Happy New Year!

  Preston took this picture for us.  We are enjoying pancakes each morning for breakfast

Enjoying time in Arizona with Erik and family.  They have an amazing tree with bright oranges and dark green leaves on most of it, and a few branches of perfect grapefruit on the other side.  We made  fresh orange juice for breakfast and it was delicious!

Christmas 2010

Kydon and Shanna came to see us a day or two before Christmas so we could enjoy the anticipation together for a day.  We had a fish fry, went to a live nativity and spent Christmas Eve Day doing a hike at Pine Mtn.  It was just right for getting out....cool and crisp but cold enough to feel like Christmas.   We went to Fox's for pizza and stromboli after.  Then home to get ready for the big day.

This year was the first time Terry and I have spent Christmas without any of our kids around us.  We decided to go to dinner at Outback with our friends the Bowen's.    Then home to watch Mr. Krueger's Christmas before time for bed.  We enjoyed opening gifts on Christmas morning.   What a happy time, and we loved talking to all of you  on the phone to hear how your special morning went! It really was a Merry Christmas!

Thanksgiving

We had a really nice Thanksgiving with some of our family at our house for the big feast.  It was warm enough for shorts and we got to spend some time at the park just playing around.  Scott brined the turkey which made it so moist and tasty.  Celebrating Peyton's first birthday was also fun for all of us.  He is a cutie!

Dane and Laura came from Texas and we all enjoyed them so much....especially the kids.  Laura is good to play outside with them and Dane is always fun to talk to.  We went to the UGA/Ga Tech game too.  Cold as could be and Granny got sick the next day....but was worth it to be together.

Missionary Dinner

Tonight we went to Shiloh, Georgia for a pool side dinner with the sister missionaries.  They stay at a friend's home that has a beautiful view of the mountains and trees on Pine Mtn. We got to enjoy being outside on a hot, humid, July afternoon and it really wasn't bad because we had good food and good company.  The sister missionaries are so sweet and fun to talk to.  What hard workers too, and how organized and diligent they are in bringing the gospel message to investigators and members in this area.  They had appointments today and were setting things up for tomorrow while we were with them.  It was really fun to get to know them a little better.

Sunday evening

:I Love to see the Temple."    This picture is actually at the Seattle temple and was taken when we were there before the cruise.  The sculpture is the same as is found in Nauvoo.  I am grateful for temple ordinances that bind us together as eternal families. 
Today was a wonderful day at church as I was able to visit a Primary and feel the spirit that comes with children who are so sweet and innocent and ready to learn and grow.  I love everyone who serves children by teaching and loving them and taking the time to help them down the paths that will help them return to their Father in Heaven again.  Yesterday at the Birmingham Temple I was reminded of the plan of salvation and the great blessing it is to all of us here in mortality.  As we knelt across the altar to do some sealings for husbands and wives, and also for families, the spirit was strong and confirmed that family life is the greatest happiness we can experience.  I love my family and want to be with them forever one day. 

Friday night again!  It has been a good week and I'm glad the good old summertime is here.  We are getting tomatoes off our own vines now and the flowers I have in pots by the driveway are looking good.  Terry is off with the missionaries tonight.  He has been putting new windows in our house and doing a great job.  We will blog about this soon, and put in some pictures.
Tomorrow we are going to the Birmingham Temple and taking three ladies who have soem family names to work with.  We are looking forward to a great day together.

July 1, 2010

Today is the start of a new month so I'm thinking about missionary work and wanting to do more about sharing the gospel.  I met Lee while on the plane to Seattle and turned out he knew a lot about the church and loved talking about it to me, so it was a marvelous missionary moment for me!  He had good memories of working with members years ago when he worked at a steel plant.   He had made friends and had actually had the missionaries teach him at one point.  He remembered the kindness of the members to his family.  One man had played Santa to his kids for several years.  He had been to the temple open house for the Seattle temple, and was anxious to take us there so he offered to give us a tour of Seattle and we went there before we went on our cruise.  The man in the middle is a bus driver and an old friend of Lee's.   (Lee is a retired bus driver).  We met him quite by chance while touring a neighborhood in Seattle.  Lee has now been contacted by the missionaries again and has expressed interest in visiting the church..    Today I want to drop him a note and ask how he is doing.   

Trip to Alaska

Here we are in Seattle on the first day of our adventure.  We had a tour through the neighborhood where my sister in law,  Martha Leavitt used to live.  The Queen's area overlooks the water and there's an excellent view of the skyline from here.  The houses were small and quaint (and big and nice) in this area.  Most had beautifully landscaped yards and lots of bright flowers.   Seattle had a unique feel about it.  Lots going on all over town.

This picture is the Tracey Arm Fjord.  The glacier spills into the ocean and ice chucks are floating all around in the water .  We got up early this morning to see the scenery as the ship passed through a narrow inlet to get us close to the blue ice of the glacier.  Very beautiful!  We met new friends on board too.  That was one of the best parts of the cruise for me.

This amazing waterfall was right by the Mendenhall Glacier in Juneau.  (above this picture) We hiked about a mile from the visitors center to get to it.  A really nice day and some people were even swimming in a warm water pool along the path.  The weather was perfect on our trip.  May is the best time to visit Alaska.

Here's the seven of us who took the trip for Granny's 80th birthday.   My wonderful sister in law Martha Leavitt .  My brother Berne and his son Cade, Terry and me, Mom, and my sister Bonnie.  It was great to have just the seven of us.  So nice for visiitng and getting places together. These gardens in Victoria Canada were absolutely beautiful!

Celebrating Granny's birthday at dinner.  We actually did it twice since we forgot to take pictures the first time.  Some of the waitors gathered around with us to sing.  We all ate a lot of dessert every night.  Everything was so good and we all came home much fatter!

This is our waitor that took such good care of us for a formal dinner each night.  He is Reagan from India.  Very cute with a smile we all loved!  Terry has these pictures labeled, but I can't preview them before they start loading.  I'll try one more and see if it's a good one to show....(picture is above)
Terry posing by an "inukchuk."  These are man made rock creations that we saw when we got off the white rail train on our way to the summit in Skagway.   Beautiful mountains and icy waters....Alaska is a rainforest and everything is very lush and green.
The captions aren't going with the pictures.   Sorry, I'll try one more.....

Here we are after dinner one night.  We dressed up sometimes which was really fun.  This is the internet place on the ship.   We were just looking for a quiet place to take a picture. The cruise was great and we liked it a lot more than we thought we would.  Hope we can all go together some time in the future!

Preparing for Alaska

This week is exciting and fun as we are thinking about our upcoming trip to Alaska.  I'm telling everyone that we are doing a cruise for my mother's 80th birthday.  So many have said what a great thing it is to be able to go with family, and now they want to do it too.    I really am glad that it is Granny's idea that we go, and as the time gets closer I am so glad that she has wanted to do this.  We started last summer with the planning, since this is my year to put something together for a family reunion.  We decided that after this trip, we won't have a big reunion every summer....I think we decided on every other year??  I'm not sure, I just know that getting together as often as possible is really important. We all need to know each other and remember that we are family!  I miss being close to all of you and hope that we can keep up family ties on blogs, email, phone and by going to reunions as often as possible.  (We did decide to have a family gathering at Cedar City on Grandpa's birthday July 17th , for whoever can come.)  I think it would be good to send pictures for those of us who can't make it, and hopefully we can still stay updated when we do come and see everyone's picture on Granny Leavitt's fridge or the wall in the library.    To my family:  I noticed there aren't as many updated pictures of us as there could be.  Please send something new to Granny soon.  The whole family will get to see you when they visit her....so please update!
Anyway, back to the cruise.  There are seven of us going.  Terry and me, Granny and Bonnie Cook in a cabin, Berne and Cade together, and Martha Leavitt has her own place, complete with a balcony because she has done cruises before and knows it is important to do it right!  We are looking forward to visiting her when we are cruising at sea between dockings.  I've heard the scenery is spectacular and that it can get cold on deck, so hope we can sip hot chocolate with Martha at her place.   Bonnie and I have gone round and round about what land excursions to do when the ship docks.  It has been fun to research what is available and try and decide what to do.  In the end we are only scheduling one ahead (Vancouver to see Butchart gardens).  We're deciding on the others after we get on board ship.  We have heard positive and negative about scheduling ahead or waiting, but since deciding now is so hard, we are waiting.  We may be disappointed if they are overbooked and we miss the train to the summit in Skagway, but like one travel lady said, "just do something else" so that is what we are doing.
I started packing today....warm scarf, gloves, headband, and swimsuit and towel for lounging at the pool, formal dress for dinner on ship a time or two, (my wedding dress that is seldom used does get another wearing) and just a few tops to go with jeans, which I expect will be my main thing to wear everyday.  Mom said to go light and I am trying....but it is nice to have a choice...oh well!
Anyway, Terry and I are super excited.  We will be taking pictures and we will try to send postcards.  Please let me know if you want one sent to you. 

Williamsburg Virginia

Kydon and Shanna invited me to go to Wiliamsburg with them for spring break.  We drove eight hours to get there and it was well worth it!  We stayed at the "Powhatan" which was a nice resort place with indoor and outdoor pools, a playground, and beautifully landscaped grounds for the kids to run and play on.  We visited the historic triangle:  Williamsburg, Yorktown and Jamestown.  Here's Kydon and Shanna onboard the "Susan Constant" the largest of the three ships to make the original 1607 voyage to America.  (It was surprisingly small,. just 116 ft. long!)
We all explored every ship, and heard about the voyages from costumed sailors.    There were forts, museums, trolley rides, and lots of fun places to eat out and explore on the trip.  We also went to North Carolina and had fun there.   Thanks Kydon and Shanna.  I loved going on vacation with you.

My new bike at long last.

 

About 4 years ago I started riding. I quickly went through or tried 2 bikes and quickly discarded them. I got this 30 year old bike and have been riding it for about 3 1/2 years. I slowly upgraded, but there is only so much you can do to an old bike. It was about 30 lbs when I started and is about 26 lbs. now. I knew I would be getting a modern bike as soon as I felt I had the money. Everything is a compromise where money is concerned. If not we would all have the best of everything, house, cars, trips, food. etc. It took be awhile to come to grips with what I was willing to compromise on and what I wasn't. The most expensive  bikes are the lightest and the fastest. I knew weight would be a compromise. The compromise ended up at 19 lbs. That is pretty light for a heavy rider tipping the scales at nearly 200 lbs.  The rest of this blog will be some of my thoughts on the bike I have built and why I did different things.


First it had to be the right size, not compromise here. I am 6 ft. 3 in. tall, so a big bike is a must. I found this bike frame on Craigs list. It is 65 cm. That is very big. It is Aluminum with a carbon fork and Carbon Seat stays. The carbon is the black parts. The compromises are it is from a small company with a reputation for bad paint and graphics. It isn't very flashy and the paint chips like crazy. You can see the large chip if you look close. The frame was never assembled into a bike, so it was virtually new.
 

 I got the handle bars used from Craigs list. I would like wider bars but they are fine and another compromise. The seat post works great and is generic. It isn't heavy or light saved money. The wheels are very inexpensive, but are very aerodynamic. They spin true and are pretty light. I have the same ones on my old bike. I saw a $10,000 bike smashed up in a mater of seconds and decided some parts just don't need to be exposed to being trashed. That is when I decided $450 cheaper wheels than I was planing on were just fine.

The tires are also a compromise.
The are pretty expensive, but I shop and shop for good deals. they are pretty light and roll really fast. I get about 3000 miles on them. Lighter tires are more extensive, but don't last as long. They also are not prone to flats and will take up to 165 lbs of pressure.

I decided to get the best running gear I possibly could get. There are 3 companies that the pro riders use. Each company has it's own top of the line models. They do work a little differently. I decided no copromise here and went with SRAM Red shifters, chain, cassette, and derailleurs. The crank has to be 180 mm long, no compromise. Red didn't offer one that long so I went with a lower priced rival model. It saved a lot of money and is a lot less maintenance than the Red model. Good choice there. The pedals have always been  a problem. You can't know until you try them. I read and read and ended up with an ebay deal on speed play 5x model I think. I really like them, but will try another speed play model next time. The saddle is another problem. Hurts you if you don't get the right one. The local bike shop loans out test saddles. I tried several and settled on the Selle SMP Glider. It is the best one so far.

The crank

                                                                                                  The saddle.

The bike

I really like the bike. It is a lot of money , but way less than what others have invested. If  I crash, I won't feel so bad when things break. One or two pieces can be replace with minimal outlays. click on the pictures if you want a closer look. There are a lot of details I left out, so if you want to know more just ask.
By the way the new bike has it's own garage. That's the yellow cover in the first picture. Works well to keep it clean and free of dust in the wood shop/garage.

A visit to Atlanta

Yesterday we had a fun day in Atlanta visiting with Kydon, Shanna and kids.  Spring is finally in the air so it was a good day to go to a soccer game, have a picnic and hike with the Olsen's and to visit the Llsen's at their house.

 

  

February

The month is almost gone and it has really flown by!  I have been busy working my little part time jobs that are now a bigger part of my life than I thought they would be.   I have a few piano students, have done some childcare, have worked some days at Sodexo catering, have cleaned houses for three wonderful ladies, and have been very busy helping put together the women's conference in our stake.  All of these things should be talked about in detail, since they have all been fun and good experiences for me.  In the future I want to start doing this..but it takes a lot of time and I must keep trying to be more patient and just do it!!.   I will blog more as things happen next month.    Details make things interesting, right?  Anyway, that's another goal to work on.

I was talking to Erik tonight about making things with wood. I told him how I had wanted to make a simple table without fancy joinery and this is what I came up with. It is a country table that resides in our kitchen. There is very little hardware involved with this table. There is a screw and knob for the drawer and 4 screws to fasten the top. You may notice the apron goes around the outside of the legs instead of the typical way of between the legs. The legs are the key to holding the table together.
They are face glued straight to the inside corner of the apron.

The top is joined in the normal way for a flat panel, no dowels, splines, or plates.

The drawer does have dovetail joints at the front. These were simple and I cut them by hand using a saw and a chisel. A router takes a lot more set up time. I think I remember using the band saw also. The other end is a simple dado cut on the table saw. I added some interest by beveling the ends of the drawer front. It makes it look much lighter, don't you think so?

The drawer slides are simple also.
Just wood above, below and to the side of the drawer. It slides so nicely! I love wooden drawer slides with a little wax on them. The hardware is to fasten the top. Maybe you can see below. There is an ell shaped piece of wood with the nose inserted into a slot in the apron. The ell is then screw to the top. There are 4 of these. One near each corner. I used a router to make the slot (dado).


I think this is a nice looking table. It is light weight and light in appearance. It doesn't have that refined look of gentrified furniture. The top overhangs a bit more than usual. This also adds to the country look. The pictured colors are pretty much true. The stain I used turned out way more orange than I had planned for, but it has grown on me, until I now like it. The top is finished with gloss polyurethane. Stain only on the rest. Maybe someday I will finish it. What do you think? Is it worth messing with, or should I leave well enough alone?

Being creative....I can do it!

This week I went to lunch with a friend that showed me some cute head bands she was making to sell.  I thought they were so cute and looked easy so I would try and do the same.  You mostly find unexpensive headbands and then embellish them. 
I even found the embellishments ready made for a good price, so last night it was pretty easy to put a dozen of these together.  Now I'm thinking it will be more fun to give them as gifts since I don't really have a way to market them.  It was fun to be successful at doing something new!
I did buy one from her for a good example of how cute they can be.  I bet you can tell which one it is!

This is a picture of my latest and not so great find.
This mirror was free. You know one of those old gold painted ornate frames you never want. More burnt yellow than gold and flat, not glossy. Well I thought maybe black paint would bring it into modern times. Didn't happen! Although it is an improvement, I can't find a place it the house that I would want to see it on a regular basis. I will try it for a while and see if I can get used to it enough to keep it. I have a smaller mirror almost like this one, but no black paint as of yet.

What do you think? Maybe white paint? Chuck the frame and what? Make a frame? What should it look like?  Here is another picture with a different exposure, but fuzzy as I couldn't hold still enough without the flash.

Remember you have to overlook the mess.

Cleaning out

We had a great class in RS recently that motivated me to clean out and organize around the house.  Today I hit the kitchen pretty hard.  Pulled everything out of the cupboards, washed the shelves, and then proceeded to throw away, give away and change around whatever was left.  Like things go together, food in one cupboard, cooking items in another, new place for the toaster and some serious cleaning underneath the microwave.  Wow, it looks so much better and makes you want to simplify and enjoy having extra space!  Now for the closets and drawers.....The rule is to ask yourself::  Do I need it?  Do I use it?  Do I love it?  If the answer isn't "yes" to at least one of these, then the item should go.  Another tip to make this easier is to tell yourself, "if I haven't used this item in a year I am being selfish if I keep it...someone else no doubt could use it more than me."  This helps let go of those valuable little treasures that we are attached to, but aren't using and don't have a place to keep.
It also helps to repeat to yourself over and over while working, "A Place for Everything and Everything in its Place."  If you can't find that "place" to put it away, then it has to go!  Simple, huh, but actually hard to do for me since I have the mentality of knowing I want it around in case I need it sometime, and I certainly don't want to give away something I think is valuable......Still, there is a lot of peace of mind in cleaning out and letting things g,.  so I will continue with the closets and drawers.

the wooden bike rack

So here we are with another project done. I have been carrying my bike in the back of my truck when I head down to Fort Benning to ride with my group. It is an old scratched up bike so I haven't been worried about it too much. This picture shows just how I hold it. You can see it is less than ideal.

I am still in the process of building a nice new bike without scratches. It is not cheap to build a nice bike, so I wish to protect it from harm when it is finished.

I spent many sleepless nights planing a bike rack. The modern high quality bike racks do not touch anything but the tires. (That way we don't get any new scratches.) So, a tire holding rack was my desire and plan.

I also wanted to be able to use my truck to haul other items. The rack needed to be easily removable. These are two big challenges!

The final product works great and is easily removed by pulling out 2 pins. The rack weighs between 5 and 10 pounds, is easy to handle, stores in very little space and out of the way. The clamp and mounting bar stay in the truck and out of the way. I painted it black so it looks like it belongs. I have used it several times and the bike is solid as can be in all the traffic maneuvers I make.


1-the rack by itself

2-the bike mounted

3-close up of the clamping system

The rack is made from 2x4 material I had laying around and 2 pieces of aluminum and screws and bolts and paint. About $10 total. Next time when I add another rack I will use wood instead of aluminum for the angle supports. The clamp cross section is 3/8 x 1 1/2. Next time I will use 5/8 x 1 1/2.

let there be light

Some of you already know I recently put a light in our master bath shower along with a bathroom ventilation fan. It's not really exciting but in the interest of blogging, I thought why not. Most of you almost never get here to see it, so maybe you can get an idea of how much this has lightened up our early mornings. First I had to put in a second switch. I had an extra switch so used it. Problem some have noted. It isn't the same color at the other switch and plate. Doesn't bother me as the fan works great. We have had a small problem with mold in the shower since putting in a programmable thermostat. We hope the ventilation will eliminate the problem.



Here is a picture of the fan and light.


This next picture show what the light looks like close up.




Finally I am trying to give you an over all effect. It is amazing how the whole bathroom is brighter, not just the shower. We are really enjoying the light and hoping the fan will solve the mold problem.