Four Great Girl Generations

Most families like to take pictures of their posterity. They help us remember one another and the good times we spend together. It's fun to remember what we looked like at a certain age in our life. How amazing it is to see the resemblances we have with one another and the traits we acquire.

It is especially fun to see four generations showing great-grandparents, grandparents, parents & their child in photos. Here is one of mine showing my eldest daughter with her youngest and only girl, my mother and me.

Parting With My Piles

I must like piles because they are everywhere in the house. Piles of valuable hand-me-downs, abandoned crap, excessive purchases, memorable bric-a-brac and miscellaneous what-nots hang out in most rooms. There either isn't a perfect place or isn't room to fit it in. Maybe it's that I can't decide what to do with each sentimental piece.

Mostly ignored until company is coming, then this unclassified clutter has to be dealt with. Rooms that guests don't enter get piled higher and higher of these so called 'must keeps'. When the offspring come home to visit I'll say the classic, "One of these days, this will get tossed." It never happens.

How to convince myself to let it go. The best cure is to have someone else do the deed, where the attachment doesn't exist. Having friends clean out each others homes might work, but would the relationship endure. Imagine the accusations. "You threw out my special Valentine card from third grade!"

Why not hire a maid service? Is it the money or letting them see you at your worst? Probably both. I could muster the courage to 'Do-it' my self. I dream of the biggest garage sale ever with dollar signs in my eyes. Like that will ever happen, but think of all the money to be made. My biggest fear is that when no one is looking, I would haul half of it back to the house.

Shall my kids conspire while hubby and I go on a weekend getaway? More than a dozen times my siblings and I attempted dumping my own mom's crap, but to no avail. She would drag it out of the trash saying, she needed it.

A clean break is the only way to part with my piles. This is a perilous situation.

Help, I'm Hyper-sensitive

On occasion I go through a hyper-sensitive frame of mind, where absolutely everything bugs me. I can't even stand myself during this period. It’s not easy to reign in these feelings, that cause me to react to common stimuli so negatively. Often, I resort to slamming doors, verbal innuendos and throwing things. Normally, the same irritants are ignored or unseen. You could say my 'annoyance radar' is fairly low most of the time.

When I'm 'hyper-so-sensitive' little scraps of paper/string etc. on the floor, the common counter clutter, a caller that talks slowly on the phone, my mother repeating the same phrase for the fourth time and so on make me crazy. Driving becomes more frustrating, if the car I’m following isn’t going fast enough, its a clunker or an old style, I'll change lanes. I want it out of my sight. My mild mannered hubby can irritate me, if he doesn’t remember to do his chores, forgets to help out more or does some other minor infraction.

What causes this 'Out of my mind' feeling? Stress, temporary depression, lack of or disrupted sleep, trying to do more than is humanly possible. Having guests over also removes the blinders I have of my home's condition. It opens my eyes to every ugly detail, thus become keen to distractions.

It only lasts for a few days. Deep breathing, exercise, sleeping pills and self-talk get me out of this funk. I'm little Miss 'Go With the Flow' the rest of the time, or not! It all depends on the external forces.

Temple in the Tiny @Temple Square

Miniature building representations are becoming very popular. It was just a matter of time until a tiny replica was made of the interior of the Salt Lake Temple. Recently the unveiling of this look-alike structure down to the minutest detail was celebrated. (Notice the unique view of the 'real deal' in the background of the photo.

Opened 360 days of the year and boasting over a million visitors, Temple Square probably has more than a few hundred thousand people wondering what the interior of its gemstone, The Salt Lake Temple, looks like on the inside. Stop by to take a peek at it in the South Visitors Center on Temple Square. It's open until 9pm.

While there, take in a free concert at the Assembly Hall (Saturdays @7:30pm) or the Brigham Young Park (Tues & Fridays @7:30pm). You will put your wonderings to rest after you see the Salt Lake Temple in its tiniest form.

Picnic at the Pit

Jory, Sarah, Grandma, Allan & I took advantage of the free Visit the Kennecott Copper Mine offered last week. We viewed the 'can be seen from outer space' hole, watched the video and took a picnic dinner.

Sarah admitted going here on a field trip in elementary. If you haven't been to the Bingham Copper Mine pit lately, it is only $5 per car load. Open from 8am to 8pm although no one is admitted after 7pm and shooed out the door at 7:45. It can be reached from the south west end of Salt Lake Valley by taking 11800, 12300 South, Old or New Bingham Highway to 80th west, turn south (12300 turn north) until you come to the Rio Tinto entrance on the west side of the road.

The view from the top is out of this world as you watch the two story building size trucks inch their way up from the bottom of the pit to dump a load bigger than your house into the crusher. Take binoculars to see the 'ugly bug crawl'. Then look for the lone porta potty in a field of clay dirt on the north end as you arrive at the parking lot.

Nice and New on Nintieth

A new office building was recently opened on 90th South. It is just west of the big power plant by the Jordan River. The front of the building is a classy stone and brick one story. The east side has offices on two levels with a walk out basement. A long tree lined drive leads to it with 360' parking. An exit road with a new bridge crossing the overflow canal leads in front of the power plant (seen in the rear) to the highway.

This neglected property had a for sale sign by the old gravel road on the north side of 90th for a long time. Now a beautiful office building with prime suites and fancy landscaping graces this once weedy property.

Maybe we'll be lucky enough to have an appointment with a doctor or physical therapy there. Better yet, stay healthy and just drop by to see the new digs.

Gilgal Gardens

On a balmy summer evening I visited the restored Gilgal Gardens in Salt Lake on 5th South and 750 East. As a college student seeing this visionary's artist depiction of a long ago era, for the first time brought confusion and questions.

Over the years I wondered what reaction it would have on me visiting it now. The sphinx with Joseph Smith's head, stone archway, scriptural references and more hold deep meanings we may never understand. What is this pleasant name, Gilgal?

Mentioned in the Old Testament: 1 Sam. 11: 14-15
14 Then said Samuel to the people, Come, and let us go to Gilgal, and renew the kingdom there.
15 And all the people went to Gilgal; and there they made Saul king before the Lord in Gilgal; and there they sacrificed sacrifices of peace offerings before the Lord; and there Saul and all the men of Israel rejoiced greatly.

The Book of Mormon lists it at the end of the Nephite era in 400 AD:
3 Ne. 9: 6 And behold, the city of Gilgal have I caused to be sunk, & the inhabitants thereof to be buried in the depths of the earth;
Morm. 6: 14 And Lamah had fallen with his ten thousand; and Gilgal had fallen with his ten thousand; as both a city and a brave captain.

What significance the name has for the artist, LDS businessman Thomas Battersby Child, Jr. (1888-1963) is not known. His desire was that the garden would make people think: "You don't have to agree with me," he said. "You may think I am a nut, but I hope I have aroused your thinking and curiosity."

It's a peaceful place begun in 1945 and recently restored by many donors where one can go to contemplate life.