Tagged by Laura

How did we meet?

Brian and his friend, Tom, moved into one of the apartments in my four-plex. My friend, Becky, had lived in an apartment house in town when Tom lived there. Tom didn't have a lot of female friends ..... he wanted them, he just didn't have any. (No offense Tom). So his birthday was February 21 and he invited Becky and I up to his apartment to celebrate his birthday. Brian was playing poker with his good friend, Stan Terry, in the kitchen. He didn't even look up when Tom introduced us all and he and Stan stayed in the kitchen while we had a beer with Tom and then left. As that semester in school went on, Brian and Tom would help me start my car and empty my mouse traps and mow my lawn.

Where did you go on your first date?
Brian invited me to be his date for a picnic all the law enforcement class were having to celebrate their graduation. He dumped me and Blake at the "wives" table and he went fishing all afternoon. Then he took us home and he left and had another date with someone else.
Our second date we went to Walla Walla and picked strawberries and made strawberry jam.

How Long have you been together?
We just celebrated our 30th wedding anniversary on July 22. We met and first got engaged 35 years ago, but we broke up for almost 5 years before we got married.

Who eats more?
Definitely charlotte, sorry to say

Who said I love you first?
Absolutely no clue

Who is taller?
Brian

Who sings better?
Charlotte

Who is smarter?
The smart answer would be to say my spouse, but I think we are each smarter in different areas.

Who does the laundry?
Brian does now, but I used to.

Who does the dishes?
Again, Brian does now, but I used to. You have to watch him when you are cooking, you just set a spoon down and whish, it is either in the dishwasher or washed. He is really speedy.

Who sleeps on the right side of the bed?
I never know the answer to this - is it the right side when you are at the foot of the bed? or the right side when you are lying in bed on your back?
If you are at the foot of the bed, I'm on the right. But if you are lying in bed on your back, Brian is on the right.

Who pays the bills?
Charlotte

Who mows the lawn?
Brian or Alicia or Justin or a neighbor kid if we have one

Who cooks dinner?
We prepare dinner as a team = Brian and Alicia cook most of the time now, I try to plan the meals and make sure we have all the ingredients (I think the thinking up part is the hardest, so I'm usually too tired to do the cooking part, hehehe). I used to cook, but Brian is a really good cook and was famous for his baking before we got married.

Who drives when you are together?
Brian always drives in the country and Charlotte usually drives in the city = but Charlotte doesn't drive very often any more

Who is more stubborn?
ummmm, that would probably be Charlotte

Who kissed who first?
Probably mutual

Who proposed?
The first time, his sister and a friend of mine worked together and he had gone home and told everyone that he was going to marry me and she told my friend and my friend told me. At the same time, I had told my friends and family that I was going to marry him. So his sister, Jenny, had us both over to dinner and said if we were planning to get married, we should probably talk to each other about it. And from then on, we were engaged.

Then we broke up and 5 years later, I moved in with him and I knew we were going to get married, but he says he didn't. then i was having horrible nightmares and my therapist said it was because I was doing something I knew was wrong and that I had to fix it to stop the nightmares... so I said I had to move out and he said, well, I guess we could get married if we have to. And I said I wasn't going to get married because we had to. I wanted to get married because we wanted to and he said he guessed he wanted to. it was very romantic :(

Who is more sensitive?
everybody who knows me knows that Charlotte is the biggest cry baby in the world. Saddest movie on earth: ET

Who has more siblings?
Brian has 5 and I have 2

Who wears the pants?
Brian wears the pants, but I'm the boss. hehehe

We tried to divide up the kingdom a couple years ago to keep things running smoothly and we decided that I am queen of everything inside the fence and he is king of everything outside the fence. But then the fence blew over, and Justin keeps using it to build stuff, so I don't know who is in charge anymore.

When we first got married, our bishop told us that the man is the head of the house and is the final say in all decisions, but the wife is the one who determines what that decision will be. You hear people tell that as a joke, but he was serious. He taught us that a woman has so much power in the home by her attitude and her demeanor and way of handling things, that often she can influence the decisions more than her husband knows. But at the end of the day, Brian is the head of the house.

To our daughter, Christine

There is a new show advertised on TV , called the Locator, and the very first time I saw the ad for it, my heart caught in my throat and I said, "OH MY GOODNESS, this show is going to scare Christine." and every time I see a promo for that show, I think the same thing.

SO - for the record, Christine, please know that we are not going to send somebody to hunt you down. You will never open your door to find us or anyone we have sent to stalk you.

We feel so blessed to have had that contact we did with you; to know that you have a loving, LDS, family; that you have beautiful children and a loving, supportive husband. We respect and acknowledge that you are sealed to your parents and your brothers and we do not in any way wish to interfer or barge into your relationships with them. They are your family. Please do not worry that we are going to try to usurp them in any way.

I assume you google us occasionally - doesn't everybody google everybody anymore? - anyway, You are more than welcome to follow all our blogs and get to know us - you can comment on them if you like, or just follow them from the outside. There are probably personality traits and quirks that you will identify with and realize where they came from by reading the blogs. From Thanksgiving thru January, we all try to post every day on the Family Christmas countdown blog - it is lots of fun.

the links to the right of my post are mostly family - Tiff & Brett, Carlos family, Jones family, and Katzoffs are friends, but I think everyone else is family.

We all send you our love and wishes for a happy, healthy life - and please don't ever worry that we will try to track you down and push ourselves into your life. Love, Charlotte

Why do we watch ?

I always hope that the days of crooked scoring in the Olympics is behind us, but after watching the men's teams tonight, I think we can safely say that China obviously had someone in their pocket. This was the biggest bunch of crap we've seen since the french and russian judges were exposed in team figure skating. HOW disappointing. grrrrrr

The 20th Century arrives in Anchor Point

I can't find a camera so don't have any pictures right now..... but today is finally the day we have all been waiting for. We are putting in a REAL septic tank today. You know the tank we have now is a wooden "crib" that is 15 years old. As most of you are aware, wood rots when it is exposed to moisture and age . . . . . I don't know the official life span of a wooden sewage crib, but I'm gonna guess it is about 10 years. Wait, that makes ours, um, way way dead. hehehe nervous laugh

Justin's boss ended up not renting or loaning us his equipment, so Justin and Alicia are making 3 trips up to Kenai to rent equipment and 3 trips back to return it when we are done, frowny face on his boss..... but Dibble Creek Rock was nice enough to run over with 6 loads of rock - 3 for the sewer and 3 for the driveway, and the pumper guy from Homer Pumping was willing to drop everything and run over and empty the current tank for us..... Very nice of both of them since we didn't have any time warning that this would be the day we needed to do this.

I don't know that I will take pictures of the gross part, but I was planning to take pictures of the piles of rock and such. I'm hoping that Justin will be able to dig the pond a little deeper, too, so that it will stay wet longer in the summer to support the wild ducks that want to raise their young here.

Also, Marpro called Brian back to the dock today . . . but when he got there, they had just dropped their giant cable spool into the bay and were busy with divers and cranes trying to fish it out, so they weren't ready for him yet. He is supposed to work at the high school tomorrow for the first football game of the year. busy, busy, busy

Justin's company went on a weeklong fishing charter but didn't catch a single fish. He's got some great footage of walruses and sea lions or something - it will be a day or two until he has time to upload the footage. While he was gone, Alicia painted their apartment. It is very cool expresso colors - very hip and chic.

Okay, I'm done... just had to share the excitement that we are going to have a sewer system. dumb I know, but HEY this is country life.

Some sanity returns

Well, as usual, I jinxed the money train by coveting the new Tv and Satellite dish... the cable barge has left dock. They had another project for Brian to do, he told them they could get the items at a store for much less than having him making them from scratch and they said, oh no, we want you to custom make them...... but then they priced out the metal and said WHOA ! you're right, we can buy those a lot cheaper.

So today we were looking out the window around early afternoon and here he came into the driveway and he is done at the barge for as far as we know.

For now he is thinking about going back to work at the school - just the high school for half time for now. He had an offer to spend half day working at the artistic, alternative school, also, but
we were also trying to decide if he should just stay home and do welding work all the time.

but his boss at the high school had an idea for brian to work 8 hours on Friday and Saturday nights and 4 hours on Thursday nights. That way he will have 4 days to weld and fish and such. and he gets to keep his medical and pension. We are thinking this sounds like a really great idea and of course, if they put his full-time hours back, like we all know they will - then he is already on track to work at the high school.

I probably jinxed this too now. It always seems as soon as i mention something in the future, it doesn't work out. anyway, just wanted to let you all know that he is done with the crazy hours for now.

So bummed today - we finally decided to buy some cabinets and such that we need. I have been looking for the right ones for weeks and weeks and finally, they had the perfect ones in the fred meyer weekend ad and we drove up there with JUstin's truck today and even had Brian's good wishes and permission to get these cabinets.

You know how you drive all the way to a store and they are out of that item and it is so disappointing and frustrating? We get to freddies and you won't believe this - but the ENTIRE furniture section was GONE !!! There was just this giant empty area roped off in the middle of the store. Everyone assured us it will be back together maybe as soon as tomorrow.. ??///@#$$ Like that is going to help us... sigh. so we got rainchecks . grrrrr

Oh well, it was a fun day anyway. i'll be glad when the fishermen go home, though, we are so sick of tourists and fishermen everywhere. it is a nightmare to try to shop in Soldotna during the summer.

OK end of rant. i'll post some pictures of the new cabinets that we did get from Penneys. I'm so excited to have reall furniture, not auction or yard sale furniture or plastic totes or plastic drawer units. It's going to be so FUN. Just a little diversion to keep my mind off the Olympics....... you just can't walk away from competion that is in your blood like this, you know... LOVE YOU, totally synchronized Charlotte

Is this the year?

I'm somewhat conflicted about writing this blog after declaring earlier this year that I would not be attending the Olympics .....

I kind of feel that this is the year for us to petition the Olympic committee about adding a sport that is near and dear to my heart - INDIVIDUALIZED SYNCHORNIZED SWIMMING.

I think that individuals who want to be in the sport and don't have twin sisters, or feminine brothers, are really discriminated against. I mean, maybe someone is an only child and anti-social, should they be denied the right, nee, the privilege of representing their country in this grand sport ??? Is that fair? Is that what this country is all about?? Is that what the Olympics is about? Making poor children, who suffer all their lives from not having siblings, should we be singling them out and mocking them and denying them the great joy of standing on the top of an Olympic platform == just because their parents weren't as fertile as others?

I say, NO !! Do you even have any idea how hard it is to synchornize with yourself for hours and hours under water ? I can tell you, it is not easy. I think the individual synchornized swimmers of the world deserve a voice.

NOW THE QUESTION - is China really the place I want to start this protest. I know to not protest in Tianamin square - I'm allergic to tanks running me over... if I get arrested and shot, will one of you volunteer to pay the .89 cents for the bullet they shoot me with? Or perhaps should I wait for a more friendly place to protest and let the Tibetans take center stage in the protests this year?

Also, they have outlawed dog in all the approved restaurants (of course, you can still get donkey, camel and bugs), but no one is saying if cat meat is outlawed - and being a cat lover, I'm a little uncomfortable with that.

My Chinese is not so good and I might order it by mistake... Also, I have been feeling a little under the weather, if I'm unable to get to China who is willing to take my place and make our voice heard?????

Yes, Blake - we have Olympic fever, also known as

Brian has been working 12 hour days, 7 days a week, for 45 days straight for an INSANE amount of money.

So, for our anniversary - YAY 30 YEARS - I finally bought a home theatre surround sound to go with our existing TV and it is FANTASTIC. We put 2 speakers right behind Brian's head and 3 more point right at him. So we all can hear the sound, but none of us is going to go deaf because of it. Then of course, you notice that the TV would be even better if the picture was the same quality as the sound, so that got us looking at a new TV, but we haven't got it yet. I hope to get one before the Olympics.

We were going to go up and get one together, but the job keeps going and going, so I'll probably have to go without him to make the Olympic start.

Then, if we have a new TV and surround sound, we should have a different satelite dish so we have all the latest channels and bells and whistles, so that might happen too. These are all projects we had been trying to buy for about 5 years, but just haven't had the money. So, we'll see .

The job was only supposed to be 3 days, but it shows no sign of stopping any time soon. It's really insane. And we are being smart with the money too - we paid off our car this week. COOL - HUH ??? I bought the new car the month before Gates let us know that the company was shutting down, and EVERY month since then, that car payment the last week of the month has been the bane of our existence. SO WHEW, what a relief to finally not have that hanging over our heads.

We are very blessed and know that this is a direct gift from God and we are very thankful to Him for blessing us so abundantly.

Love, Charlotte

Answers about the goose

Well, guys I really don't know how long geese live. For Alicia's 18th birthday i wanted to give her something unique and she was headed away to Montana to study Agriculture, so I figured livestock would be a good gift.

We bought mated pairs of 4 kinds of ducks and the 2 geese. We didn't know that one of our ducks was homicidal until the mama goose and 3 or 4 of the ducks were dead. The plan was to keep all the mama and daddy animals and eat the little ones, but we never did. The first year, we just had one baby live - Dixie - and you all know the story of how Heathcliff adopted her as his own the minute she walked into the yard after being born.

And the next year, we got about 15 baby ducks, but we didn't know how to cook them so eat just let them live and when Alicia and I went to Hawaii, Brian gave them all away, or sold them. Alicia threatened to drop out of school and come home if he got rid of the goose, and we kept Dixie for all those years to keep him company - until she got eaten by the eagles last year.

I think geese might live for 25 years. We like him because he has lots of personality, he is an excellent watch dog - even though he lives in the back, he knows when ANYBODY comes onto our property and lets every one in the neighborhood know. He protects the other animals from predators - dogs, eagles, hawks, owls, etc. Dixie was down on the pond alone when the eagles got her, so he couldn't save her. He rides herd over the whole flock and makes sure they stay in the yard where they're supposed to be and stuff like that.

Once a year or so, he leads an expedition to the neighbors house to eat Melva's flowers, but we've only had to replace them twice I think. Usually they make such a racket we catch them before the flowers get eaten. Other than that - he keeps everybody back there where they belong. He yells at airplanes and birds when they fly over to sound the warning to the others.

There are some truck drivers that always honks when they go past - some honk at us, some at the neighbors - and Heathcliff always honks back - it's pretty entertaining. Since we mostly deal with him from up on our deck, we can be entertained by him and don't have to worry about him chasing us unless we are down working in the barnyard.

So there you have it - everything I know about the goose and why we have him. They also eat bugs in the garden - and slugs. Chickens will eat everything in the garden, but geese usually will just eat a bite or two of veggies and then they eat all the bugs.

When I was a girl, my grandmother lived near acres and acres of mint farms - they smelled so good driving thru - and the farmers just had flocks of geese in the fields to eat the bugs - no fences or anything to keep them in. They just stayed where they were supposed to be and worked. That was how I first came to like them - I never had any up close experience. It also had always been my goal that if I ever had a pond, I would own ducks and geese. Hope this answers your questions. Love, Charlotte

For Ben

I can't believe you can't remember Heathcliff. We've had him for 10 years 3 months. He was one of Alicia's 18th birthday gifts. We had him when you lived here - maybe you didn't get to know him because you were here mostly in the winter.

Notice all the tiny white feathers surrounding him in the summer picture? When he molts - he first drops his big wing feathers. They are about 10 inches long and he has about 30 to 50 of them. This year, they all fell out within a day or two. Then he has to grow in the new ones and the whole process just saps him of all his strength. After his wings come back, his medium feathers come out and regrow and then all the thousands and thousands of tiny ones.

Sometimes, you can see he is just desparately needing a scratch here or there and you want to just pick him up and scrub him and speed the process along, but that would be ill - advised as he does have a pretty nasty bite. Just imagine trying to scratch out every hair on your body and scratch in all new replacement hairs over your whole body - and do it without hands or arms. It is truly a remarkable feat.

Reprieve for the Turkeys

Well, the turkeys earned a reprieve from the freezer for another couple weeks. Well, for 2 reasons.

1. We were going thru an entire feeder in the chicken house every day, plus the turkeys were eating everything we put out for Heathcliff and we figured they were eating us out of house and home and we were going to have to hack them sooner than we had planned.... them being so nasty tempered plus eating so much. We know how much chickens should eat - especially when we are letting them range all over the entire property.

So we couldn't figure out what was happening to the feed..... then last night Justin went out to work on the new goat barn and he got around the corner just in time to see Gretta - the big momma goat - slipping thru the tiny chicken door into the chicken house to eat their grain. She is really big, we have absolutely no idea how she squeezed thru that tiny door, but he saw it with his own eyes. so that mystery was solved and we had to apologize to the turkeys.

2. Alicia and I were in our studio on the 3rd floor and she had a window open to the back yard and we heard a funny sound. At first we thought the dog was into something but she was laying on the stairs asleep. so alicia went over to the window and looked down on the back yard and the Turkey was in full battle array - his head was as red as a tomato and his back was all ruffled and his tail splayed. And he was making a funny chortle. She said, "What's the matter turkey" and this bird flew up and out toward the pond. she didn't get a good look at him, but as near as she could tell it was some kind of falcon.

the Turkeys had corralled all the chickens so that the turkeys were between them and the falcon and had encouraged the other chickens to fly into the goat pens and hide. As soon as the falcon flew away, the chickens in the yard ran as fast as they could into their house. Alicia and I went down and herded and chucked the rest into their house and shut them in until the guys can come home and secure chicken pen. these chickens are really good escape artists, so we have let them be completely free range, but they will have to be penned up now that they have been "discovered." We had the turkeys come out of the chicken house for the afternoon so they wouldn't eat all the feed and they both lay down - one on either side of the chicken ramp and have stood guard for over an hour.

good one on them. We expect that from Heathcliff, but have never seen anything like gallant behavior from these turkeys before --- and Heathcliff is molting so he has no strength to fight anything. He can barely walk across the yard, poor thing.

I didn't even know I could navigate the stairs in such record time. Good to know I still have it in me in an emergency. My heart is still racing, though. WHEW.

Wait for the pictures to come with this post - the cord is upstairs, and I'm not.

A fruit guy came to Homer this week and we went on the last afternoon and paid half price and got a bunch of fruit. The only bulk he had left was apricots and onions. So we got 2 boxes of apricots and 50 pounds of sweet onions. Alicia worked and worked for 2 days and put up 70 jars of apricot jam, preserves, and nectar. We didn't think the apricots had as much flavor as we wanted, so we had 7 peaches and we chopped them into teeny, tiny pieces and dispersed them thruout and it was just that little bit of flavor that we were looking for. Lots of Beta Carotene and Vitamin C to get us thru the winter.

Then today our ward put in a GIANT bulk food order and Alicia and Justin borrowed a trailer from Carlos's and went up to Anchorage to the church cannery and got the order for the ward. They had to load it and unload it 5 times and ended up moving over 11,000 pounds of food total. Plus the drove more than 10 hours to get there and back. WHEW - they are pooped.

Bad news from Anchorage - the fireweed up there is already blowing cotton and is an inch from the top. Ours hasn't even started to bloom. You know what they say - when the fireweed gets to the top, winter is here. We are relieved to have our food and wood in for the winter. We are still wondering when summer is going to get here, but it just might be one of those years when there is no summer. My apple tree just bloomed this week....???

Watch for the pics of the apricot canning to come soon. Love, Charlotte

funny new blog

http://seriouslysoblessed.blogspot.com/

Joanna put a link to this blog on her blog and I have spent like more than an hour reading it and all the silly comments - the blog is funny, but is funnier if you read all the stupid comments. if you like Mormon culture jokes, this is hilarious.

I actually worked with a girl when I worked for the church that came to work one day and said she was pregnant. How far? well, 30 minutes... she always started her period when she got up in the morning and it was 8:00 and it hadn't started yet, so she announced to the whole office, including the bosses -giving them notice that she would soon be a StayAt HomeMom - but then at 10 minutes after 8:00 she started and just absolutely broke down sobbing and had to go home. It wasn't like it was a miscarriage, she was 30 minutes late - not 4 months along.

It all ended happy though - like within 2 months, she really did get pregnant and got to be a stay at home mom afterall.

I realize this post makes no sense if you haven't read the blog I'm referring to - but is funny if you have read it. The blogger and the commentors mention alot about the new craze of selling crafts on the internet -like in an etsy shop - ooops, that one hits a little close to home. hahaha

This week I sold some glass marble magnets that have little bees on them and under them are President Hinckley's 6 bees for young people. hmmmm

"What do we live for but to be sport for our neighbors and laugh at them in return?" (from Mr. Bennett in Pride and Prejudice)

I survived

Thank you for all your prayers about playing the organ. I have been having panic attacks in my sleep for a couple weeks and have gone back on Lyrica to stop them and have been medicating at night so that I sleep soundly, but this morning I was in a panic attack when I woke up. I couldn't take my extra medicine last night because I had to get up early for church. So the attack continued for about an hour, but didn't turn into a seizure. It tried to, but the Lyrica is really good about controlling the seizures.

Anyway, I told myself that I am not going to miss church anymore and so I hyperventilated and paniced all the way to church, and then just got myself up on that bench and played my songs. There were SOOOOOOOOOOOOOO many people there. They completely filled the gym from what I could see. It was good to hide behind the organ and not see have to think about them all being there.

Anyway, I think the playing went the best I have ever done, so it was a good experience. We finally came to a peaceful conclusion in our family history consultant class and had a really nice Relief Society meeting. Then, our ward is sending in a giant food storage bulk order and we were so excited to have this extra money that Brian is making and we were able to send in a good order to complete our food storage. Justin and Alicia have put in so much firewood, it is such a good feeling to know we have done what our prophets have counseled us to do.

LOVE YOU ALL, Charlotte

from Seattle Times

Thursday, July 3, 2008 - Page updated at 12:00 AM
Permission to reprint or copy this article or photo, other than personal use, must be obtained from The Seattle Times. Call 206-464-3113 or e-mail resale@seattletimes.com with your request.

ZAC GOODWIN / AP
Balloons suspend Kent Couch in a lawn chair as he floats in the skies near Bend, Ore. Couch plans to make his third ascent Saturday July 5, 2008 in his latest attempt to fly a lawn chair to Idaho.
Information
Larry Couch Web site: www.couchballoons.com
Oregon lawn-chair balloonist hopes to fly for more than 300 miles
By JEFF BARNARD
The Associated Press
Kent Couch is at it again. While the rest of the country is sleeping off Fourth of July revels on Saturday, he and a host of volunteers will be up before the sun at his gas station in Bend, Ore., to blow up 150 giant latex party balloons and tie them with clothesline to his lawn chair for his third try at flying to Idaho.
"The first time, nobody wanted to be involved at all," Couch said in a phone interview. "They were thinking I was a lunatic, I mean a balloon-atic. I couldn't get anybody on board to help me. My friends shunned me.
"But this time it's different. One guy is donating the oxygen tank from his airplane. That's $1,500. He said, 'Don't worry about it. It's insured."'
And his wife, Susan, has given her blessing.
Couch, 48, was inspired to go up, up, and away by a TV show about the 1982 lawn chair flight over Los Angeles by truck driver Larry Walters, who gained urban myth immortality and had a play written about him, but was fined $1,500 for violating air traffic rules.
"I said, 'You know what, there is nothing wrong with that. It makes common sense to me," Couch said.
Couch made his first ascent in 2006, staying up six hours before shooting out a few balloons with his pellet gun to descend. But he had to jump to earth in his parachute because he was coming down too fast. He never got that lawn chair back.
Last year, he flew 193 miles before running low on helium and landing in sagebrush near Union in northeast Oregon. The flights have gotten him on national TV, but that's not what drives him.
"There is this desire if you've ever had a cluster of balloons in your hand and just imagine yourself floating up in the air," Couch said. "You don't realize all the other technical things. That's just a carefree day. Or you're laying on your back in the backyard and see a cotton cloud float by. You say, 'Wow, wouldn't I like to go up there and ride that cloud.'
"When you're up there, there's not much stress," Couch said. "There's a little stress on the way down. A few navigational issues you've got to deal with. But there's nothing, really, I can do but enjoy it."
With corporate sponsorship this year, he is much better equipped and hopes to fly 300 miles or more, crossing the Wallowa Mountains in northeast Oregon and making it all the way to Idaho and beyond. He figures the whole rig cost about $6,000, mostly for helium and the lawn chair, plus the loan of various gadgets.
He is putting on more balloons — 150 three-foot-diameter latex party balloons.
They tie onto a framework attached to the steel-framed reclining lawn chair, so it hangs like a pendulum. Just tying balloons to the chair makes it hang crooked.
Instead of bags to hold his water ballast, he is using 15-gallon barrels, which he can drain to gain altitude.
Couch will have a finger clip to monitor the oxygen level in his blood, as well as a tank of oxygen to breathe if he goes too high. He'll also have a GPS tracking device attached to his chair, and another in his pocket, allowing his location to be tracked on his Web site.
He will take along extra duct tape and zip ties for emergency repairs, extra clothes and a blanket for when it gets cold at higher altitude
For food, he'll have water, beef jerky, some boiled eggs and chocolate.
"You don't want to eat much," he said. "There's no bathrooms up there on that chair."
He will wear a parachute, which makes it difficult to put on or take off clothing, but no seat belt. After the first flight he found it just wasn't necessary.
"If I get up around 15,000 feet, I'll pop a couple balloons," Couch said. "If I get too low I'll release some water. All the way you go it's like a seesaw, up and down, up and down. You can't feel yourself going up and down. You have to look at the altimeter."
If all goes well this year, he'd love to fly across the English Channel and even Australia.
"I don't mind them thinking I'm nuts," Couch said. "I've done my research and I feel plenty confident. I did 50 sky dives before this. Sky diving can be just as dangerous as this. Guys who sky dive thousands of times don't have a scratch on them."
Copyright © 2008 The Seattle Times Company

In the air


getting ready to take off from Bend

Picture of Kent from his flight last year. You can see how much he looks like Brian - has the same body build, but he doesn't have Brian's grey hair yet. His wife and folks probably do.

Flying Kent Couch

Kent flew today instead of Monday. I just did a google search for Kent Couch and there were 760 stories about his flight. From his website, you could even track the flight, but we didn't know that until he had already landed.

his website is www.couchballons.com

We had trouble getting it to work - i'm sure because millions of people were trying to use it. All the news organizations are carrying the story, so you can take your pick of who you want to read. According to CNN, he landed in Cambridge Idaho - he was aiming for Boise. I couldn't get my map to work, so I don't know how close to Boise he got. At one point, mid-morning, he was farther north than he wanted to be, but he got his course corrected and headed back towards Boise.

In the interviews, he said he would do this every weekend if he had the time and the money. I'm sure he will be on all the news shows this week.

Balloon Man

Brian's cousin, Kent Couch, is planning another big lawn chair balloon flight this weekend, probably on Monday, but it might be a different day, based on the weather. He plans to fly from Bend to Boise. He wanted to fly to Idaho last time, but evening thunderheads over the mountains convinced him to come down outside LaGrande, where his dad lives.

If you don't remember = Kent and Brian are first cousins. Kent's dad and Brian's mom are brother and sister. Alicia read a story about it on MSN. Idon't know what other news companies will follow the story.

check out holiday blog

Blake had a great idea to activate the Holiday blog for the 4th of July. You can get there by clicking on the link that says Family Christmas Blog

The picture of the flag I posted is our neighbor's flag at sunset. Their son, Ron, brought it home to them after his tour of Iraq, so it is special to us all. Ron is in Afghanistan now and Mike is in Iraq, along with both of my nephews named Josh., and also Barb and Paul's grandson. Our hearts and prayers and gratitude are with them.

One Year

Happy Anniversary Alicia and Justin. A year ago today we were in Anchorage at the temple. Congratulations on your first year. We love you. MOM and DAD

busy, busy, busy

Sorry I don't have a picture to blog today. If you have forgotten what we look like, please look thru our past blogs. hehehe

Brian got a call a couple weeks ago from some guy who was looking for someone who could weld and since Brian is off work for the summer, he said he'd do it. Turns out they are preparing to lay some kind of cable in the inlet. They bought a bridge in Florida and trucked it up here in pieces and they are welding it together to make a barge to use to lay the cable. They didn't have any welders on their crew that were used to this kind of welding or used to welding out on the spit (their workers are from Florida and are freezing out there in that ocean breeze all day).

also they needed another welding machine... so after the first day, Brian took his welder down and gets paid for the use of him and his welder. Justin got in a few hours after his day job a couple times, but now he and Alicia are really sick so he hasn't been down to the spit for a couple days.

It is such an answer to our prayers, I can't even begin to tell you how blessed we are to have this come into our lives at this time. We have a couple projects around the house that HAVE to be done this summer, like putting in a completely new septic system, and we have been scrimping and worried about how to afford it, and now we can get it done. We are all very excited...... yeah, you city folk don't have to worry about where the water goes when you are flushing your toilets - trust me, when you have a 15 year old wooden septic box, you think about stuff like that alot.

Justin sold both of his big burl bowls this week to a lady from Chicago. It was cool - she bought one for a dear friend who was going thru a rough time and when it got there today, she loved it so much so went right to our shop and bought the other one for herself. YAY !!!

It's fun to keep busy and to not have to sit out in the sun in a parking lot or danky old building on holiday weekends hoping for people to buy your crafts. I wish someone had thunk this up years ago.

Happy July - pray for me, I'm supposed to play the organ in church for the entire month. YIKES !!! I don't even really know how to play the organ. I have an electronic keyboard at home and I just push the button that makes it sound like an organ. hehehehe ahhh, small wards are great.

LOVE YOU GUYS, Charlotte

Heather tagged me...

Heather Carlos tagged me and I usually don't do these but . .

5 Things I was doing 10 years ago: 1. working at the mental health center 2. crying every day because Alicia was graduated and leaving for college 3. putting in my gardens 4. building on our house 5. taking care of 8 ducks and 2 geese and a dog and a cat and 24 chickens

5 Things on my to do list: 1. shampoo the carpet 2. plant the garden 3. finish bracelet kits for young women' camp 4. make and design all the stuff for our web shop 5. start Christmas presents 6. weed the flower bed 7. clean up the after winter mess in the yard 8 organize and paint the house 9. Redo the window coverings for the living room. (I know it was only supposed to be 5)

5 Favorite snacks/foods: 1. potato chips 2. Chocolate (I've been on a Whopper kick this summer - yum) 3. Real popcorn, with real butter and salt. 4. Ice Cream 5. strawberries or watermelon

5 Things I would do if I was a billionaire: 1. Build a dream home / artist colony compound where my family could all come to live someplace warm or tropical 2. Shop on etsy and Amazon and lots of other places
3. do Charity work
4. buy cool trucks and cars and computers
5. Help our moms and kids

5 Bad habits: 1. I eat too many treats 2. I never follow through 3. I always plan more than I can accomplish 4. I'm lazy 5. I get nervous and let my phobias get in the way of living my life

5 Places that I have lived: 1. Homer Alaska 2. Pendleton Oregon 3. Medford Oregon 4. Salt Lake City Utah 5. Joseph Oregon

People I tag: 1. Barb 2. Joanna 3 Ted 4. Marilyn 5. Nicole

No pink for me - YAY

We had a couple interesting days of poking and prodding in Anchorage, but in the end, they didn't throw me in the hospital and start chopping me up, so that is a victory. Below is the graphic details if you want them, if you don't just stop reading now and know that I won't be walking around with a Susan G. Komen pink ribbon with my name on it. YAY.

The breast lump is completely gone and there is not any follow-up planned for it. They think it was just ancient scar tissue like from a too tight bra or from pulling and tearing that muscle too many times. It is right on the rib cage and I pull that muscle all the time.

We are waiting on biopsy results for the uterus - but she didn't find anything that looked like cancer. The ultrasound showed lots of thick lining in the uterus, which is what we said all along - a condition I have had treated several times before, and after a lot of pushing and prodding, the ultrasound guy finally found my ovary. The ultrasound girl in Homer couldn't find it - but it turned out she wasn't looking in the right place. They thought it was hidden, but it was just in a different place. It still has a large cyst on it - a little larger than a tangerine, same size as the last CAT scan 5 years ago.

And so there you have it - you know everything that we know at this time. I know that most people keep this scary stuff to themselves, but I think that just perpetuates the fear of the unknown. I am a big advocate of sharing health information with each other so we can support each other in our fears and our struggles. It's just who I am and what I do.

Thanks for your prayers and support. I'll post again as soon as we hear the test results. Charlotte

HAPPY Birthday, Allison

Happy 4th Birthday Allison. We love you. Aunt Charlotte and Uncle Brian

Happy Father's Day

I have been thinking about fathers and grandfathers this week and I think that I have been singularly blessed with such a great father and grandfather and husband. It is very rare for someone my age to still have a father AND a grandfather in their life and not only am I thankful that they are both still around - I am so thankful that they are such kind, loving, intelligent men. They have taught me so much about how to treat other people and they have taught me how to live life --- with a smile on my lips and a song in my heart. THANKS GUYS - I love you more than you can know.

Brian is such a great father and husband. I think as the kids get older they appreciate more how much he has taught them (it's probably that way for everyone, I guess). He is such a hard worker and a great provider. He was so patient in teaching the kids how to work. He is so kind in taking care of me and no matter how tired he is, he makes sure I am taken care of before he sleeps or before he goes to work. I'm glad I drove that rickety old U-HAUL over those treacherous mountain passes 30 years ago and married this guy. I love you. Char

Cranes

This afternoon, when we were out splitting wood, two cranes lit in the neighbor's yard, and then nine more started circling and circling the house, then they landed also. We had 11 cranes just outside our windows, feeding. It was very cool. Went fishing this morning, salmon are very late getting here, but caught two nice steelhead. Brian

Choke

I have to say that not since Cliff Claven choked on Final Jeopardy have I seen someone go down so quickly and in such flames as poor Richard did tonight on Top Chef. As I was counting the dishes and realized that Stephanie and Lisa were tied I could actually see my blood pressure rising. THEY CAN"T GIVE IT TO HER !!!! I kept yelling over and over. Whew ....... in the end talent and class won out and the best person won. Now on to the Battle Royale - also known as the reunion show and then ON to Project Runway. YAY for summer TV. Char

Chicken Run

Heathcliff lets the turkeys know he is the boss.

Nobody wants anything to do with these grouchy guys - good thing they have each other to hang with.

the solid black ones are black sexlinks like we raised in Joseph. The speckled ones are barred rocks.

Saturday was also the first day of yard time for the chickens and turkeys. Heathcliff, the goose, knows that he is responsible for the safety of all the smaller fowl and takes his duties very seriously. He keeps that big white bucket there next to their gate (he thinks the bucket is a fellow goose, but that's a little personal for a public blog, so we won't go into that)..... to appreciate this story, you just need to know that he has "sacred" areas - the white pole, the fire barrel, the bucket. Nobody is allowed to touch them.

He prefers the chicks to be inside their fenced area where he knows they are safe and he will often sleep outside their pen at night to be sure they are safe. But when they enter the yard, he has trouble letting them explore. So these pictures are of the yard and everybody trying to make their way in the world. In the videos he finally left his bucket and went over to defend his barrel and then some chicks got too close to the bucket and he had to go back over to defend it.

On a funny note that we didn't get recorded, the turkeys are pretty mean this year. Some of the chickens were in Gabby's yard and she was cool with that - the goats and the chickens get along really well. So when the turkeys wondered over to Gabby's fence she went over to meet them and one of the turkeys bit her ear and she pulled back in amazement and then leaned back to the turkey to see why he had done that and then the turkey took a nip at her nose. She didn't care for that at all. So far, the turkeys have bitten everybody, I think. They aren't even afraid of the goose (I'm afraid of the goose, for crying out loud). So I can pretty much guarantee that the turkeys will not make it thru the summer. Nobody likes to get nipped by a turkey.

First canned fish of the season

King salmon are the biggest salmon and are the most tasty fresh, but they have the highest fat content, so they don't freeze well, especially for long periods of time. This year, as part of our goal to be self-suffecient, we decided to can our kings instead of giving them away. We think the high fat content will be good in the canned fish. We always get a good feeling when we think about having a larder full of canned goods and especially in hard times like these, we need to have that security of having food put up for winter.

Cranes on the pond

Yesterday after the fish were caught and canned, Alicia and Justin hauled firewood and Brian worked on somebody's boat. While I was waiting for the canner to cool so I could unload it, I noticed something out on the pond. It turned out to be our cranes. It was so sunny, I couldn't see what the pictures looked like until later in the evening. One is just what the pond looks like from the deck. You can see that it is getting more grown over every year. We don't get to see as much of the pond as we used to, but it is much safer for the ducks to have places of retreat when the eagles attack. Charlotte

We have a pair of wild ducks - maybe 2 - that are nesting on the pond this year. I don't know where the cranes are nesting, but it is somewhere in the neighborhood. On Alicia's blog, you can see closer views of the cranes. My dad asked me which was the male and which the female, and I don't have a clue. I would assume the brighter colored one is the male. In these pictures, they are too far away to tell the difference.

First Kings of the year

Whoo Hoo!!! Spring is here, the Anchor River fishing is great! I caught these two on Saturday morning before work. I am going again in the morning, before work. Alicia and Char canned these up, in jars, and we grilled part of one for lunch. Umm good! Alicia is going to can some moose from last fall tomorrow. Brian

PS

Thanks for all the cards - Gabe's writing looks just like Blake's did at that age - EXACTLY - I can even tell that he is trying to make the letters. Cool . Also thanks for the calls - sorry I missed you - I haven't left the house in a month, literally, and we just sat at the restaurant and talked and talked and then we went to the library and the drug store and came home.

Alicia and my friend Margret took me out for Chinese food today and we made a date for next year - same time, same place - so I can't die this year, because I have a date for lunch on my 56th birthday. Margret is from Germany, you know, and as we sat there, the song, "Edlewiess" came on and we all got all misty. She is going home next week and taking her 2 youngest to visit her family and the song reminded her of a cabin in the mountains she went to when she was young and she is going to take her kids there on their visit, now. So that was fun to think of that and plan it with her.

I think I've been going out for Chinese on my birthday for about 50 years now. Amazing, isn't it? Then we ran in to a person we worked with 12 years ago - and hadn't seen since. And we saw Shannon, who has been away at college for a whole year, so it was a good day.

I also got a bunch of books at the library book sale to make into journals to sell on ETSY - and yes, all you book protectors out there - they were all poorly written, unheard of books. Alicia was overseeing my purchases and you know she won't let me deface anything close to classic. If you want to see what they look like when I'm done - you can check one out at our ETSY shop - thewindfarm.etsy.com

Then, since I was downstairs and outside, I went out to meet Gretta and Gabby and the chickens and turkeys. The turkeys are really getting big and a couple of the chickens are really large. And I was surprised how strong Gretta was - she couldn't figure out where to push me since I was wearing a dress and the wind was blowing - it was funny as she tried to push into it and the wind was there.

Okay - time for Top Chef - I have to go see who gets thrown under the bus. hahahaha Love, Charlotte

Big Day for Charlotte

Well, today is a big day for me. When I was 16, I looked around at everyone I knew and I decided that no one really needed to live more than 55 years. I mean, it was okay if you did, but it just wasn't for me. After the age of 55 it seemed to me that your body just couldn't do all the stuff that a 16 year old wants a body to do......

so flash forward a few decades and today i turn 55 and I am terrifyed that I have jinxed myself and that I am going to die this year. I keep trying to convince myself that if I change my thinking I won't die, but I'm not sure if it is too late.

So I'm trying to think lots of positive thoughts and make plans for future years and such, but in the back of my head, I'm still 55. YIKES ! ! !

Funny Birds this year

We have this funny robin in our yard this year. He has the weirdest songs I have every heard from a robin - and I have been a fan of robins for more than 50 years now.

This one has a screechy sound when it comes into the yard which is really weird and then it sits in the tree every evening and sings and sings. It can imitate the chirping/chortle of a hungry eagle (which isn't really a sound we like to hear in our yard, but it is funny that the robin makes it). Then if you sing a song to him, he only has to hear it twice and then he adds it to his song and so then every time you hear him, he will sing robin songs for a while, then throw in a couple eagle chirps and then sing your song to you. And he can learn a new song from you like every day, so it is really fun.

I've had other birds do this, but not to this extent and I don't remember a robin being this way before.

The swallows came late this year, and they are not really here in numbers and haven't even begun to nest yet. I hope that means a long hot summer, but up here, we never know what that means.... it might just mean a late, cold spring and we can attest to that. brrrrr
Brian and Alicia went mushroom hunting this morning and found a foot of snow still covering the mushroom ground.

It is almost midnight on Memorial Friday which usually means miles and miles of cars from Anchorage, but a semi overturned this morning up by Cooper Landing and at 10:00 pm, they still hadn't fully opened the road, so it is unusually quiet. YAY !!! All the traffic really gets to me on Memorial Weekend. And Mya and Heathcliff have decided that the highway is now part of their territory to defend, so they bark or scream every time a big or noisy vehicle drives by. You can imagine how restful that is. Plus of course, we have had a steady stream of boats and trailers in here this past 2 weeks getting ready for fishing season, so Mya is all distressed about the customers driving in her driveway and bothering her dad out at the shop.

Looks like they got the highway open - the crowds are starting up. Usually some of us would be down at the bridge waiting for someone to look at their watch and yell, " IT'S MIDNIGHT ! ! " and then splash, splash, splash all up and down the river as the king season opens, but the river is really high and full of mud, so nobody here is going fishing at midnight - not to mention we all have the flu and / or a cold or both in some order. Thank you Brian and Justin for bringing home different illnesses for us to all catch. hehehe

So if you guys like videos, I will try to get a sound byte of the bird singing, but if videos don't work for you, I won't bother.

Love you guys - have a good weekend. Love, Charlotte

Another day, Another kick in the pants

Two items to report today - 3 if you count Blake's XBOX dying again - but you'll have to go to his blog and read his story and the comments about his story to get all the details. (For those that don't know - Blake is our son that lives in Seattle).

Anyway, the saddest of the two events is that Brian's Uncle Roy died this weekend. Thank goodness for the Wallowa County paper being so timely in reporting these things....... No one from the family has called or written to let us know, even now. Uncle Roy had been very sick for a long long time so his death was not unexpected - we just worry most about Aunt Leona being alone now. They were so close - like my grandparents did, Aunt Leona moved into the nursing home to live with and take of Uncle Roy and to help him to not be afraid while living there. May we all be so blessed to have that much love in our marriages when the end nears.

Secondly, Brian called this evening and said that because of lower enrollment figures, his hours will be cut to half-time in August when they start back to school. Major bummer. It isn't that much money, but it is steady and has great benefits. Major, Major bummer. It is still possible that it will work out - but they won't know until August and who wants to sit around for 4 months while they decide if you will have a job or not. GRRRRRRRR I am so bummed, I can't even put it into words. Just the idea of trying to support all 4 of us and knowing that one of my other kids is in job flux as well, is overwhelming.

Now what do we do???

I was looking forward to naming one of our Desperate HouseGoats after Edie. Now she has left the series I don't know what we'll do..... I guess we will name one of the next ones after Ben (although I think that is a weird name for a nanny goat, but since Ben asked us to name one after him, we will). I guess Ben and Bree sounds good when you hollar it across the yard. We have two "G" names now. hehehehe

Desperate Housewives News

Will Edie ever return to `Desperate Housewives'?
When Edie packed up and left Wisteria Lane at the end of Sunday's "Desperate Housewives," viewers were caught by surprise.
The sudden exit of the neighborhood's blond troublemaker has fans wondering how this plot twist will affect the ABC hit series, and whether Nicollette Sheridan, who has played Edie during its four seasons, will be back.
For weeks, rumors swirled that Sheridan was out of the show. Both ABC and Sheridan's publicist, Nicole Perna, have been tightlipped in response to inquiries about her imminent departure.

But creator and executive producer Marc Cherry was slightly more forthcoming. Yes, Edie's gone, he told The Associated Press on Friday. Then he added: "She won't be back for a few years."
What could that mean? Hadn't Cherry already announced he will bring his series to a close at the end of the 2010-11 season, just three years from now?

How 'bout those Lakers

All 8 of them that are on the floor at once.....

I watched the middle of the night rebroadcast of the Laker/ Jazz game tonight. And in the middle of the overtime, I remembered why I quit watching NBA.

If I couldn't win a game without buying off every ref in the league, I would be too embarrassed to show my face in public - especially, if I was always going around claiming to be the best player ever in the entire history of the game... past, present and future.

In other words, if any other team or player had backed into another player and forearmed them to the floor, it would have been called as a big foul, but not Sir Kobe or his lackie.. I think it was fisher. Ticks me off more than I can say.

Thank Goodness that Boozer and Kyle Kover saved the Jazz. Stupid Lakers, I just cannot stand them. Char

For all Moms and Kids

http://cosmos.bcst.yahoo.com/up/player/popup/?cl=7769235


You'll have to watcha couple times to get all the words. But it is Hilarious ! ! !

what is Festevus???

Denae asked about Festevus and I realized that maybe others weren't up on TV or movie speak like our family is... well, we aren't "up" on it, we are obsessed with it.. I don't think we have any original conversations anymore, we just do a bit from some TV show or movie. There is one for almost every situation when you watch as much TV as I do. That's actually an interesting story, too. When I was young, TV was new and I literally grew up and old along with TV. I was very active as a child, but i LOVED Tv and my parents always said I watched too m uch. I guess they can take that back no - I have put it to good use.

And actually, I used to do bits from TV when I was a kid and a teenager and drove my mother crazy with my antics. but that is another story. ON TO the explanation of Festevus. OH, another side note - if you google Festevus, my blog is like the 8th entry that shows up. hheheh

Festevus comes from the Seinfeld show. I didn't realize until I looked it up today that it is actually part of the Christmas season. I was thinking it could be any time of year. George worked for this company that let you have off for religious holidays and he wanted an extra day off for something, so he told his boss he needed Festevus off. and his boss wanted to understand, so he makes George bring him to the family Festevus celebration. so they throw this together.

The part I remember is before the meal, you have the : Ceremonial airing of the Grievances.. and everyone goes around the table and airs their grievances for the year and then you have feats of strength and then you wrestle to see whose grievances get to be settled.... so it ends up like all family dinners - a giant screaming match and people punching each other out.

The holiday begins as all are seated around the table and the head of the house says, "Let the airing of the grievances begin..."

EEE - EYE -EEEE -EYE - OOOOOOO

Well, We have done it. We have finally and completely lost our minds. Today the kids went and bought 2 milk goats. One is milking now - Gretta. She is 2 years old. The other was born in Feb. or March - Gabby. And she will have to grow some and have a kid before she can give milk. We had them out in the pig pen, but we couldn't see them out there and it was too windy.

so Justin quickly put wire around the lean-to at the bottom of the back stairs, where the goose usually eats. It is still pretty windy today so he is going to put some plywood up to enclose them in a little. Gabby is shivering from being too cold. She keeps trying to nurse on Gretta, but Gretta wants nothing to do with it. She isn't Gabby's mother.

I didn't realize they would bleep bleep that much. Gabby's sounds just like a baby crying, but Gretta sounds like a goat.

So, within a couple days, we will have goat cheese and goat yogurt and butter and milk to drink. I hope we like it. We also can use it to make soap. Alicia makes really good soap and the goat milk makes a really really nice soap. I guess we will be spending our Saturdays down at the farmer's market this summer after all.

When we first moved to this house, I planted about an acre to 5 kinds of clover and about 7 kinds of grasses/ grains. We will be staking the goats out to graze on that and also on the weeds in the front by the highway. We just traded our neighbor last fall for possession of the land right on the highway so we can keep the weeds trimmed down now and keep it looking better.

Also, thru our etsy site: thewindfarm@etsy.com, we are going to be selling alder chips for BBQs and smokers. Blake gave me the idea on his birthday because he puts hickory chips on his BBQ and I was thinking how many acres and acres of alders are here and going to waste and they make a wonderful BBQ smoke so we are going to harvest them and sew little cotton bags and sell them. Hopefully, we will sell some in town, too, especially to the tourists. AHHHH, you have to love an economic recession. It's really keeping us on our toes.

Look for pictures and a video of the goats and the chicks on Alicia and Justin's blog later. Also today, we moved all the chicks and the turkeys out of the green house and into their newly expanded chicken house. The poor turkeys had grown so much they had to walk all slunched over inside their coop. Our corn is almost 2 feet high, so Justin wanted to get the chicks out so there would be room for his corn to keep growing in the green house.

Busy Busy fun times. Brian is thru building the foundation for the oyster plant. They are waiting for a grant for the money to build the building part of it. So for now, he just has the school and all the boats and tractors getting ready for the start of fishing season. on some days, he gets to sleep 6 full hours before going to work (and one day last week, he slept until almost 8 0'clock. WOW). Of course, now the dog is used to getting up at 6, so by 7 she really has to go out and comes to wake Brian up anyway. No rest for the wicked, I guess. hehehe
Charlotte

Happy Festevus, Blake

Actually, It is Happy Birthday Blake - but as I was typing, the computer offered me Happy Festevus, and I am such a fan of the Festevus holiday, I thought I would offer it instead of a Birthday.

Let the airing of the grievances begin.........

If I was in Seattle, I would bake you a cherry chip cake with almond flavored, cream cheese frosting and vanilla ice cream.

But I'm not in Seattle.... The cake still sounds good though, hmmm brb




hehehe sorry . I'm back
I don't have a cherry chip mix. I wonder if they still make them.
Anyway - Have a Happy, Happy Birthday and know that we love you and will be with you in spirit all day. LOVE YOU SON, Mom and Dad

Fourth of July Salad, For Barb Gulley

Justin breaking the rules by adding Cool Whip to the salad on Easter ! ! ! !

This is the salad we made for Thanksgiving. It has such a wonderful Sunshine look and taste to it.

Fourth of July Salad was traditionally served in my " home of origin" at the height of summer, since that is the only time that fresh peaches are available. We always had it at the Fourth of July BBQ.

My dad invented the recipe and always makes it. The only change that has ever taken place to the recipe is something I learned as a 4-H leader to protect the bananas. I'll give the recipe and then tell you the rules.

The recipe is adaptable depending on how many fruits you start with. This is the basic recipe that fits a 20 oz. can of pineapple (or whatever size they make these days that is close to that).

1 20 oz. can of pineapple slices or chunks, in own juice

5 or 6 bananas

5 or 6 medium size oranges

5 or 6 peaches

about 1 cup Sugar, depending on the sweetness of the peaches

Drain the pinepple juice into a really large bowl. slice the bananas into the juice and swish them around to be sure each slice is coated in the juice. Peel the Oranges and separate and tear each segment into bit sized pieces into the bowl. Peel the peaches and slice into pieces that are about the same size as the orange pieces, into the bowl. Cut the pineapple into the same sized pieces, into the bowl.

Adjust the amount of sugar according to the sweetness of the peaches and sprinkle the sugar over the top of the salad. Mix GENTLY, by hand, cover, and refrigerate until cold. (preferably over night).

NOW the RULES: Originally, only fresh peaches were allowed. We have tried experimenting with frozen peaches, with mixed results. the Carpers have to use canned peach slices, drained...because we have always lived in places that didn't carry fresh peaches and oranges at the same time. So for Carpers, the salad became a winter food because that is when oranges are available. (Obviously when using canned peaches, a much smaller amount of sugar is used... some people don't put sugar in at all, but we find sugar makes a better juice).

When the salad is setting, NO ONE is allowed to eat it until it is time to be served. (at Carpers, the cook is allowed a small bowl, for quality control purposes)

The mixing has to be done WITH YOUR HANDS. No exceptions, BRIAN ! ! !

So there you have it. My sister, Sandra, who lives in California and has access to all kinds of funky fresh fruits, tweaks the recipe except on the 4th of July. I know sometimes she adds raspberries or strawberries or other kinds of fruit. I imagine she uses less sugar because she eats healthier than some of us.

THANKS DADDY. We love you and love your salad and your BBQ's.

Taste before serving

Our fav show right now is Top Chef. We usually blog about it on Blake's blog, but I beat him to it this week.

All I have to say is : TASTE your food before you serve it ! ! ! I don't know how hard that is.

And I don't know that Dale needed to attack Lisa like that. Talk about sour grapes. If it had been up to him, they would have made deviled eggs.... so I'd say she did more than just make the bacon.

And as someone who eats salmon a lot, I can tell you they needed a lot more than just butter in those baggies. Not to mention the scales. YUK ! ! !
Charlotte

Prophet of God

For a couple months, I have been wanting to watch General Conference of our church on TV instead of listening to it on satellite radio. It was always our intent to be able to watch Conference (and BYU TV) when we got this satellite system, but they sold us the wrong satellite dish, so we have just made do with listening.

But for some reason, i really wanted to watch this one. I had been praying that we would be able to afford the new satellite dish in time for conference, and then I decided that it was just my vain desire to have a new satellite and more TV channels and therefore, I probably shouldn't be praying for something like that. On Friday morning, Brian did get a new boat job and I could have used the money for the new satellite, but there wasn't time.

So I set the DVR recorder to record the radio version of Conference that started at 8:00 Saturday morning and we intended to listen to it later. I set my alarm to get up anyway, but just as I leaned over to turn off the alarm and go back to sleep, the Spirit whispered to me that they would be sustaining the new prophet in the morning session and I should get up and participate.

for those of you not of our faith, we are asked to "sustain" all new workers in each area of our church. Twice a year, we "gather" in a world-wide conference and there we can raise our hand in the sustaining process to show support of our prophet and apostles. It isn't a vote, it is a covenant to show that we will follow them and help them.

Because our prophet, President Hinckley died this spring, this would be our first chance to sustain our new prophet, Thomas S. Monson. I met Elder Monson when I was 10 years old. My mom and sister have met him at other times since then and he has been a great blessing to our family and I fully support him being the new prophet. And I wanted to be able to raise my hand with everyone else, in real time, to promise my support.

We have tried many times to watch conference on the computer, but it is always broken up and it freezes and is no annoying, it just can't be done. I decided to turn on the computer to conference so I could see the picture and then turn the sound on with the radio version. It turned out, we didn't need the radio as the computer, somehow, played all 4 sessions of conference without a blip or a beep. So I got to watch conference after all. My prayers were actually answered. WAY COOL ! ! ! But there was more.

Only 15 times have we had a new prophet. And the session when we sustain the new prophet is a very special event, called a solemn assembly. I had forgotten that would be the case when I got up to watch. No one else was here and I couldn't contact them to share the news and have them come watch with me. So it was my own special experience.

When the session started, President Monson seemed to me just the same as he always had and I was a little disappointed. I wanted to see him as the Prophet - not just the nice Elder Monson. Then the process of sustaining him came. In a special session such as this, each quorum or group of the church stands to vote, world wide, so by the end, he has been sustained 8 or 9 times. The camera would pan out on the audience and show each group rise and then would close in on the face of President Monson.

And there was what I had needed to see - I could see on his face that as each group stood, President Monson was given the charge by the Spirit of God to take care of that group and I could see him "becoming" the prophet. The mantle of the office literally fell on him as I watched. It was the great need that my subconscious had been wanting and needing to see. Others in the conference, and even President Monson, mentioned that they felt and saw the same thing.

I did not doubt that President Monson should be the new prophet. I did not question that at all and I didn't understand why I would need to see him accept the mantle of the office until later in the Conference and I realized that I was given this gift to share with others, so here I am sharing this with you. I saw with my own eyes, the hand of God creating a new prophet to guide His church here upon the earth. I know President Monson is indeed a Prophet of God. I know if we follow him, he will lead us where we need to go. Love, Charlotte

Whose idea was this? ? ?

Who decided that the world needed to have Cancer in it? Isn't there enough pain and sorrow and sadness in the world without Cancer?

Cancer has touched our lives a lot lately. There are some things in life you can look at and say, okay, I can see how we will grow from this trial or that, but I think cancer is just the straw that breaks every camel's back.

It is just the experience that is too much for anyone to bear. So, here are our prayers for all those who have been destroyed by this ugly machine ... the patients as well as the family and friends that have been drug thru hell by the big C. We love you all.

funniest video

This is the funniest video - please be patient with the breaks in buffering - it is so worth it. I remember watching this the first time on SNL and laughing myself silly over it. Ahhh, how funny when life imitates "art".

http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=4122944961711350389

Okay, this is the final straw

http://www.breitbart.tv/?p=62964


http://cosmos.bcst.yahoo.com/up/player/popup/?rn=3906861&cl=7095154&ch=4226722&src=news

China, et al.

I feel kind of bad because when I first mentioned boycotting the Olympics because of Tibet, it really wasn't an issue. Things in Tibet hadn't really begun to escalate and I hadn't heard of any Olympians who were actually thinking of boycotting.

I have a childhood friend (Heather Mitchell McLean) who has met the Dali Lama and is one of his disciples, so I don't take the issue in Tibet lightly. But I also didn't mean for my blog to become a great political debate.

Earlene and I going to the Olympics is sort of a joke/ fantasy - okay, it is a total joke/ fantasy, but I want those who are interested to know that we don't take the situation in Tibet lightly or as a joke..... so I just want to separate the two issues here and now and let everyone know that:

1. We aren't going to the Olympics --- unless President Bush intervenes and asks us to represent our country in the event.
2. Personally, I respect the people in Tibet and Taiwan and wish them the best of luck in gaining and maintaining their independence from mainland China.

Love you all, Charlotte

Olympic official: athletes mulling Beijing boycott

Olympic official: athletes mulling Beijing boycott
Sun Mar 16, 4:04 PM ET
BERLIN (AFP) - International Olympic Committee vice-president Thomas Bach said a number of top athletes were considering boycotting the games in China over the bloody crackdown on protesters in Tibet.
Bach told Bild am Sonntag newspaper he understood the athletes' concerns about the situation in Tibet but said he was advising them to participate.
"They will realise when they assess the situation that it is better to make an appearance than to stay away. That is a symbol that will be noticed by the public," he said.
Asked if human rights had been a concern when Beijing was selected to host the August Games, Bach said the IOC believed the intense focus on China would have a positive effect.
"We are of the opinion that the Games will help China open up. But we cannot solve the problems that UN secretaries general have not been able to solve for generations," he said.
"The Olympic Games can foster change and be a catalyst for a solution but they are not a panacea."

check out our shop

We set up our shop on etsy today. You can find us at : http:// thewindfarm.etsy.com

Charlotte's New hobby

Now that we have DSL, we spent the money to go wireless with the other computers in the house, so I have been using Alicia's computer in the evenings to entertain myself (Brian works nights, remember).

So I was checking blogs, and our friends in Missouri - Ben & Denae Katzoff - have all these links on their blog and I thought it would be fun to go blog jumping and that was really fun and I thought that would be my new hobby - just randomly reading blogs of people I don't know. Then one blog led me to a really interesting blog that led me to another and then to another and i finally ended up at etsy.com

It is the coolest site - all handmade stuff. It is all the rage right now. They have all different categories and it changes, literally, every minute because people are always putting their stuff on there. It only costs 20 cents per item and 3.5 percent when you make a sale, so it is much more reasonable than most galleries or web sites.

So now my new hobby is just spending hours and hours going thru all the stuff on etsy. It is great. We are going to put a bunch of stuff on there really soon. I'll let you all know when. Justin just finished a really beautiful burl bowl today. It is our first official item ready for sale. Check it out. I find it really inspirational. I've made pages and pages of notes of stuff that the entries on the site have inspired me to try to make. Happy Crafting.... Charlotte

Rockin' & Rollin'

We have been having swarms of earthquakes for a couple weeks. I have only felt one tiny jiggle - this house is great for that. The only earthquake we ever really felt was that giant one that ripped the state open in 2002. Anyway, if you are interested in earthquakes the site we use is: http://www.aeic.alaska.edu/Seis/recenteqs/index.html

It changes all the time. As the legend on the map says - white squares are within a day, the yellow 12 - 24 hours, orange 1-12 hours and red within the hour. If you click on a square, it shows you just that earthquake, and a closer map that is labeled so you can tell where it is. Then below the map it tells you the details of the quake and below that it tells how far it was from everything. Enjoy.... Charlotte

Top Chef & March Madness questions

So Top Chef first: what exactly is chicken piccatta and does Andrew have worms, Tourette's or is he on crack???

Second for March Madness: why are they making those poor Oregon State Beavers play again? Just call it a season and wait for baseball. HEY - Beavs are National Champs in Baseball - not the first Pac-10 team to EVER go in a winless basketball season. Just switch seasons in Corvalis already.....

Little known fact: the first team to win the National Basketball Championship was the Oregon Ducks - in 1939. Charlotte

Leaked Photo

The press leaked this early photo of the routine, thought I would share it with you all. I think they look great. Love Alicia

Call for more data

Okay, PEOPLE, I can not make these important decisions without all the data.... I did not know that Laura had already hand-sequined our swim caps and now they have already been sold on e-bay. and Grandma Marilyn had already arranged housing for us all, thru our cousin, Bill (Marriott,of course). And knowing how close we are to that branch of the family, our accomodations were probably really something "special".

Now I find out that Earlene has been working on our choreography. And I found a source for our suits while watching Project Runway - there is a giant "House of Spandex" in New York. Sandy and Susan are headed east for some meetings, perhaps we could impose on them to stop by and get us a couple yards of spandex for our suits.

If I had thought ahead, we could have volunteered to be clients for project runway and they could have designed us new costumes for our show. Does anybody know Heidi Klum??? could you call her and see if they are filming season 5 now, so we could have the costumes before this fall??

Also, I feel bad because Jed and Paul don't have cable tv. How will they see us perform?? Could someone sponsor some cable coverage for them?? Also, does this interfer with Paul competeing in the Olympic Iron Man Triathalon?? Does he want his outfit to match ours?

Also, we will need to arrange transportation. If we go right now, I might be able to ride Justin's snow machine north and hope that the sea ice is still in tact and I could cross the "land bridge" between here and russia and then just zip down the coast to china? ? ? But spring is definitely on the way - it is 40 here today and 25 in Fairbanks, so that ice window is closing REALLY fast.

Also, if I perform in the Olympics, how will this affect my disability status?? Anyway, no concrete decisions have been made. Earlene is still a kid, so has more years ahead of her in the sport than I do, so I can see how she is not ready to hang up the towel. Let's keep the dialogue open and going. I'm hoping to post some pics of Earlene and i performing in past Olympics - if I can get photoshop to work. Keep checking back. Charlotte

Retinking the decision

Okay, I am willing to reconsider the retirement issue. I just hope the press doesn't dig up that ugly business about the hydraulics :). hheheh nervous laugh, change of subject. Charlotte

Lies, all lies

Brian forgot to sign his name to the comment on the entry below - he claims that the news came as such a blow to him and his eyes were full of tears .

Passing of the torch

I tried to get a picture of the Olympic torch, but I couldn't get it to post.

anyway, I have been thinking a lot lately and with Earlene's busy schedule and with her family of grandkids growing every day, I have decided that it is only fair that I let go of my dream of winning Olympic gold in Synchronized Swimming in the 2008 Olympics. I just feel that I need to look outside myself and be willing to sacrifice my personal goals for the greater good of our extended family.

I personally am not completely comfortable with the whole China / Taiwan / Mongolia political situation. I know that the Olympics is supposed to transcend the whole political issue, but I'm just not big enough to let by-gones be by-gones, I guess.

But I really don't want my political views to be out there in the international Olympic arena, so if any of us are interviewed about why the best team in Synchronized Swimming is (literally) hanging up their towel, please refer them to the position that Earlene is needed by her new and growing grandchildren.

also, there is no truth in the rumors out there that we were caught with illegal hydralic lifts built into our swim suits in the 2004 Games. I think anyone who caught our performances in those games could see that we were running strictly on our own power and have never had to resort to illegal activities to maintain our place in the great history of the Games.

thank you for your continuing support of our endeavors thru the years and please support our privacy during this difficult time as we pass the torch to a younger generation.

The Whisler Girls --- Earlene and Charlotte