow roars down your street and buries the bottom of your freshly cleared driveway with heavy wet snow that you have to shovel by hand because it clogs the snowblower.
Do we miss it? The beauty? Yes. The shoveling? heck NO!!
It has been unseasonably chilly here in Houston the last several weeks but last Saturday was a beautiful day here; sunny and down right warm. So after we talked to Becky we took Mary and the grandkids down to Galveston to the beach. Needless to say, we had a great time! Ok, so it wasn't exactly swimsuit weather - note the sweatshirts but the kids got their feet wet and Zach especially loved it. Of course Rio probably had the best time of anyone. Anytime there is water and a tennis ball, he is the happiest of Labs.
Quite a difference from the first picture. LOL! I know, I know; I'll be singing a different tune come July and August. But last Sat. we were glad to be living in the Southern part of the US.

January projects

2010-02-08T18:27:00.000-08:00

How do you like our new look? Mary is here for a visit (more about that later) and has been helping me find all these fun free backgrounds.
January was quiet after the holidays and down right chilly outside so I thought - what a great time for another jigsaw puzzle - and we've had this one kicking around for awhile....... now I know why! This was the hardest puzzle we've ever done! 1000 pieces. Our 2nd granddaughter Gracie has a birthday in February so I needed to get busy on her big-girl bed quilt if I was going to be able to send it home with her after their visit. Found some great fabric on our San Antonio trip so in between the puzzle and teaching Young Women's, (the 12 year old girls in our Church's youth group) I managed to get this done. I think it turned out pretty cute, if I do say so myself.

Will be making another quilt for Isaak next month; I feel bad; his will be a little tardy for his also February birthday. Hopefully it'll be worth the wait as I designed it myself to include a lot of his favorite things.

Remember the Alamo!

2010-01-29T13:53:00.000-08:00

We recently took a weekend trip 3 hours southwest to San Antonio (with several interesting side trips planned by Roy) to show us and our visiting Aussie friends Dave & Adele more of Texas.
We made a brief stop in the small town of Gonzales, just east of San Antonio; where the first shots of the Texas Revolution or the Texan War for Independence, were fired. In 1831 the Mexican government had given the town a small (and I mean small!) cannon to defend themselves against Indian attacks. On 2 October 1835 they sent a contingent of soldiers to retrieve the cannon and they were met by some unhappy Texans who had made a flag that stated: Come and Take It. The Texans successfully resisted those Mexicans soldiers in what has come to be known as The Battle of Gonzales. (the war would end 6 months later with the Battle of San Jacinto just outside of Houston, more about that at a later date).
San Antonio is home to the beautiful River Walk which wanders through downtown and is lined with great little shops and restaurants. And, of course, The Alamo is the main attraction.
The Alamo is a former Catholic mission and fortress; it is sure a lot smaller in person than the idea you get from the movies. The famous battle took place after a thirteen day siege before dawn on March 6, 1835 and by the time the sun rose it was over. 200 men against the Mexican Army of nearly 6,000; their bravery astounds me. The Chapel is known as The Shrine of Texan Liberty and at the time of the battle, the knob at the top of the front mission wall that makes it so distinctive had not been added. In 1905 The Daughters of the Republic of Texas bought the Alamo from the State of Texas and continue to preserve and maintain it to this day without government assistance. There is no fee to tour the site. Wow! We history buffs had a great morning!
We then wandered north into the Texas Hill Country to visit the town of Fredericksburg, but on the way made another side trip into what is literally a loop off the highway to see the town of Luckenbach. Now you may be asking, as I did, what in the heck is in Luckenbach Texas? Well, if you are a fan of country music, you might know. Anybody who is anybody of older classic Country music has played there and continues to attract well known singers as well as locals who perform every weekend. Willie Nelson, Robert Earl Keen, Guy Clark or Lyle Lovett have been known to just drop in. Have I mentioned that Luckenbach consists of a General Store combination Bar, a dance hall and picnic grounds? No hard liquor is allowed in "town". Later that day we spent a fun afternoon wandering through the shops of Fredericksburg, which was settled by German settlers around 1850. Well, I window shopped, Roy happily settled himself at an outdoor cafe and listened to a local singer (Rodney Joe Smith). He later mildly regretted it, as I found a small quilt shop :) We ate dinner at the Auslander where I sampled my first taste of the food of my forebears: Jagerschmitzel - YUM!! (it's a breaded pork loin cutlet).
The next day on our way home we made our last detour of the trip - to the out-skirts of La Grange, county seat of Fayette County, just west of Austin Texas; former home of The Chicken Ranch. I'll let you check that out on Wikipedia. I'll be back there next month to attend the "Best Little Quilt Show in Texas". LOL!!! Ya gotta love Texas!

Granpa, Mee-Maw, Scout, Isaak and Ellie

2010-01-21T11:23:00.000-08:00

Ok, not quite sure what happened, but we lost half of a picture in the last blog. Here is the whole thing. Grandparenting is so much fun (and sometimes exhausting). I've heard it said, it's the reward for not killing your kids! LOL!

Christmas 2009

2010-01-21T09:56:00.000-08:00

We had a great time over the Christmas holidays; the best of both worlds. Alex came home safe and sound from BYU-Idaho, so we were able to spend a few quiet days with him upholding some family holiday traditions: a huge jigsaw puzzle and a movie on Christmas afternoon - we saw the new "Sherlock Holmes" and really enjoyed it. Roy bought his own Christmas present - said he's always wanted a some kudu horns. Ok! and I thought after 33 years I knew the man..... Santa brought me a clock that climes the hour and quarter horn - something I've wanted for years. :)

Becky, Gerald, Scout, Isaak and Ellie flew in later Christmas night and the quiet was gone but we loved that too. We had a fun time showing them Houston. We went:
-looking for alligators and although the weather was chilly, we did manage to see two.
- to the Aquarium, which we discovered is more restaurant than aquarium.- Uncle Alex was a great sport to take Scout and Isaak to see the new Chipmunk movie that neither grandparents or parents wanted to see. They all loved it!
- shopped the after-Christmas sales for white shirts for Alex - his mission papers are almost done, hopefully next week!
- to the Houston Zoo, which is a cute little zoo.

We played and played with the grandkids
and Scout and Isaak especially loved throwing the ball in our big backyard for Rio. Ellie made friends with Rio; and the wonderful dog that he is, let her crawl all over him, pull hair and he just laid there and took it. Aren't Labs the best!?
We also discovered that Texas has very liberal fireworks laws so we enjoyed having our own little show on New Years Eve. Well, Alex had a great time setting them all off; Scout and Isaak weren't too sure......The weather cooperated; not too cold or wet. thumbs up for Houston at Christmas!
Then Grandpa, Mee-Maw and Uncle Alex got to keep Scout for an extra 3 days, which was the cherry on top of the ice cream sundae!
She helped me make her a fuzzy blanket with my my fleece scraps and we had fun shoe shopping one afternoon. We also went to the Houston Childrens Museum. We were so very proud of her being so brave to fly home all by herself on the airplane.

So we took a little drive........

2010-01-04T16:10:00.000-08:00

I know I am a little behind, so am trying to start 2010 right and get caught up......
Ok, to be honest, we took a BIG drive. Houston to Milwaukee Wisconsin and back in 8 days; 3100 miles. Yes, YIKES! are we crazy? well...... maybe (hey, watch the wise cracks!) LOL. But don't they say that necessity is the mother of all invention? We had to go because we still had some stuff in a storage unit where we used to live just outside of Milwaukee; so with several prayers for good traveling weather, Roy, Rio and I pointed Moby, our white Ford truck north one early one Friday morning. Yes, we took the dumb dog, can you believe it? Roy really couldn't either but I couldn't bear to put him in a kennel for a week. Too much like his horrible time in Auz quarantine. He is better traveled than many people I know. Under duress, running low on gas and hungry, we had lunch in Hope, Arkansas; which if you don't know is the birthplace of a certain Mr. Bill Clinton: a man that I have absolutely zero respect for. Or his wife for that matter. "And that's all I'm going to say about that." (what movie is that from?) We spent the night in Cape Girardeau, Missouri - another birthplace of: "anyone, anyone"? (another movie quote. Do you feel like you're playing "Scene It" ?) Rush Limbaugh. We didn't see any statutes or anything; cute little town though southeast of St. Louis.
We arrived safe and sound in Franklin/Oak Creek WI and had a great reunion with many wonderful friends there. Oh, and we picked up Alex who had flown in from Rexburg/Salt Lake City to help us load and drive back. Great to see him! Many thanks to Gayle and Georgia for hosting us for wonderful dinners. Extra huge thanks to Troy and John for helping us load our ABF trailer. Where did all this stuff come from?
We then sprinted south through Illinois and Indiana and caught our only rain of the entire trip. We were so blessed with great traveling weather for late November considering the terrible blizzard that hit the Midwest 10 days later. We did make a brief stop for some sight seeing in Kentucky - it was too good for us history buffs to pass up.

The farm is actually called "Sinking Spring Farm" because the nearby spring was sunk in the ground. Must have been a wicked climb down to fetch water in the early days. Pretty nifty that it is still trickling away today.
The picture below is a memorial they built to Pres. Lincoln in 1911; there are as many steps as years of his life - 56. It houses a small log cabin that is very similar but not the original Lincoln home.This very large granite and marble building seems a little out of place but the Lincoln Farm Association wanted to do something to memorize this great man. Unfortunately we didn't have time to wander down the road to see his boyhood home - the farm on Knob Creek.
We had a nice, albeit quick visit and wonderful Thanksgiving dinner with my sister Marilyn, hubby John and visiting sister Judy in southern Tennessee. Thanks again!
Coming home through Mississippi just before we crossed that great river into Louisiana, we just had to make a brief stop at the Vicksburg National Military Park. Only had time to see the Visitor's Center - but it's is on our short list for get-back-and-see-it-soon!

Now you may be asking; did the Woodward's set out with a historical agenda? No, it just seemed to have worked out that way.
We arrived home in Houston safe and sound late, later that night, Friday. Didn't believe me when I told you one week, did ya? I seriously doubt we will ever do that kind of trip again. whewww! Man-o-man were we sick of driving!

Oh, the first movie mentioned is "Forest Gump" and the second one is "Ferris Bueller's Day off"; the line is Ben Stein's in Economics class.
With this trip Roy and I were able to add new states to our "states visited" list. Three for me and two for Roy, I think. We both now only need New Mexico and North Dakota to have visited all 50 states in this incredible beautiful nation of ours.

First impressions of Houston

2009-11-10T16:59:00.000-08:00

Southeast Texas is FLAT! and Houston is HUGE!
What else can I tell ya?
How about the things we like so far?

On the whole, Texans are very friendly and the men especially polite to women.
Rio and I have found several nearby great walking trails. We've also enjoyed exploring nearby Jones State Forest and as previously mentioned, Brazos Bend State Park.
We love all the pine trees in Northern Houston where we live. I owe Roy big time for letting us live up here because it makes his commute so much longer.
Texas Barbecue! Yum yum! Looking forward to sampling all we can!
Not to mention all the many (hundreds!) Mexican restaurants to try! I gotta find a gym to join with all this good food around!
Gas prices - right now can find regular unleaded for $2.31/gallon. :)
Our nearby Barbara Bush Library. Rode my bike there today - about 3 -4 miles (5 km). wonderfully big with lots of books and movies to borrow.
Museum of Natural Science downtown. We enjoyed their recent "Terra Cotta Warrior" exhibit in September with wonderful friends and visiting family. This is Robin Hudson, (in black), her husband Bill, son Grant on the left with Ray Woorster, step-father. Her mother, Donna is standing next to Roy. I've known Robin and her family since we were kids growing up in Northern California. Robin has lived in Houston for several years and has been a huge help to us newcomers; it's also been great to reconnect with her.

Having the Houston Temple so close - about a 15 minute drive from our house. More thanks to Roy and his commute.

Now, the things we don't care for.

The drivers are crazy! and we thought Utahans or Chicago-ans were bad....... HA!
Roy has about a 35 minute commute into work in the morning but it can take up to an hour coming home because traffic is so bad. Why-o-why does major freeway construction always happen where ever we move to? Milwaukee and now here?
I know we missed the real summer but experienced a few days of unseasonal hot and humid weather in September. Yes, it's true: June - August is going to be pretty awful here. But, as Pollyanna would say, there must be something to be glad about - yes! I'm so glad we have central air conditioning in the house and in both cars!
I am getting very tired of being bit by mosquitoes - it's November for crying out loud!
We also found out the hard way that Fire Ants are not fun little critters. Alex got several bites and had a mild allergic reaction that scared us to death. Roy also had a brief painful encounter with them. Needless to say, we are poisoning the heck out of any nests we find in our yard.

It has been a very sad time here the last 10 days or so with the tragedy at Fort Hood, which is ~150 miles northwest of Houston. (I think). All US flags and state flags are flying at half mast. Texans are very patriotic as well as fiercely proud of being Texan.
Just a thought: the Woodward family and their "rain curse" might be responsible for ending the drought in Southeast Texas. We had a record rainfall for the month of October - over 13 inches!
My sister Judy is telling me that we need to move to Southern California and help them out next.

One last Aussie Adventure (at least for awhile)

2009-10-31T00:44:00.000-07:00

I realize this is very "belated" but thought I would add this, if anything, to whet your appetite even more to take that long airplane ride "Down Under" and visit Australia. Hey, one sleeping pill, a good book and you're there! You'll never regret it, I promise!

When we realized we were to shortly leave Australia last July, we decided we had to see Uluru or Ayer's Rock, which is waaayyyy out in the middle of the country, in the southern part of the huge Northern Territory; it's not exactly easy to get to. In asking around, many Aussies have not even been out there.
We flew 3 hours northwest to Darwin and spent an afternoon exploring that small city of about 100,000. It was hot! 86*F and it's winter for crying out loud! Cannot imagine what it is like up here in the summer with temps in the 100's* + 98% humidity! The city has been rebuilt twice in the last 70 years: after it was bombed by the Japanese during WW2 in 1942-43 (over 60 times!) and after Cyclone Tracy in 1974.
In Darwin we boarded "The Ghan" train to take us South overnight to Alice Springs. It is one of the two well known rail trips in Australia, running North to South, Darwin to Adelaide, or visa versa; the other being the Indian Pacific which travels West to East - Sydney to Perth. We've never been on an overnight train trip - it was very relaxing and a great way to see the countryside! The staff was wonderful and the food was terrific! Photos are of the lounge car, Roy in our compartment and me modeling when the seats folded down into bunk beds. Romantic it was not but very comfortable. We had our own tiny bathroom with a fold up toilet, along with the smallest shower I've ever seen! It was definitely an experience showering on a moving train, but very nice getting rocked to sleep.

The train's name is an abbreviated version of its earlier nickname, "the Afghan Express", after the Afghan camel drivers who ran supply trains into central Australia for 50 years before the railroad was completed in 1930 from Adelaide to Alice Springs. The last leg north to Darwin was not completed until 2004.
We spent the night in the small city of Alice Springs, which is almost in the dead center of Australia. This is a picture of the nearby Todd River, which they say if you see water in the river three times, you're considered a local. FYI, the last time was 2001.

From there we joined with a bus tour group to drive the 281 miles Southwest out to Uluru; which we learned has its pros and cons. Pros being you don't have to drive and can enjoy the scenery, but the cons are feeling rushed when we stopped to see things or the tour guide that would not shut up while driving so we could take a nap! Anyway........

Have you ever wondered where the name Ayer's Rock came from? I did, so here's the scoop: it was named in 1873 after the then- Chief Secretary of Southern Australia, Sir Henry Ayers. As the rock is in the Northern Territory, I found this a little odd.......
Uluru is the name given to this very large piece of sandstone by the local Aboriginal people, the Pitjantjatjara and is in the Uluru - Kata National Park. It is a little over 1100 ft high and is almost 6 miles around the perimeter; a heck of alot larger than I thought it was! Visitors can climb to the top but the trail is super steep even with the chain handholds; we saw people inching down on their bottoms and several have fallen and died over the years. We chose not to since it is a sacred site to the Aborigines. And, well, remember I mentioned the "not enough time" thing? The chain is directly behind Roy's head.
I mentioned it was winter during our visit so that explains why I look cold in this sunrise picture; we were able to see a sunset and sunrise on the Rock and it's true; it does change color as the sun rises on sets on it.
Lodging near "the Rock" is at the nearby Ayer's Rock Resort; a group of several hotels,ranging from camping to 4 stars. We took the bus back to Alice Springs and flew home to Brisbane via Adelaide.
Many thanks to our friends, the Antuar family for taking care of Rio while we were gone.
It was a quick but great trip. A must-see when you travel to "Auz". It's on your Bucket List, right? There are many more places we'd love to visit in this big beautiful world but taking the Indian Pacific Train trip is definitely in the top ten. Want to join us?

Texas State Fair

2009-10-19T15:37:00.000-07:00

We drove 3 hours north to Dallas last Friday to take in the Texas State Fair. It is located in buildings around the Cotton Bowl stadium and we were told is the largest Fair in the nation (of course, everything is the biggest and the best in Texas! or so we hear, quite alot.)
Fairs are the best! Where else can you hear singing parrots, see dancing dogs, watch fascinating horse training demonstrations, beautiful quilts, and find all kinds of things to buy that you just can't live without, to name a few of our favorites.
We were excited to find they had PIG RACES, just like in California! Those were so much fun to watch! We were sitting in the "red" section and our pig came in second all 3 races; good thing this wasn't a betting race!
But the real fun of the day was the food, of course!
This is the sign we saw just after we came in through the gates and they meant it.The new item this year was "fried butter". It's a pat of butter with some bread dough wrapped around it, deep fried then rolled in cinnamon sugar and honey, it was very tasty. Yours truly, who had to try it and yes, I know I need a hair cut!

Didn't try the alligator or the chicken fried bacon. Also tried "guacamole bites", which, you guessed it, is deep fried guacamole and a lady at our table gave us fried dill pickles. Both are OK once a year.

Now you might be wondering how our stomachs fared the next day - not great, if truth be told.
Did I mention the weather was perfect? Sunny but not too hot and not one % of humidity - it was wonderful.
The next day was the "Big" football game held in the Cotton Bowl stadium - the Red River Rivalery or The Red River Shootout between the University of Texas Longhorns and the University of Oklahoma Sooners (the Red River is the border between Texas and Oklahoma). We watched the game at home on Saturday afternoon while doing chores; the Longhorns were victorious and were awarded the "Golden Hat" - a golden 10 gallon cowboy hat, mounted on a block of wood. This game has been played for 109 years! They take football very seriously here in Texas, and the entire South for that matter. Roy forgot his hat so bought a burnt orange Longhorn baseball cap and just fit right in with all the other UT clothing and fans at the fair, although he's really an Aggie (Univ of California Davis). This might be our one and only attempt at self portraits.

Settling into Houston

2009-10-11T16:48:00.000-07:00

We finally found a house to rent in a beautiful suburb in northern Houston; we love our neighborhood with all the trees and our quiet cul-de-sac. Took me two l-o-n-g weeks to unpack what seemed like a zillion boxes but we got out all the important stuff and the rest will just have to wait because I am so sick of boxes, I can't tell you! Amazingly all of our stuff arrived the same week, long term storage from Wisconsin and shock of shocks, our container from Australia! WOW!
As previously mentioned we did tour the Johnson Space Center while Alex was here over Labor Day, which was amazing! For my Aussie friends: this is the place as in "Houston, we have a problem....." They have an entire rocket laying on it's side in a huge building - it would have been Apollo 18 but the mission was canceled. (it's just a few feet shorter than the Statue of Liberty!) I am standing in front of one of the huge Saturn 5 rockets.
We also went for a walk in nearby Bravos Bend State Park and look what we saw? Yikes! he was a big 'un!

My sister Marilyn and hubby John arrived on 1 October for a visit; we were excited to welcome them to Texas but the best part was they brought Rio to us! They were wonderful to dog-sit him the last 2 months as we were traveling and getting settled in. So now he can keep me company as well as happily chase the many squirrels in our large back yard. He and I have already found several nice nearby walking trails.

Now hopefully life will slooowwww down which sounds so good to us about right now. Our new Ward seems very friendly and the beautiful Houston Temple is only 20 minutes from our house. We're currently enjoying watching the MLB playoffs and cheering for the Angels, Dodgers, Philies, anyone but the Yankees! That's me talking, not Roy.
Roy is super busy at work and Alex is relearning about cold weather and hopefully studying hard at BYU-I.
All is well. All is well.

Where in the world are they?

2009-09-08T22:34:00.001-07:00

Sorry to have been out of touch for a while. We've had a crazy last several weeks. OK, Reader's Digest version:
We somehow managed to get organized, pack and leave Auz in 3 weeks on August 3rd. We have to say, we never could have done it without the help of many of our wonderful Aussie friends, especially Paul and Jill Antuar. Rio left a few days before and is now happily temporarily staying with my sister in Tennessee until we get settled in Houston - thank you John and Marilyn!
Since then, we've visited favorite places and dear friends - many thanks to the Tilley's on the North Coast and Tony and LaRee in Sacramento for hosting us. Onto Utah while we waited for Alex to take his finals and Roy pestered the trout in the Provo River near Heber. Many, many more thanks to Karen and Doug who always generously open their home in Bountiful to us. We then enjoyed a fun week with all our kids and grandkids in Park City Utah - some of us tried the Alpine slide, ATV's, jet skis on nearby Jordenielle Reservior and all enjoyed a day at the Hogle Zoo.
Alex then "lost" some wisdom teeth (boy, was he glad he only had two!) while Dad headed down to Houston. ALex and I joined him a few days later. Since then have been house hunting, car shopping, driver's license test taking....... hasn't been all work and no play, though. Enjoyed a fun Astro baseball game, a drive to Galvaston, walking around/through Bravos Bend State Park to see alligators and a day at the Johnson Space Center. whewwwww!
Alex starts Fall semester at BYU-Idaho in Rexburg this week, so he's excited for that.
I promise to post some pictures of the above adventures as well as our last Auz adventure out to see Uluru. Soon!

A word about Vegemite

2009-07-20T04:44:00.001-07:00

Please, no offense to our wonderful Aussie friends but about Vegemite; in one word - it's pretty awful.

Just in case you're wondering..... it is made from leftover brewers' yeast extract, a by-product of beer manufacturing, and various vegetable and spice additives. The taste may be described as salty, slightly bitter, and malty - somewhat similar to the taste of beef bouillon. The texture is smooth and sticky, much like peanut butter. It is not as intensely flavoured as the British Marmite and is less sweet than the New Zealand version of Marmite.

(thank you Wikipedia).

A favorite breakfast is the above - Vegemite on toast. and I'm also told that Vegemite goes well with cheese spread, kind of like our peanut butter and jelly. Haven't tried it.

I must also say that Alex likes Vegemite - took some to Provo with him and has been having fun attempting to convert his roommates; so far no luck.

Did you know?

2009-07-11T02:04:00.000-07:00

In Australia:

all eggs are brown

all cheddar cheese is white

take out food is called "take away"

there is no one cent coin, so obviously is rounded up or down to the nearest five cents.

The coins are 5, 10, 20 ,50, 1 dollar and 2 dollars - your wallet can get really heavy!

the paper money is different colors - very cool!

movie tickets costs $15 apiece! You choose your seat or they assign you one and you have to sit in that seat. Our first time at the movies, we did not know this and sat in someone else's seat and he was not happy with us!

there is no frozen juice concentrate here; most fruit juice is a liquid called "cordial" that is concentrated.

cannot find semi-sweet chocolate chips

electricity is insanely expensive!!

cell phones are called "mobiles"

bathrooms are called toilets

it is one of the few countries in the world that eats their national symbol. We've seen Emu jerky and yes, you can buy kangaroo meat at the grocery store. I have only seen it "minced" or ground up. We have yet to try some.

all school children in private or public (state) schools are required to wear uniforms, complete with hats, and each schools' uniform is different. These cute little girls are my next door neighbors in their sports day and regular uniform, and the little boys are my friend Jen's sons - different school.

High school female students must either wear their hair pulled back or up in a bun. Grade 11 or 12 boys are required to wear ties. Girls' uniforms are dresses or skirts & blouses.

The Mall shops close at 5pm every night except for Thursday when they stay open until 9pm. Grocery stores close between 7 -8pm. That has taken some real getting used too!

Pharmacies are called "Chemist" and Doctor offices are called "surgery".

French fries or "chips" are dipped in meat gravy rather than ketsup. (which is called 'tomato sauce' and really is just plain tomato sauce.)

Sales tax is built into the price of everything: what price you see marked is exactly what you pay. That general sales tax (GST) is 10%!

Jello is called 'jelly' and is a dessert not a salad! A favorite is to put jelly over a scoop of ice cream.

In case you haven't heard....

2009-07-11T01:44:00.000-07:00

Yes, the rumors you may have heard are true. Roy's company is transferring him again so we're moving back to the US next month. Got one of those phone calls: "I've got good news and bad news - the good news is we've still got a job. The bad news - it's in Houston, Texas". (no offense to our friends in Texas.)
So we're very sad to be leaving Australia alot sooner than we had expected -there is so much more of this beautiful country that we wanted to see and we've made some wonderful friends here. We'll just have to come back!

We're looking forward to being closer to our grandkids though. :)
Needless to say, the next 4 weeks are going to be crazy!

Another book recommendation

2009-07-03T18:05:00.001-07:00

I just wanted to pass along the name of another great book I just finished reading.

3 Cups of Tea by Greg Mortenson and David Oliver Relin

The work that Greg has done to build schools in Pakistan and now Afghanistan is so inspiring and courageous, it often brings me to tears.
To learn more about Greg, the book, and his Central Asia Institute, visit these websites; they tell the story better than I can.

www.threecupsoftea.com

www.ikat.org

gregmortenson.blogspot.com

caivideos.blogspot.com

Suffice it to say, I loved this book! It has moved near the top of my 10 most favorite books list.
God bless you Greg Mortenson, literally.

Gladstone

2009-07-01T23:49:00.000-07:00

This last weekend I zipped up to spend the weekend with Roy in Gladstone (or as the Aussies pronounce it "Glad-stun"); you might remember he's been working up there for the past several months. Gladstone is 550 km (344 miles) north of us here in "Brissy" on the coast - a 6 hour drive or 1 hour flight. For a new adventure I took the "Tilt Train", which also took about 6 hours. I was informed by my exasperated taxi driver, it's called the Tilt train because it goes so fast, it "tilts" around the turns. At one time we were speeding along about 155km/hr. (~97 miles/hr). It was a very pleasant, relaxing ride.

Gladstone is a small city with a population of about 30,000; much, much smaller than Brisbane. It owes it existence to it's deep water harbor where very large ships can be loaded with coal for example.

On Sat. on our way to the beach towns of Yeppoon and Emu Park, we drove north past the larger town of Rockhampton or as the locals affectionately call it, "Rocky" - now you don't see a welcome sign like that everyday! That is one big cow!

More wonderful road signs! (but we didn't see any.)

This "Singing Ship" had hollow pipes and when the wind whistled through them, it made the coolest, eeriest sound! Fantastic views too! Those are islands off in the distance.

On Sunday after attending the Gladstone Branch's Sacrament meeting, we drove almost 2 hours South to another beach town -1770, so called because the revered James Cook of the Royal Navy landed there, guess when?

Like most Woodward adventures we did have rain, but lucky for us, it came at night so we enjoyed sunny, kinda warm days. It is wintertime here after all but with daytime temps around 22*C (mid 70's F) it feels great to us.

Roy also found 2 new birds so you know it was a really good weekend.

Bon Voyage Alex

2009-06-17T02:24:00.000-07:00

Alex left Brisbane this last Wednesday to begin summer term at BYU Provo next week. Needless to say, the house is very quiet as I write this. Thank goodness for my good pal Rio to keep me company.

We really worried before we left Wisconsin last June if pulling him out of his Senior year in American High school was the right thing to do but I think I can safely say, he's had a great year here. We're very proud of him for finishing his Senior year through BYU Independent Study; he learned self discipline and that home school can be a bit lonely at times. He tells us that watching Law and Order and West Wing reruns helped him pass Government. yikes! Roy and I would also like to acknowledge if we haven't already, what a huge help he has been in this whole adventure, and I'm afraid to think how we will manage without him next time. We've appreciated his muscles, hard work and electronic know-how. Pretty sad when you have to write down the directions how to switch between the DVD player and the TV.

Not to mention, he's a pretty fun guy to have around. But it hasn't been all work and no play - he's enjoyed zipping around Brisbane on our little Vespa which he named Tug. (remember we name all our vehicles).

So we will miss you Favorite Son, love you very much and look forward to hearing of your very own new adventures. Stay tuned!

Birthday Weekend Fun

2009-06-06T21:19:00.000-07:00

This holiday weekend we are celebrating not one birthday but two!

Tomorrow is almost a national holiday - well, in at least seven out of the eight States in Auz - Western Australia had be different, don't ask me why! (they will have theirs on Sept 8th). Anyway, tomorrow is Her Royal Majesty Queen Elizabeth II celebrated birthday. Now for the crazy part - her real birthday is April 21st, so you might be asking yourself, as I have been, why in the world are we celebrating in June if her birthday is really in April?! And the really crazy thing is I have been asking many of our Aussie friends for several days that very same question - and their answer? They don't know either! I kid you not. It's been great fun. The most common answer is they already have a holiday in April - Easter. ( the Monday after Easter is a day off work). May is Labor Day - at least in Queensland, so why not do it in June? Sure, we need a day off that month!

You might also be asking yourself, why is Australia celebrating the Queen of England's birthday? And since I have smart friends and family, you remember that Auz is one of the 16 independent states that she is still the Queen Regnant of. Short version - she is the Queen of Australia. What I really find amusing is that her birthday, real or celebrated, in her own mother country of Great Britain is NOT a holiday. I have this on cross-my-heart truth from several immigrated Brits. Back to the hypothesis that the Aussies love any excuse for a holiday and a day off work.

Actually I did some homework and found out that this all started back in 1788 when the Aussies decided to celebrate King George III birthday which was June 4th and the tradition of celebrating whichever Monarch's BD in June must have stuck.

Ok, whose other birthday is it?

The State of Queensland!

(where we live)

Yesterday marks the 150th anniversary of Queen Victoria's formal approval of separation from New South Wales (the adjoining State south of us), and self-government as a colony. The early settlers, while successful in their bid to end rule from Sydney, however did not get all their own way. They wanted to name the colony Cooksland after Captain James Cook who had sailed north along its coastline the previous century. Queen Victoria preferred Queensland and had her way.
(naturally!)

Since games are a birthday tradition, let's play "So you want to be a Hundred-aire, the Queensland version".

**$1 question:

Queensland is the ______ largest state is Australia.

A - second or B - third

Final answer: second, as in HUGE! 668,207 sq miles

**$5 question:

The official color of Queensland is:

A - orange, B - blue, C - maroon.

Final answer: maroon

**$10 question:

The regional animal is a:

A - kangaroo, B - platypus, C - koala

Final answer: koala

**$20 question:

The official bird emblem is a:

A - kookaburra, B - brolga, C - Australian magpie (like Norman, who is still around, by the way).

Final answer: the brolga

It is the only species of crane native to Australia and is found along the Queensland coast.

$50 question:

The floral emblem is the:

A - Cookstown orchid, B - frangipani, C - any yellow rose

Final answer: the Cookstown orchid

Ok, are you bored to death?

one more question -

The Hundred dollar question:

The Queensland motto, "Audax at Fidelis" means:

A - meet you tonight at the Pub, B - throw a prawn on the Barbie, C - Bold but Faithful, D - A, B & C

Final answer: Bold but Faithful

As you can probably tell, we are falling in love with our (temporarily) adopted homeland.

AUSSIE, AUSSIE, AUSSIE!!!!

(and the correct response is: OY,OY, OY!!!)

First day of Winter Down Under

2009-06-01T06:25:00.001-07:00

Today was the first unofficial day of winter here in Australia. The temperature was about 20*C (68*F), sunny with a few clouds. Not bad, huh? We are not complaining, especially since the cool temps brings no more mozzies! (mosquitoes). Our Aussie friends on the other hand are really starting to complain of the cold and digging out their winter coats.

Look what Rio and I found blooming on this fine winter day? Yes, that is a very large beautiful red and pink Poinsettia! They grow in yards here as sometimes large bushes. I still can't get over seeing them that big!

Alex will leave in 2.5 weeks to attend Summer term at BYU in Provo, Utah; lots to do before then! We were very proud last night as Alex was ordained to the office of an Elder in the Melchizedek Priesthood by Roy; several friends from our Ward here stood in the circle - it was a special night. Thought you might like to see Roy and Alex as a new Deacon in 2003 and last night as a new Elder. Did Dad shrink?

Travels with Deb

2009-05-17T20:56:00.000-07:00

As you can see I've had a great time in America the last 10 weeks. Here are a few more places I got to see and friends & family to visit with.

Just before I left, the Fowkes's were very kind to organize a family trip south to see the home of one of Virginia's favorite sons: Thomas Jefferson's - Monticello. To be honest, I am not a great fan of Mr. Jefferson. I know, I know; yes, he was the 3rd President of the United States, brilliant at many things and he did a great job writing the Declaration of Independence, but his politics and treatment of his friend and my hero, John Adams irritate me to no end! That said, after our visit and tour: I really like his house. Monticello is truly beautiful and the view is spectacular! I now understand why he yearned to return home and stay there.

I sadly left Virginia (more importantly, left Scout, Isaak and cute little Ellie) to fly to Arizona and have a reunion with two of my sisters and also a long over-due visit with my sister-in-law Mary and our nieces Wendy and Kelly. We enjoyed some competitive card games and great Mexican food. We were also able to visit the Desert Botanical Gardens together which had a special exhibit of Chihuly glass sculptures which were amazing! This yellow thing is about 4 meters tall!

Judy, Marilyn and I drove north to spend a day in Sedona and see some beautiful red rock country. This picture doesn't really capture the incredible beauty of the "red" but it's fun because it's called "Snoopy's Rock". Can you see Snoopy laying on his dog house, and maybe a tiny Woodstock perched on his nose? If you ever travel to Arizona, Sedona is a must see! We also visited Mesa Grande National Monument Prehistoric Ruins. This 3 story building is about a thousand years old! amazing!

My last stop was Bountiful, Utah to visit my long time buddy Karen. We did a little shopping (fabric and American goodies), rented movies and I continued eating my way across America - enjoying Cafe Rio, Nielsen's ice cream Concretes, Carl's Jr and more Taco Bell whenever I could get it! :) Have I mentioned I easily gained 10+ lbs on this trip? groooannn! :(
I also enjoyed a wonderful reunion party of friends that lived or grew up in my home town on the North Coast of California. Patsy, I can't thank you enough for organizing that! It was so fun to visit with dear friends of my youth.

Now you might be wondering: is that woman ever going to return home?

Yes, after 4 airplanes, 19 hours in the air, 2 movies, a long nap, 2 meals, numerous glasses of cranberry juice and packages of peanuts, I arrived back in Brisbane safe and sound last Saturday. Two handsome guys were there to greet me at the airport and was I glad to see them both! Dorothy was right: "there's no place like home".

Virginia

2009-04-27T19:59:00.000-07:00

I've been having a great time here in Northern Virginia with Becky's family; cannot believe Scout will be 6 years old in a few weeks and Isaak turned 3 in February.

It was very fun to dye Easter Eggs and help the Bunny gather some candy for baskets. I've enjoyed reading aloud bedtime stories again - brings back so many good memories. I read aloud to my children every night until they were all well into their teens.

Scout is playing soccer again and I am amazed to watch her practice her violin; it's also been very exciting to listen to her read!

Isaak loves his motorcycle rocker, his sisters and is fearless climbing at the playground. He is going to break hearts with those dimples!

It has also been a beautiful time to be here and see Virginia go green with all the trees and scrubs leafing out. The dogwood is spectacular. It is a typical Spring here - sunny and warm one day then rain and chilly the next which Becky tells me this is common for this time of the year. My thin Aussie blood makes me glad I brought a fleece jumper (sweater).

Had an interesting "First" - was Scout's Show and Tell for her Kindergarten class one morning. I talked about living in Australia and showed them lots of pictures but they were especially impressed with with my Kookaburra call imitation and my koala shaped sugar cookies.

Ellie is good baby and is already growing like a weed.

You win some and you lose some

2009-04-27T09:56:00.000-07:00

I was lucky enough to arrive in Virginia at the peak of the Cherry Trees blooming around the Tidal Basin near the Jefferson Memorial in Washington DC. My first afternoon we had some time to kill so we trooped over to see this spectacular sight. It was beautiful! Thank you Ellie for scheduling your arrival at a great time!

On the down side...... I have visited Washington DC several times and being diehard lover of books, have always wanted to tour the Library of Congress. Well, I thought, now's my chance and I'll treat myself on my anniversary to a day in the "big city". Arrived only to find it closed for the day - WHAT THE HECK! thank you for updating your website! I was one uphappy taxpayer!

So I went next door and wandered through the Supreme Court Building. Very impressive.

I have a travel tip for anyone interested: if you ever want to visit Washington DC, come in the Spring. The weather is perfect: not too hot or humid and the flowers are unbelievably beautiful!

Happy Anniversary!

2009-04-24T21:37:00.001-07:00

Roy and I celebrated our 33rd anniversary on Thursday! Yes, WOW! where has the time gone?Unfortunately we were on separate continents again for the second year in a row. Hoping not to make this a habit....

The Possum Trip

2009-04-12T22:04:00.001-07:00

Hello my friends, it's Alex again.

I'm taking the intiative and writing my own blog post. And this time it's without being threatened by Mum! Amazing huh? And I have nothing else to do on this dark rainy day. I have only been home for three days. For the past two weeks I have been in Southern Australia and Victoria, two of the Southern states below us, about a two hour plane trip. I was invited by a friend of a co-worker of dads to come down and help her with a college research trip she is conducting. She goes out into the Australian bush and traps Ringtail Possums! Being me, I accepted without any second thoughts and after a two hour plane ride, followed by a four hour car ride, I was at the site house. And it was a nice house, with a real bed, running water, electricity for fridge, stove, and microwave, and a working tv and DVD player. The TV and some books a friend loaned to me helped kill the spare time, which we had lots of. BUT! Duing the times that we were busy this is what we did. The woman who invited me down to work with her, now my good friend, is named Melanie. She is doing post Doctorite work for the University of Adeliade.

The first day we got down there we started to set up traps. Setting up a possum trap consists of finding a good spot with a good tree and putting the two and half meter ladder up against your selected tree, chaining the ladder to the tree with a, guess it, chain. Without that chain I would not have lasted very long on some of those thin trees. Once you do that you climb up the ladder wth a hammer and four nails, holding three of the nails in my mouth I would hammer one nail into the side of the tree. then I would put a trap bracket on the tree, and then using the rest of the nails, secure the bracket to the tree. Then you set the trap on the bracket, set it, and ten go and do the next trap. Al together it would take between five and ten minutes per trap. Now turn that into fifty traps and you've got what we were doing fo rth efirst three days. It would have only been the first two, but the place where we set up a patch of 18 traps was a bad spot so we took them all down the verynext day after we set them up and then we set them up at another patch.

So once all the traps are set up the job became easy. Every morning we would wake up at 6:30 (which became 5:30 on the third day, due to daylight savings) and go out in the Ute (Australian pick-up truck) and go check the traps. The empty traps we would just drive past. But the ones with possums in them become exciting. When a possum is in the trap a person has to go up to the trap, lower down to the partner, and then get the possum out. The possum goes into a pillow case where they are then processed. In processing we take measurements of the foot length, head width, and head length. We also see who they are (gender wise), take a DNA sample (cut a tiny piece of ear off), and then give them some bling in the form of a metal tag that gets clipped onto the same ear for easier future identification. After processing we would then let the possum go near the spot where we caught them. We would either process on the spot, or if there were a few possums we would take them home with us and put them into a dark quiet cupboard for the day, processing them later in the arvo (afternoon), and then let them go before dark. Sometimes processing on the spot was slow because the possums were very squirmy and fidgety, compared to the ones who had cupboard time, who would normally be quieter and more relaxed. We only ever had one possum escape during processing, and that was on the second to last day. So that is how you trap and process the possums!

So the checking and prcessing took up the mornings pretty well. So what did we do to take up the arvo's? Well we would go out and check nest boxes. Nest boxes are basically bird houses that are put up out in the bush, except they aren't for birds. They would contain either a: a big spider, b: an Antechinus, or c: a Sugar Glider. Thankfully we didn't get any spiders, but we did get quite a few sugar gliders and luckily we caught three Antechinus's. An Antechinus is a marsupial rodent who looks like a mouse with an elongated head, sharp teeth and claws, and a suicidal bad attitude. They were alright. But the best thing was the Sugar Gliders. They are basically flying squirrels, but much cuter, smaller, and they are marsupials. We found nine Gliders all together. We would process the Gliders and Antechinus's just like the possums, except we wouldn't put tags on them because the tags could be a little big for the little guys.

In case you are confused the thing on the upper right is an Antechinus and the little guy, or girl really, in my hand is a Sugar Glider. And no, I'm not holding her tightly, she was just trying to escape from every possible angle imaginable so I had to prevent that. The Antechinus on the other hand, had to be gripped tightly so as to prevent it from escaping and biting the holder. So naturally, Mel held them.

So this was my trip. Two weeks of hard and repetitive work that tested integrity, courage, and disicipline. Because, after hours of taking traps down, one just wants to drop to the ground and throw a temper tantrum. Thankfully there was none of that, but we came close. But I'm really glad I went, and I can't wait to be able to do field work of my own some day.

An explanation of odd random phenomena you may have noticed in these pictures. The banadana wearing is not really a style, a gang sign, or an act or rebellion. I am wearing a bandana in every one of these pictures because, A: they kept my head and face dry from rain and sweat, B: they kept my head warm in the cold mornings and evenings, and C: they make me look rogue-ishly handsome. The other thing is that during the entire trip is that I didn't shave the entire time. It was really for fun to see what it would look like after two weeks, and since there was no parent to badger me about it I just had fun with it. I came no where near Dad's beard or Mum's legs, but I liked it all the same. Hope you enjoyed this fun little report on my personal adventure.

Solomon Islands Trip

2009-04-12T21:09:00.000-07:00

The Trip of Roy and Alex to the Solomon Islands.

I apologize for the late posting, seeing as how this trip was over a month ago. Things have been hectic and I have been lazy. This is Alex, incase any one was wondering. While Mum is in America living up the good life with the daughters, Dad and I decided to take a man trip to the island of Guadalcanal, in the Solomon Island chain. Guadalcanal was the sight of teh very first American naval invasion during WWII against the Japanese. These little islands are a couple hundred miles North-East of Australia.

When we left Australia it was a cloudy rainy day, and going onto the air conditioned plane somewhat wet was very chilling. But as soon as the five hour flight ended and the doors of the plane opened up we wished the cold air had followed us. The airport in Guadalcanal is a single air-strip and to get off the plane mobile stairs are put up to the two doors and we walk down them to get off. Guadalcanal is very humid and excruciatingly warm. We got our luggage and met up with our tour guide for the week. He is an Australian who has lived in Guadalcanal for the past ten years or so, and has married an islander. They were both very kind, and we would not have survived without them. On this first day we were shown around the capital city of Honiara and then dropped off at our hotel for the rest of the day.

Days two and three were WWII tours to different places around the island where there are pieces of the war still standing. War monuments, pieces of machinery and troop carriers left over just staying wher they wer left, and a "museum" where a very kind islander had collected planes and cannons and stored them in his yard for people to come and see. Amazing things to see and hear about. Day three we went scuba diving on two Japanese ships that were destroyed right off the shore. One was in two pieces and the other was shot up pretty bad. All in all it was kind of creepy to be underwater (i mean in a crushing silence) around these ships where men fought and died on, but still a very cool thing to see. Day four and five were more relaxed. We went to a few moreWWII sites, but otherwise we went snorkelling in the warm water and on day five we went shopping. The local markets are open air markets for everything from gifts to vegetables to fish. The fish were fresh ocean fish (some of which were quite massive), but they didnt smell so great. Then on the final day we went snorkelling in the morning and then onto a plane in the afternoon. It was just the right amount of time to spend in that tropical little island and we were glad to be home.

Introducing Miss Ellie

2009-04-07T18:17:00.000-07:00

Becky presented us with our third granddaughter this last Sunday, April 5, 2009 at 12:59pm - Miss Eleanor Renee Fowkes 10 lbs 11 oz., 22 3/4inches. There is no doubt what family she belongs too - she is a Fowkes through and through - she and Scout at this age could be twins. Mom and baby are doing great!

Isaak and especially Scout think the new baby is pretty special, as as do we.
I posted a "when will Becky's baby be born?" pool on Facebook and unbelievably I won the day and Mary was closest on the weight; nothing like keeping it in the family!
As you may have guessed, I am now in Northern Virginia enjoying another new beautiful grandbaby. Almost every tree is in bloom - it is a beautiful Spring here, albeit a little chillier than Florida - I am wearing long pants for the first time in 6 months!

Florida reflections

2009-04-01T14:03:00.000-07:00

I'm leaving Florida tomorrow morning bound for Northern Virginia to spend some time with the Fowkes's - Becky, Gerald, Scout and Isaak. As of this writing, their baby has yet to arrive. Yes, another new grandbaby! #5

I've had a wonderful visit here - some hanging out, a few adventures and a little excitment one morning. The weather has been great - not too hot, not too cold, almost the same as when I left Auz. The chill of late Winter/early Spring up north will be almost a shock - I haven't worn long pants in about 6 months.

We were able to see the Space Shuttle Discovery launch from Mary's back yard last week - it was very cool!

I was able to do a session the Orlando Temple this morning - it is so beautiful, inside and out!

It goes without saying that I've had a great time playing with Gracie and cuddling Zachary.

Zach now weighs well over 10 lbs and agreed to model some new duds on his quilt.

I think there is nothing more beautiful than a sleeping child.

I find it very ironic that I have lived in a country that is home to 8 of the 10 most poisonous snakes in the world for the past 8 months but have yet to see a snake, period. I come to Florida and within 2 weeks - we found this guy 10 feet from Mary's front door! Pretty sure it was a water moccasin. The complex manager safely removed him to over by the lake.
YIKES!!!!
Now you may be wondering what Roy and Alex have been up to while I've been gone. They had a great adventure trip to Guadalcanel in the Solomon Islands just after I left. Alex promises to write an article, sometime soon.........
Roy is working long hours on a pre-construction site near Gladstone (about 5 hours north of Brisbane) preparing all the environmental specs. The Aborigines on site taught him to stand like a native.
Alex is currently in Southern Australia out in the bush helping a grad student friend with her field work research - trapping possums. Hopefully he'll write about that too with some great stories. He'll be home just before Easter.

Gracie and Max

2009-03-29T12:00:00.000-07:00

Mary and Stuart have a dog named Max who is a 180 lb. Old English Mastiff. Yes, he is BIG (Roy and I jokingly refer to him as a small pony rather than a dog), but he is truly a gentle giant; I don't think there is a mean bone in his big body. Gracie considers him her playmate and he is amazingly tolerant of everything she does to or with him; I just cannot get over it. So I thought it would be fun to share some pictures.I wondered who was walking whom.

Ride 'em cowboy!

Guess where we went?

2009-03-28T22:46:00.000-07:00

We enjoyed a very fun afternoon this past week here in the land of Mickey thanks to Stuart's moonlighting . Gracie really did have a fun time even though she doesn't look very happy in the above picture. She was very excited to meet two live Disney princesses; Belle was especially sweet with her. The weather was great - not too hot, not too cold. The Park wasn't too crowded and baby ZAP was most cooperative. Mary and I enjoyed my favorite ride together - Thunder Mountain - wwwaaaa-huuuu! It's been too long!