Janice's First Babysitting Experience

Sorry to make a second posting on the same day as the last, but I DID manage to get yesterday's picture of Janice into the blog. See how thrilled she is not to be spending the evening with Grandma while her mom and dad go out on a date for the first time since Janice's birth!!
Janice cried for the first hour or so. This picture was taken after the crest of the crying was over and she was only sad. After her crawling and walking to the front door several times while tears were still streaming, I decided to keep her in my room with the door closed. I must say she did get a lot of practice walking, as she would alternately walk toward the door and then toward me when I put my arms out for her. She calmed down after a while and ate some Gerber banana puffs and drank milk from her tippy cup. Then she let me put her on my lap where we played with her Magna Doodle and a musical toy. She got to even dancing to the tunes. Then Kayla came back from having seen Where the Wild Things Are at the Imax theater in St Michael with Uncle Phil and his friend, Erica. (His friend, not his girlfriend! Oh sure, Phil!) Then the three of us were playing with the toys and playing hiding games on the bed with the pillows. By the time Janice's parents came home, things were hunky-dory!

Janice naturally was overjoyed to see her mother. Things went much better than I thought they would. I am hopeful that the next evening she spends with me will go even better. But I'm not going to count on it!

Janice's First Birthday

Looks like she's reading the card with care!

It's October, but I'm posting pictures from Janice's birthday because I'm only now beginning to learn how to use my MacBook Pro to store and post pictures. The party was at her house in St Paul. She turned ONE on September 30. Those in attendance were her parents, of course, and her sister Kayla, Greatgrandmother Anderson, Grandpa Anderson, Uncle Phil, me, and many of her cousins from Gerald's side of the family.
Three of the four generations of women present at the party!! I, the grandmother, was taking the picture. Greatgrandmother Marian got a kick out of watching the gift opening.
All of these girl cousins spent most of their time playing upstairs in Kayla's room where all the costume stuff and girlie toys were. Janice had a princess cake, which we were all happy to help her eat.

That's all for now. I took a picture of Janice last night to keep a record of how she felt about being babysat for the first time in her life. But I can't seem to find where it got stored! When I get to it, I'll post it.

The hottest news item right now is that I auditioned for and was invited to sing with the Minnesota Mormon Chorale. Unfortunately, I've been sick and had to miss a couple of practices. But I sang 2 songs with them on a program organized by the St Paul Stake Relief Society and enjoyed it ever so much! I look forward to the songs we are preparing for Christmas. I will post dates and times for those concerts later.

Catch Up Time

I haven't blogged in over 2 months!! The summer has been full, but I'm only putting in a few pictures and describing a few events today. We had a family reunion with all of our Minnesota kids and their mates and kids in July. We rented a cabin in Itasca State Park while others in the group camped 2 miles away. I'll post pictures of that later, after learning more about posting multiple pictures and "decorating" my blog.

After Itasca, Bob and I drove to Utah. Here is one of my favorite pictures from the trip. It is Nephi wearing a shirt that says it all!! We love visiting our Robin. I caught this picture Robin and Bob. John was driving truck most of the time we were in Utah, but he was in town a couple of days and we went to a ward picnic/bike derby with their Murray, Utah, ward one evening. We again stayed with my sister Lucille and her Yorkies.

This summer Ryan and Andrea moved to Albertville. One night we, Greatgrandma Marian and Ginger, baby Janice, and Kayla went out to the Space Alien Bar and Grill in Albertville with them. Here is a picture of Greatgrandma, Andrea, and me in the restaurant. The kids were off playing video and skill games to earn tickets for prizes. The food was so good that we wondered if Space Aliens might be owned by Famous Dave's. Ribs!! Yummy!

I captured Ginger's Janice on film with her teeth showing through a big grin.

And below is a shot of Janie yesterday at Culver's in Albertville. I stayed with her, Abby, and Mason while Ryan and Andrea took Nolan and Nolan's friend Jacob to the state fair. After lunch, Mason went down for a nap and the girls and I sewed all afternoon. They are learning to use a sewing machine. We made several bags out of old t-shirts, and they sewed gift bags. I put a drawstring top on one of Janie's bags to carry her Book of Mormon.

Last Thursday I was invited to sing with the Minnesota Mormon Chorale after a second audition. (Lots of competition for spots in the group!) I'm looking forward to practicing starting next Thursday.

But the biggest deal around here is Dan's upcoming wedding on September 20. I've got a number of pictures to post later about that!! I am helping sew dresses for the bridesmaids and the flower girls.

Tonight Bob and I are going out to celebrate our 40th wedding anniversary, so I had better get ready for that right now or I'll be late for that the way I was late for our wedding reception 40 years ago!!

Green Gardens and Black Thumbs

When I was in elementary school, I thought it would be fun to join the garden club. We had lilac bushes and peonies in the front yard, lily-of-the valley outside the front door, and a rose bush by the steps down to the sidewalk from the side yard. All I would need to do is plant a few flower seeds in this spot of open dirt between our house and the neighbor's.

The only problem was that I had no background in gardening, and neither did any of my family members. I came to realize that summer that my mother couldn't keep the lilacs from spreading and taking over, the peonies only needed a bit of fence surrounding them, the lily-of-the-valley were coincidentally in a spot where they naturally flouished, and the bush was a WILD rose bush that had survived repeated mowing by my mother and older brother and sisters! In other words, the flowering plants in our yard were low- and even NO-maintenance. I also found out that summer that planting seeds in the ground and watering them would not guarantee anything.

I planted a variety of seeds that came in one envelopes I had purchased at the Paradise grocery store down the street. (I had a crush on one of Mr Paradise's twin sons who were a year older than me and went to Catholic school.) All I can remember now is that carnations were in the mix because I did get a carnation bloom. I have to admit that I didn't do much more than pick out what I thought were weeds and continue to water the ground. That's all I knew to do at the time.

I knew better than to ask Mom for advice or help when not much happened. After all, she had killed almost all of the African violets Mrs Syrotski had given her over the years. And I was too embarrassed by my miserable failure to ask anyone else. There were a few scraggly plants, and then the one carnation bloom. Seems to me a couple of zinnias also came up and blossomed, but they didn't smell good.

Then later in the summer, to my HORROR, I got a phone call to schedule some of the women from the garden club to come and see my garden!!! I didn't want them to come, but how could I say that? So I scheduled, but I wasn't there when they came, big old chicken that I was. I never heard from them again, and I rarely tried in my adult life to nurture a garden. I knew both of my thumbs were black.

Well, this Mother's Day I got living, flowering plants. I can't begin to describe the stress I feel today as I look at the plants now on my deck. I practically break out in a rash every time I think about the Mother's Day plants! Me, with two black thumbs, trying to keep these alive in order to NOT be embarrassed when the kids come over and take a look at the flower pots on the deck. Ryan and Andrea gave me petunias in a hanging basket. I left it hanging and watered it, but wind storms caught the planter and bent the plants. I tried ignoring it, but finally today I cut it back (WAY back) and dug around to bury the roots deeper. If I don't have success reviving the petunias, I'll replant with the same variety so Ryan and Andrea won't notice.

The two pots of flowers Justin's family gave me are doing okay. Thanks goodness!! I kept them in the house until I was certain we were not having the temperature drop below freezing at night. (I forgot about the hanging basket swinging in the cold!) I need to fertilize them all, though. I've got the fertilizer in the garage! I'm amazed I haven't done it already, but I think part of having black thumbs is that the brain that operates them is also deficient in the flower department.

But I am making a commitment to these flowers starting today. I will continue to water, I will fertilize, I will read up on their proper care, and I will ask for advice. And I understand prayer helps too. Thank goodness I didn't totally neglect any of our kids. I figure if I did okay with them in the past, I could surely learn how to do okay with the plants in the present. In fact, I think I'll go buy some flowers to put in the large pots on the front sidewalk!!

Thanh Do Does It

Our son Ryan alerted us to a new Asian restaurant in Anoka, so naturally we had to check it out. We hadn't seen Jerry for a while, so we asked him to come out with us. It turns out he had taken some food out earlier last week, and was very impressed with it.

The new restaurant is named Thanh Do and is located on 7th Avenue across the street from Anoka High School. It is in the row of shops next to Russia Russian Supermarket. I would post its picture, but I have yet to wrangle Dan down to show me how to do that with my new camera. Their phone number is 763-422-0040.

I looked in the MSN yellow pages and found a Thanh Do restaurant in St Louis Park. When I looked at their website and phoned, I found out the Anoka Thanh Do is their second restaurant. It is worth a visit to thanhdorestaurant.com to read their menu and their story.

The restaurant is a family business, but not what you might expect. The oldest brother, Pham, grew up the first 16 years of his life with his mother in VietNam. Wanting better for her son, she allowed him to come to America where he was adopted by the Johnson family. The family has 5 natural children and 2 additional adoptees, one from Ethiopia and one from China. Pham had worked at the Kinh Do restaurant, but wanted a business of his own. His family work together now at 2 Thanh Do restaurants, and we are lucky enough the second one is in our town!

Bob and I agree that the fried rolls at Thanh Do are even better than those at Que Viet/Village House restaurant. There was an underlying spice that really added taste beyond Que Viet's fried egg rolls. There are a number of Que Viet restaurants in the Twin Cities area; we go to the Brooklyn Park location because it is the closest for us. We compare all other Asian food to theirs because it has been our favorite for years. I ordered Basil and Pad Noodles Stir Fry at Thanh Do. Bob ordered Hot and Spicy Chicken. My brother ordered Chicken Eggs Foo Young and Fried Rice. All were exceptional, except Bob still prefers Que Viet's Hot and Spicy Chicken. Their eggs foo young came as two giant mounds with a most tasty gravy. Bob and I decided that next time we would split an order because it is more than enough for two people. The prices are a bit higher at Thanh Do than at other Asian restaurants, but it is worth it because not each diner needs to order an entree for him/ or herself.

We had dinner there. We will have to check out their luncheon menu when Bob has a day off. Of course, I would be open to lunching with others in the meantime!

The restaurant is very nicely decorated, in what the Thanh Do website describes as an "artsy storefront cafe." There are 3 urns filled with growing plants outside the entrance. Inside, oversized yellow lanterns hang from the ceiling. The walls are painted white with mirrors and black-framed mirrored pictures hung artfully. Tables are covered in white linen topped with white paper (changed after each table is served); colored chop sticks in tall glasses decorate the tables.

The wait staff is very friendly and knowledgable. Those we dealt with were young and dressed all in black. They are eager to answer questions and offer suggestions. When you finally can't eat any more, they pack up your left-overs in red microwave-safe cartons.

Visit their website to get the whole story of the restaurants and the Johnson family. You can also view the menu. We found it a bit awkward to read the prices, but that is the only drawback we found. And feel free to call us at 763-421-3849 if you'd like some company when you dine out at Thanh Do in Anoka!

Duluth!!! Some more!

Today is Thursday. I'm still a bit bummed about missing book club, but with so many of the others also missing tonight, we might be discussing tonight's book in June as well. I wrote the last entry last night--Wednesday--as an email to myself, and copied it into this blog.

It is 5:30 PM and I'm in the hotel's computer room again. Another journal entry, to warn you. Could be boring!

I straightened our hotel room early, early this morning, including putting all of Bob's change into $1 stacks. I think I fell asleep around 4:30 AM. Bob, naturally, was sleeping like a baby most of the night. OTC sleeping pills really work for him.

I woke after 8:30 and was feeling pretty happy and full of life. Bob was dressed, reading the newspaper. We had breakfast together in the hotel. Pancakes with strawberry syrup, juice, milk, and some processed sausage-like patties. It was like textured Spam with sausage flavoring. Didn't have to chew it much. But it was complimentary, and that was a good savings. Bob tried something that looked like the kind of fried eggs little girls get with their Fisher-Price kitchens. A perfectly round, white disk with a perfectly round smaller yellow disk in the center. Not one of the better choices. He also had a REAL hard boiled egg. The employee taking care of the breakfast area told Bob they would be having scrambled eggs Friday morning, so he is really looking forward to that. He loved the cheese omelettes they served Wednesday morning. Bob is a major breakfast fan. He has always loved breakfast. I, on the other hand, wake slowly and usually have a light breakfast much later. This morning, I had to lie down after breakfast to recover and digest.

So after that, we finally got in the Trailblazer about 10:30. We drove to the Omnitheater down by canal park and were disappointed to find they currently only run the IMAX shows on the weekend. Their "normal" Theater 10, though, was right next door and started their lineup at 1 PM. We decided to take a ride around to check out some of the gorgeous architecture. There are some stunning old buildings. We stopped and took pictures of the old Central High. It is no longer in use, but their bell tower rings every hour on the hour. We were there to listen to it tell the city of Duluth it was 12:00.

We returned to the movie theater and saw The Soloist with Robert Downey Jr and Jamie Foxx. Bob said it was "all right," meaning it didn't really appeal much to him. But I loved it. I told Bob I didn't want to see any movies that might show people having sex. Actually, I said people who weren't married to each other. But then, I'm not aware of any movies that have shown married people having sex. I guess that would be too nice, and kind of boring. Anyway, I'm getting so I can't take watching such; it makes me sad for a number of reasons and somewhat irritated or angry, even. I figured a show listing two male stars wouldn't include filming of any sex acts. And it didn't. It just showed a perfectly stupid shot of 3 men in stalls taken from the ceiling of a public bathroom. The camers settles on Downey's character spilling his urine sample as he tries to answer his cell. He slips on the spilled urine. LOL? Not me. It seems if they don't have a sex scene, they include the obligatory bathroom scene. It must be Hollywood's unwritten law.

Sorry about the complaints. The Soloist was a rather good movie, and it was a true story. Steve Lopez (Downey)writes a column for a LosAngeles newpaper and happens on Nathaniel Ayres(Foxx), a homeless man, in his search for a human interest article. Nathaniel has a violin with only 2 strings, but he is able to play some melodies. He parks his shopping cart in a park that has a statue of Beethoven, his favorite composer. Steve investigates Nathaniel because he can see he is indeed a musician. Nathaniel had a natural gift for music and learned the cello about the age of 11. He wanted to "catch up" with Beethoven's record of composing. He had a great teacher and practiced and practiced and practiced. He got into Julliard, but dropped out his second year because he became schizophrenic. The movie is the story of Steve's friendship with Nathaniel and of Steve's discoveries about himself and life in general. I strongly recommend this movie.

We had buttered popcorn and a soft drink, and Bob loves to get those free refills--bless his heart. He had refilled the popcorn during the show, but our drink cup was empty except for some ice when we left. Bob went up to the group of the employees putting a cardboard display together and sheepishly asked for more pop. And then -- after the smiling young woman manager went behind the previously empty snack counter -- he went on talking about how he supposed it wasn't so nice to fill it as we were leaving, but that we were entitled to one refill. I told her he most often would embarrass me this way lately. We all laughed. Ha,ha.

We were going to go see another movie, but decided to take a drive up the North Shore Road instead. To repeat, both of us enjoy going for a drive. Must have come from when we were little. It was common then for families to take "Sunday drives." Looking back, there wasn't much else to do on Sundays because all the stores were closed and we weren't supposed to play outside on the sabbath. Today we noticed many houses are for sale. It seems a greater proportion of the homes here are on the market than in the Twin Cities. It was sunny and warm. We stopped at a smoked fish shop. Wow, did it smell yummy in there! We bought a couple of postcards and some Minnesota wild rice. A lot of it!!! I'll be looking for lots of rice recipes when we get home.

When we got back to our Hermantown hotel, we drove past it to explore what was on the other side of the hill. We were hoping for a closer SA, but no such luck. We just got lost. Bob was complaining about the lack of road signs and markers and how poorly laid out this place is!!! I scared him when I turned the Trailblazer around on a country road; he thought I would land the tires on his side of the car in a gully. But I was in control. And after figuring out we needed to keep turning right to find our way back, we pulled safely into the hotel parking lot.

It is 7 PM now. I have spent way too much time writing and rewriting this entry!

Bob is most likely sleeping. I don't dare to lie down because if I do fall asleep, I'll be up all night again! After I close this, I'll take great pleasure in shaking him awake. We'll go to Outback for a late dinner. It is right across the parking lot. So convenient. And no danger of us getting lost again.

Duluth!!!

Following is an account of what Bob and I did here yesterday. It is more of a journal entry than anything. Now that you've been warned, decide whether you want to read on:

Bob and I are taking a mini vacation, staying 3 nights in the Country Inns and Suites in Hermantown, a suburb of Duluth. This is the second night. It is about 2 AM; I can't sleep. I always have a hard time sleeping when I'm away from my own bedroom. The hotel mattress is very comfortable, but (sigh) it simply is not my room.

I wrote a letter to book club members Tuesday evening 5/5, which turned out to be an account of what we did Tuesday. Looking back on Wednesday, I can say that since we didn't make plans other than to go see Hibbing, we had a pretty lazy day. This is what I remember:

Slept too long - I had taken an OTC sleeping pill and benadryl Tuesday night. I slept fairly well, but realized I was extra groggy because the sleeping pill uses benadryl (some long Latin name) as the sleep agent. So I got a double dose!!

When I woke up, I was still half asleep. Bob was up reading the paper, all dressed and combed. I have hazy memories of telling him to go to breakfast because I didn't feel at all hungry. He enjoyed waffles with a fresh strawberry syrup. He brought me back a banana, which was just right.

I took a shower and I believe we left the hotel around 9:30. I pointed the Trailblazer toward Hibbing and stepped on the gas.

A couple of miles up the road, we spotted an SA and pulled in for a morning Icee. Hooray!! No Icee machine. WAHHH!!! We each got a 22 ounce fountain drink. Me, Pepsi. Bob, Mountain Dew.

Continued on toward Hibbing. Spotted another SA! Lightning couldn't strike twice , could it? No, it couldn't. Although this one had an Icee machine, the Icees weren't ready. Too runny. No purchase.

The third SA sold Slushies (NOT ICEEs) ,so Bob bought one for us to share. Mountain Dew. It just wasn't the same, but it was pretty good.

I drove until the OD of benadryl caught up with me. Pulled off to the shoulder and switched drivers. Bob drove us into Hibbing and we looked around the town a bit. We were awe struck when he came upon Hibbing High School. It was built in 1920 out of sandstone. It was huge and imposing, and reminded me of the schools I attended in Minneapolis. They really don't make them like they used to. Minneapolis tore down all the public schools I attended, and it still irritates me that they chose to demolish rather than preserve as Hibbing has. It was so cool to see students running up the stairs and into the school. I took several pictures. The picture I took of a wad of gum on the ground under a railing didn't turn out, so I erased it from the camera.

We continued gawking at Hibbing from the car. Hibbing became a town in 1894, the same year at the Hinckley firestorm. We didn't happen upon the neighborhood where they keep all the old mansions, and we didn't stop to ask where the oldest part of town is. Since we had already been on a tour of a Hibbing mine years ago, Bob decided we should leave.

I was kind of disappointed but as I wrote earlier, we hadn't made specific plans. We left. Or tried to. . . We started our trip back. But we got lost in the outskirts of town. We stopped to ask a woman who was out walking her dog which way it was to the roads that would get us out of town and pointed toward Duluth. She claimed to be bad at giving directions, but she pointed and explained, and we found a road out. After looking for a hook-up to the road we came in on, and after looking at our state map in our Atlas, we got lost again.

Benadryl after-affect made the next bit a blur, but we took a route that was a bit longer than the one we took to get to Hibbing. But we are on vacation, and Bob was only mildly irritated with himself. I mean, it is a bit irritating, but we didn't have anything better to do. I kind of enjoy getting lost. I love car rides.

Super One grocery stores abound in Duluth. Bob needed butter and salt. I stayed in the car and phoned Ginger. She told me Gerald signed on with a temp agency for IT jobs. He started factory work nights just this Monday; they routinely have overtime for their workers. I asked Ginger to consider staying at the house next July while Dad and I go out west. Having Marian stay with Gaynelle isn't working too well since they live in a multi-level town home, so we need someone to stay with her at our house while we are gone.

Then we drove to our hotel. We both napped. I woke up first and took my Lasix pill. About 2:30, we ate our leftovers from Pick Wick. The prime rib tasted every bit as good as it had. Same for the Minnesota bacon wild rice I had chosed instead of potatoes. Bob enjoyed his prime rib morsels and his cheesy mashed potatoes. The rye dinner rolls held up well, but the white rolls didn't. Still, with a ton of butter, they would have been okay. But we tossed them. Bob used his butter on his potatoes and then on the apple-filled crispy we bought at Tobi's on the way up Tuesday. I had no desire for sweets at that point.

We watched TV and read while I left the Lasix work. After I was urinating less (Sorry. Was that too indelicate?), we felt it was safe to continue and we. . .

We drove down to Duluth to visit Canal Street. We had little trouble finding it and parked right across from the mall. Thank goodnes we were able to park close--good old handicap permit--because I really had to use the ladies' room again. We walked a boardwalk and sat a bit looking at Lake Superior. Being there made me feel small in comparison. We talked about that. It made us laugh.

We went back to the mall and went to Hepzibah's candy store. Malted milk balls, pecan turtles, almond bark, orange slices, and one lemon slice. $13. Cute store with a large variety.

I used the facility again. We ordered cream cheese wontons and split an order of beef in garlic sauce at A Taste of Saigon. The waitress left a whole pitcher of water with Bob because he was thirsty. I was glad when Bob only whispered to me that the beef in garlic was better at several other Asian restaurants. It was tasty, but I had to agree with Bob. As the Asian employees (family?) talked and laughed in their language, one of the men sounded exactly like Dung Chong, the owner of a Chinese restaurant had sounded to me when I was a child. The pitch and speed and the way he laughed.

I used the facility yet again. We drove back toward the hotel, but since we now knew where the SA with an Icee machine was, we continued an extra 3-4 miles, going past that first SA from earlier in the day that had no Icee machine. Luckily, this second SA's Icees were no longer runny. Eureka!!! Bob filled the gas tank and then bought Mountain Dew Icees for both of us. The texture was perfect and they had the scoop straws.

When we got back to our hotel, we were pleased that someone had left us the prime handicap parking space. We took our Icees and our bag of Hepzibah's candy in with us. I read in the BOM and finally got it straight about where Mosiah came from and how he got to Zarahemla. I talked about it and read some with Bob. Omni writes about it. Then we have Mosiah, Helaman, Helaman, Alma, Alma. Mosiah took the brass plates etc with to Zarahemla. Now I need to review how Mormon and Moroni got them. Handed down from Mosiah et al? Was the setting for the rest of the BOM Zarahemla? I don't think so because then there were years and years of contention/wars with the Lamanites.

We watched TV. Fox News channel. Bob fell asleep on the bed. I sat in the chair and put my feet up on the footstool and almost managed to stay awake to the end of some crime show. So here I am in the middle of the night, unable to sleep. (I'm in the computer room at the hotel.) I even took a sleeping pill!!! Well, it is now after 3:30 AM. I should be able to sleep now. And I'm going to take the Lasix first thing in the morning. We'll eat our complimentary waffles for breakfast and will not get up from the table without writing down our plans for the day. We want to see the Omnimax Theater, for one thing. I'd like to drive to Grand Marais, but there are things to do in Duluth and this area. Maybe the zoo. I'd like to take pictures of some of the old buildings. Both of us like historical buildings. I'm hoping there will be a really wowsy old Catholic church we can walk into.