The Library

Ever since I was ten years old I started collecting books. I loved reading and I loved books. I loved seeing them lined up on the shelves on the small bookshelf that was in my room. It's hard to explain the happiness I felt at being a bookowner. There were Nancy Drew books, Trixie Belden books, Black Stallion books and most of all of Albert Payson Terhune's books about dogs. There was Misty of Chincoteague and Sea Star, Black Beauty and Special Agent Donna Parker. I would save up my allowance and buy these books to add to my collection. Sure, I would check out books at the library, but to me there was just something very satisfying about owning a book.

As time went on my little book collection grew and grew to where after many years our home was filled with books. Some were church books, fiction, nonfiction, Japanese books, self help, and genealogy. There were books about dogs, travel, marriage, art, gardening and hundreds of childrens books. Tolstoy, Dickens, Dostoevsky, Austin and Hugo joined the group along with many other wonderful storytellers.

So...when we bought our new home a few years ago I decided to turn one of the rooms into a Library and fulfill my life long dream of having a library in my home. Not everyone gets to have a dream come true but I had the time, means and desire to fulfill mine. I was so excited. I bought four, large, beautiful bookcases and filled them with books. Then I added a beautiful rug, a relaxing leather couch and comfy chair. I also added a wonderful desk which I guess in retrospect I should have skipped because it's really big and I could have used the space for another bookcase. But I thought Ken would enjoy his own desk were he could work in peace in quiet.


The couch makes out into a queen size bed so guests can even sleep in The Library. I thought it would be wonderful wondering about all the stories, knowledge and mystery stored in those books as one fell asleep. I had hoped it would be a refuge during noisy family get-togethers. There is even an HDTV tucked away in the closet just for one of my son-in-laws so when he is tired of the Disney movies downstairs he can watch sports in peace.

There is just one problem, people keep calling The Library , the study. I keep telling them that it is The Library, you know, that dream come true thing, but they are slow to get it. I'm thinking about taking out the desk, no desk, no studying, right? And one daughter told me, it couldn't be a library, it was too small. Are there actual rules as to a library's size or the number of books it must hold? (There are over a thousand books in The Library) Well, I don't really care.

Because...it's my dream, therefore I am going to call it The Library!

AIRPORTS

I found this old blog and thought I might as well go a publish it. It was kind of a stream of consciousness thing.

Here I am sitting in another airport. I travel a lot and so I spend a lot of time in them. This time it's the Salt Lake airport which as airports go is pretty nice. They are always improving it, Chinese food, CPK and Krispy Kreme and that just about covers my needs. Actually there are lot of places to eat and shop. It's usually pretty clean except for the time I saw a mouse scurry from one planter to the next.



LAX gets a 3 on Deborah's scale of 1-10. It kind of depends on the terminal but in general it's kinda old and lacks good choices for food. The International Terminal is embarrassing. JFK is not only busy but very confusing, I'm giving it a 4. Heathrow wasn't impressive but I was so excited to be in England I didn't care while the security at the Brussels airport was so scary and I was so tired I don't remember much except it very clean. Tahiti's airport at Papeete was horrible, tiny, old and no place to buy are candy bar or a bottle of water. They also allow smoking, can you believe it? I deserves a -1 but my scale doesn't go that low.



Atlanta (6), O'hare (6)and Newark (8), are busy but there's plenty of places to eat and shop. I even found a sit down restaurant in Newark that used cloth napkins.



Albany, Ontario and Sacramento all get a 7 though they should probably be in a separate category for smaller airports. Though Sacramento's rental cars are about fifty miles from the airport and Ontario's food sources are only open for about six hours. Long Beach is pitiful earning only about a 3 but Jet Blue flies out of there so I'm at their mercy. Albany is probably the best of the lot. I can't remember San Antonio or Phoenix so they must not be bad I guess I'll give them both a 5.

Oops, they are calling my "zone", I'd better get going or those people in the other zones will steal my overheard compartment. I can always finish this next time I'm stuck in an airport.

Though I think I need to stay home for awhile, don't you?

40 cents a minutes

Dear Family I am sending this to you from our cruise ship docked at Bora Bora. It costs .4o a minute to use their internet connection so I'm going to type very fast and apologize in advance for mistakes.

Dad and I are having a great time. We have eaten some of the best pinapple in the world and dad is having fun eating lots of fish. We have gone swimming and snorkeling and the water here is the warmest I have ever been in next to our pool or my bathtub. There are coconuts everywhere. We went snorkeling with some sharks the other day, they were really nice sharks and there were a lot of other people they could have eaten before even getting to us so things went okay. Dad got to swim with dolphins that day too. The boat we were in went out into the ocean to find some dolphins for us to see and when we found some he let two people jump out of the boat and swim with them. Your dad was one of the lucky ones chosen, you should have seen the grin on his face when he got out of the water.

I am having a lot of fun too but have begun to get homesick. I hope all of you are Okay and getting ready for Christmas. I can hardly wait to give you all hugs. Tomorrow we will agian swim with the sharks and some rays. The islands here are beautiful but there is a lot of poverty.
There aren't too many nice places to shop so I'm bummed, just a little.

Please let me know how you are doing. Nobady is blogging but Ryan. Hey leave Facebook for a little while and blog or email your MOM.

Love you all!

THE HOLIDAY SCHEDULE

The holiday season is here. Halloween is Friday night and I can't get your dad to wear a costume. He'll be at the ward trunk N treat and I just think he should wear a costume. There are only about a dozen kids in our primary so it should be short and those kids are going to get a lot of candy.

I am staying home to pass out candy. I can't disappoint the little ones who come to our door. I hope Ken gets home before the teenagers come, some of them are bigger than I am. I have bought 400 pieces of candy so we won't run out. Last year we had to make emergency runs to the grocery store. I wish I could be be with all the grand kids, please be sure and take a lot of pictures.

We are flying to New York on Nov. 6 and will be home on Nov. 12. Megan says its getting ready to snow this week while here today it is over 90 degrees. I think I will be glad for some cooler weather, now if I can just find my snow boots. If it's too cold I'll just stay in and kiss those sweet babies. I am looking forward to seeing Josh's preschool. I also hope Jason will cook some braughts, not sure of the spelling, for me.

Brandon, Chelsea, Ken and I are driving to Utah for Thanksgiving. I think we are leaving Tuesday, November 26 early in the afternoon. I can hardly wait to see the kids and Ryan. Lindsay and the dogs will stay here and hold down the fort. You know Lindsay was thinking about getting another dog. I think they would then out number us.

December 7 your dad and I fly to Tahiti. We spend the first few days at a hotel with those bungalows that are over the water and then we board our ship for our cruise. Nice Christmas present huh? We paid for this two days before the stock market crashed. Seems like a much too extravagant gift now but it's too late to get our money back. Darn. We just won't be buying any souvenirs. We will be home on the Dec. 20. We hope you will all start arriving soon after that.

Christmas won't be quite as fantastic as last year but we can all rejoice in the fact that we all have the things we need-no designer purse for me this year-and we belong to such a great family.

I love you all and can't wait to give you all hugs and kisses.

Remember I love you all more than DVR.

MOM/Grams/Deborah

Counting the Days till the Election is over.

Life has been a little stressful this past month. I have become quite involved in Presidential politics. Your dad has been quite patient with me and my political signs all over the front yard-there are four, though I bought about eight-and the Palin baseball caps I wear everywhere. I decided that I wouldn't give any more money this year to any of the political groups. Instead I bought lots of signs and baseball caps and have been giving them away to people who want them and will use them. I even got Dad to delicately lay a McCain/Palin bumper sticker inside his back window. He just couldn't bear the thought of actually sticking it on the bumper of his new car. But I'm afraid how much of our money Obama will take and redistribute. If anyone sees Mr. Obama will you please tell him that your mom does just fine at that redistribution stuff and doesn't need his help.

Church members here in California have been asked to give about four hours a week helping with the YES on 8 proposition. Every night I sit down and call total strangers to find out how they feel about the prop. I've called people who aren't even citizens, wrong numbers, people who can't speak English, and people who have moved out of state and don't care about California's problems. Nobody and been mean yet, I had a few hang ups, and one lady who was sorry to disappointed me but still was going to vote no. Several others have thanked me and blessed me for doing the work.

I have discovered that I am out of practice at doing the hard things. Making these calls is terrifying, well at least at first. I don't know how Chelsea is doing but she is doing the same thing that I am. I have murmmered, whined and tried to get your dad to help me with the calls. I don't see me meekly walking back to Missouri. I have tried to bribe Lindsay but she's not taking the bait. So it looks like I will have to finish making all the calls. We are all worried about what will happen in our schools if this thing doesn't pass. Can you imagine me handling the fact that parents have no say in what is taught to the children.? Well, it won't be my fault. Ryan don't forget to send in your absentee vote.

Please pray for California on the 4th of November, it's going to be close.

I will hopefully write a happier blog next time.

Love ya all more that Obama!
MOM

Once there was a little girl

Once there was a little girl... who had a little curl... right in the middle of her forehead. And when she was good... she was very, very good... Well I was about six or seven and only had short straight bangs. But those are real pin curls all over my head. The picture must have been taken on a Saturday evening in the back yard of our house on San Margue Circle, so the curls were for church the next day.

Well the poem continues like this, and when she was bad she was horrid......

I don't know what my dad said to me to cause me to make a face like that but I'm sure I thought I was being funny. I was probably running around so much that my hair was starting to fall out of the pins. That was one of my favorite shirts. That's kids for ya, sweet one moment goofy the next. I hope you all got a good laugh. Be happy and hopeful.

Love you all more than books!

The Victory Sign

We have arrived in Orlando safely and are staying at a beautiful hotel. It's warm and muggy but that's okay so far. At dinner last night a couple told us that John McCain was staying at our hotel. We had noticed a lot of black vans and SUVs and wondered if they were for McCain.

This morning as we were riding down the elevator we saw a woman wearing a Palin for Vice President, it was pink with McCain in little letters on the back. She told us she worked for the Governor and that she was in our hotel.

Your dad and I went on to sacrament meeting here in Orlando. After returning to the hotel I was walking through the huge lobby and noticed that there were hotel workers and security people blocking a set of doors and I could see a large bus with Straight Talk Express, John McCain.com.

After nearly an hour of waiting, Governor Palin and her family came out of a private elevator a right past our spot. I gave her little daughter the victory sign which she returned with a big grin. A second later Sarah Palin walked by and I also gave her the victory sign which she also returned along with a beautiful smile. I have not been this excited about a politician since I first realized that John F Kennedy was handsome, but then I was only ten.M She's a mother of lots of kids and I know what that takes and she is works to make things better in the world around her.

I couldn't fine anyone to get me a pink hat even after offering $100.00 to anyone who would get me one. I have broken my own rules about getting excited about celebrities but I just really want here to win. I went online and ordered some signs and caps. Let me know if you want one.

Love you all more than OREO cookies!

MOM/GRAMSIE/Deborah