Throw Back Thursday....Missing Cat Club.....

Back in New Jersey after we adopted our cat my daughter joined the 4H cat club.  She was excited to learn about cats and be with other people who liked cats too.

When they had meetings we would take our cat to the meetings.  The kids learned about cats, they learned how to show their cats, and they did service projects.

They had cat shows with judges.  They also had a cat quiz bowl.  The first year we did not show our cat.  But my daughter did participate in the quiz bowl.

She did win an award the second year when she showed her cat.  I got so nervous watching her and our cat that I didn't take any photos.

I think she also had our cat in the costume class this year.  Cat's don't really like to be at cat shows.  But it was fun for my daughter.

Waiting to show her cat.... This was the one time in my life that I have been able to use my Animal Science degree.  I taught the kids once a month about cat issues.  I also found and put together the animal quiz bowl questions.  I loved being able to use my animal science knowledge to teach the kids.

They also did a 3 day 4H fair.  I loved being there and talking to people.  We had a lot of fun.

And of course when you go to a fair the best part is getting lots of cotton candy.  I had hoped that we would find a 4H group out here...My daughter now says I loved the cat club more than her...And now she is happy to be in Karate....

The other thing I loved about cat club...It was free....And while I enjoy being a Karate Mom....I sure do miss the free cat club meetings and all the people we made friends with...And it was really fun to use some of my science back ground....Someday I may look for a job with animals....But if grown ups can throw tantrums like toddlers about clothing issues I can't imagine how bad they would be if something happened to their pet...And I'm not sure I'm ready to find out.
G.G.

Walking Under The Lanterns.....Another Adventure at the Tulip Festival......

One part of the Thanksgiving Point Gardens that I thought looked "magical" was the area that had Lanterns hanging in the tree branches.  I wish I could have had someone take a photo of my husband and I walking under them like this couple.  Maybe next year we will take the kids and I'll have them take a photo of us.  I also loved that there were rows of flowers along the path.

Here is my husband standing near the lanterns.  I just loved the look of all the colors floating in the air. 

The hard part of getting photos is that more and more people kept walking by...

I really like the look of this photo. 

have a great day :)
G.G.

Thanksgiving Point Tulip Festival...The Carousel Horse a Garden Built Just for Me.....

When I was young everything was horses...I read horse books, I drew horse pictures (even though the animal in the field was a cow...somehow I saw a horse)...I dreamed of horses and owning horses....My goal was to someday own a horse farm.....At the town fair my favorite ride was the pony ride ( I saved dimes all year so I could ride those ponies all afternoon.) At the amusement park my favorite ride was the Carousel (aka..Merry Go Round) ...So when I walked down the paths at the Thanksgiving point gardens and saw this big Carousel flower garden I was in Heaven!

Each section of the carousel has different colored tulips and flowers around it.  And each horse looked to be a little different.

The saddles have flowers flowing over them, and the horses look to be running along a multicolored path of flowers.  Almost makes you think of the Mary Poppins movie when they ride the carousel horses....

Have you ever wondered why the horses on a Carousel look a bit wild or unhappy?  I never thought about it until last year when we visited the Lagoon park out here.  The horses always have their ears back, their mouths open and their eyes look like they are wild...Why is that??

If I had the space and money I would build this type of garden..I think at some point during the year they may also have hanging baskets around the horses as there are a lot of empty wires hanging in the middle of the structure.

Around the edges there are smaller gardens...I loved the poppies...and there are benches to sit on....

They also had another big art type structure along the way.  These flowers were cool...I'm not sure if they turned with the wind or not.
Hope you enjoyed the photos of the Carousel....
G.G.

The Physics of the Carousel Horse ride
Which is the lead horse on a Carousel ride?
History of the Carousel

My Retail Reality....He Thinks My Work Belt is Sexy.....LOL....

The other day my husband came to my store to buy shoes for my son.  When he saw me he asked "Are you in charge of the store?"  I said "Yes."  Then he said "you look cute with your work belt on"   I have to say I have giggled about this ever since..

I had a friend at work snap a photo of me before leaving work the other day...It was a Jean day...Which often times I don't wear Jeans...I like my dress pants...But I decided why  not...On my work belt I carry an e-touch phone so I can read lots of e-mails without leaving the sales floor....I carry my phone encase of an emergency....crazy things happen in retail, people get hurt, people get sick, people faint.... I carry keys that open everything....Rule number one is never lose your keys.....If you do, don't come to work again... I also wear a two way radio....I've mastered the art of listening to two or more people at once....

Here is a close up of most of the items I wear around my hips each day...I also have a special "RF" Unit that allows me to scan items and find out where they are in the store....What sizes they come in...Color...and other stores that may carry them..I have also attached some super hero tags to my work belt...They give me super hero protection...In case of angry customers....  I used to think my work belt was heavy...That was until I saw the men building a new bank down the road from my house....Now my work belt seems kind of small...These men down the street WOW...They had big belts with all kinds of tools...Yes I stared at them in utter amazement.....They also looked pretty good ( don't tell my husband!).....

On days when I'm not the manager on duty, I take a few items off my belt...and have a lighter day....That doesn't happen for me very often though...So I asked my husband why do you think I look so cute in my work belt...and he said it reminds him of the original  "BAT GIRL"....I like that. You can actually watch a clip on the internet about her Utility belt....

Every time I go to work and put this belt on though now all I can think of is "He Thinks My Work Belt is Sexy"....And I sing that to myself to the tune of Kenny Chesneys "She Thinks My Tractor is Sexy" song...
It's nice to think after all these years my husband is still attracted to me...
Hope you giggled at this too.
G.G.

Vist to the Salt Lake City Library....Our First Summer Adventure

We have been in Utah for 4 years and haven't  explored very much of our surrounding area.... My husband and I tend to drive to work, drive home and then take our daughter to Karate.  This summer I hope to do day and weekend trips to new places...I'm tired of just working and not seeing what is around us...I also finally feel like I have energy and time to do these things.  The move across the country was a huge change, but now I'm ready for some adventure.  Our first outing this summer was to visit the Salt Lake City Library.  What a beautiful place.  This is photo of the inside of the building.

There are shops and little cafes inside the library.  It has tons of places to sit, relax and read....And for a book loving family who could ask for more???

My daughter after a few hours of reading in the Youth section...Mom they have tons of Manga books....I could stay forever... I had a great time reading through all the magazines....

We then walked 4 blocks to the City Creek Mall...Had a small snack at the Cheese Cake Factory...Their Milk Shakes are perfect!

Sitting in the shade watching the world walk by...and just relaxing on a day off...Could you ask for anything more?

We walked up to Temple Square and walked around the gardens at the Salt Lake Temple.  I'm always trying to get the perfect Temple Photo...I'm working on printing out my favorites to put around the house.  One of each season...

We window shopped and then walked back to the library....It was the perfect way to spend the day...I'm now starting to search for new adventures....If you are from this area and know of good places to visit let me know.. What adventures do you hope to take this Summer?
G.G.

THE SHERLOCK HOLMES OF OLD CARS......

At the beginning of last summer my daughter and I got the BBC SHERLOCK HOLMES shows on DVD.  I thought they were really cool and decided to get the books and read the stories to see how closely the books matched the TV shows.  As I watched the shows and read the books I kept thinking...My husband is like that.  He is always reading about Cars, studying about cars..and looking for his next car problem to solve.  He didn't pick crime scene investigation as his study in life...he picked old cars. 
In the Sherlock Holmes book Sherlock expresses his thoughts to why he believes he has his great abilities of deduction as coming through his ancestors who were artists.  " Art in the blood is liable to take the strangest forms." (pg.293 The adventure of the Greek interpreter.)  My husband is a very smart person who can memorize things quickly and learn to fix just about anything.  He also is very artistic.  He believes though that everyone can do what he can do...

This is a photo of his beloved Chevelle... It was his first car, which he fixed and broke and fixed again...It was all in parts around our house in New Jersey and he still sold it for $10,000.00 when we needed to buy a new chimney. 

His passion is building engines...Big,Loud,Fast...Rattle the house with power engines...He has loved cars since he was a child...He would learn and memorize every type of car...I don't think there are any  old cars he could come across  that he did not have information stored away on...unless of course he thought it an unworthy car....But then he would probably tell you all the reasons it was not a good car.

This is another car that he had to have....It is the reason the Chevelle never got finished.  There was some wonderful thing about this car...Unlike Sherlock Holmes....My husband makes friends very easily...before we met he was the life of the party....Like Sherlock Holmes everything revolved around his passion...Cars...He worked on cars during the day at work and then worked on his own cars at night....Cars always came first...In fact I don't think any of his friends ever imagined him actually marrying...

Here we are on our wedding day with his 454 Big Block Biscayne....  When we met I didn't realize just how deep the love of cars ran in his blood...I didn't understand the need to find and fix car issues...I told him I could wait to marry him and he could finish his car projects first...We would never be married had that been the case...Car projects last years and years and years....

Here is Sherlock surrounded by all his "Watson" Friends at our wedding...Uh was he marrying me or the car??  Tall..Thin...Extremely smart...focused mostly on cars and car problems....Yes this is Sherlock of the Old cars for sure!

When we moved to Utah...away from all the "Watsons" of his life I thought perhaps the car love would mellow out...It's hard to be married to Sherlock....Just like everyone calls on the detective for the really hard murder crime scene...Everyone calls on the Master Mechanic for the really hard or really easy car issue....Every weekend someone wanted "Sherlock"...It could be an old car issue or a new one....They all called him...If he said sorry I can't help...It was always the "Wife"  who was the evil one....

I said lets not tell people you can fix cars.... That lasted a week....Now though perhaps I'm the one who has mellowed out...I see that look in his eyes...That need to investigate the problem....The need to tinker...

Go ahead Sherlock...You go Sherlocking.....I say....I have gardening to do...Perhaps I needed a passion too...I give him plenty of warning if I want to do something on a weekend....And thank him for giving up a day under the hood....he has a new group of Watsons....And will probably gather even more.....At least the TV show and book have helped me to understand this man.....My son is the same...There is a point in the Sherlock TV show where he says "My Brain is Like a Computer, and I only keep the important stuff in it."  I remember my son at a young age saying this same thing.....His love is art and animation....It's his focus...Living with these Sherlock Holmes types is very interesting....

I think my husbands grandmother was the artist...She could create amazing dresses with her hands with no pattern.  And Perhaps his Grandfather Bowlby passed down his love of cars.....I have to say I can't look at an old car and not think of my husband.  When we go driving he points out all the problems cars have...Look that car has strut issues...That car needs an alinement....That car sounds like it has this problem...  That old rusty car says come fix me...return me to my glory...... I'm thankful this Sherlock Holmes decided to get married...It has been a wonderful ride with him.
G.G.

Throw Back Thursday....School is Out For Summer....

This past week I enjoyed looking through old scrapbook pages of my Children's last days of school throughout the years.  This was my Sons last day of Kindergarten.  The fun thing about grade school was the last day of school was always a party day.  They had a carnival theme.  Both of my children had the same Kindergarten teacher.

While my daughter in this page looks happy, she was a little sad to be leaving her friends behind...But my son well the last day of school could not come fast enough.  Their grade school was JFK Primary School and JFK to my son meant Jail For Kids.

My Daughters last day of school for first grade.  This had to be the best grade school teacher ever, I wish my son could have had her too.  I spent many years going in and helping in her class on my free time.

I also spent many years being a room mom....I was burnt out by the time my daughter moved to 5th grade.  I was glad that class parties were over.  Plus each year the policies changed about food that could be brought in.  We went from every sugary treat imaginable to everything having to come in packages made in a store so all the ingredients could be read...to only fruits and non-sugar items....

My Son on his last day of school in first grade.  I think his sister got the better teacher.

This was my daughters last day of school in 4th grade.  She was ready to move to the next school.

My Son's last day of school for 6th grade....That was the year of the Swine Flu....He got sick and they wouldn't let anyone go to school for 3 days if they had a fever...He didn't have the swine flu but he couldn't go to the last day of school...He was not happy!

Here we are ready for summer.  My Son played for the High School Graduation and told me he can't wait for next year, to Graduate and move on to college...I'm not sure I'm ready for that.  My daughter has a huge list of things she wants to do this summer...Read, practice karate, run with friends, take on-line courses...My son has work too as he is taking AP English next year he is starting to read the books, and study a huge list of vocabulary words...I think I may check these words out and share with you...Maybe I'll even read one of the books... He also hopes to  create a bunch of animated movies on his Youtube site and get a summer job...My goal is to have adventures with my teens this summer.  To look for fun things to do around us...No sitting in the house all day on the computer...
I have to say we are all happy that "SCHOOL IS OUT FOR SUMMER!"
G.G.