The Good Humor Man

Most of the books at our school library are donated paperbacks.  When this one came across my desk the other day I experienced a rush of happy memories so strong I wanted to grab the book up, place it in a protective case and hang it in my personal museum of cherished life experiences. Vera is probably the only one who shares these memories with me. We both attended Robert Goddard Jr. High in Lanham, Maryland growing up.  When you entered our cafeteria the stage was to the right, the serving lines were straight ahead and to the left, under the windows is where they pushed the big silver cart full of "Good Humor Ice Cream Bars" everyday of school as lunch was winding up. They didn't do this in elementary school and so this was something to get excited about.  The first day, since I was a 7th grader and knew nothing about this marvelous tradition I had no money to buy ice cream. Ice cream bars were 10 cents each.  Since my Dad loved chocolate, and every birthday every year for us four girls was chocolate cake with chocolate ice cream, I chose the Good Humor chocolate covered chocolate bar on a stick.  Heaven!  Not only did I make sure I had 10 cents almost every school day, the Good Humor man drove past our house in the afternoons along with two other ice cream trucks.  I always waited for the Good Humor truck and bought another 10 cent chocolate covered chocolate bar. Would miracles never cease?  All these years later I find a book about "The Good Humor Man" and I can feel the sense of anticipation each lunch period, see myself in the first seat directly across from where I know they will park the cart and preparing for my 3 foot dash to beat all the other students to an ice cream bar. It only lasted a year but has had a lifelong impact on me as I look back on these memories and realize how  ice cream  makes life seem just a little better. So on days you can "double-dip," life seems sublime.

Visiting Allen

So I went up to Orem two weeks ago and here are the highlights:
* Grandma and RyLee polished off a pint of raspberries while Mom wasn't looking--and YES RyLee ate most of them.
*Allen came to Ron's house and made RyLee laugh again. It's funny to watch her look at Allen and then look at Ron and then back to Allen and try to decide which one is her Daddy.
* We all went to see "Uncle Hal" give a presentation at the Orem City Library with the author of Candy Bomber. Here we are getting authographed books! (Can you hardly wait 'till Christmas?)  Colonel Halvorsen is 92 years old and still going strong-AMAZING!
*There is also a glamor shot of me with Linda Bethers the author of Christmas Oranges. She wanted an autographed copy of Candy Bomber from the Bomber himself. It was a librarians dream come true--Surrounded by famous authors!
* Here are a few shots of Allen at his apartment this year.I bought a couple of picture frames and added 6 family photos so Allen could have SOMETHING on the walls to look at besides paint.
*Stopped by to see Grandma Merrell also but those pix were on my phone and I erased them. Oops!

Make a Run for the Border

After hiking in Zion's, Karen and I went to the Shakespeare festival to see the final performance of Richard III. Enough of the killing already! On the way home we stopped in to see Audrey at Taco Bell.  Who doesn't have fond memories of their first minimum wage job.  Midnight at Taco Bell is a happenin' place! 

P.S. Thank Karen for getting me back into my blog so I could post again. 

ZION at last!

Karen drove up from Phoenix for the Labor Day weekend and took me to Zion's National Park.  I have lived in St. George 3 1/2 years and have never been in the park yet.  We went up Kolob Canyon.  It was a 5 mile round trip hike and we didn't make it to the end before we decided Audrey would be late for work at 5pm if we didn't turn around.  It had absolutely nothing to do with my red, red face and rapid gasps for breath of refreshing mountain air. It was so wonderful to be outside in the mountains with Calvin, Karen and Audrey. Calvin was very patient with the three of us and usually took up the rear. I had Karen pose in this last picture because this rock looks like something straight out of a Syfy book.... "Little did she know that as she sat down to rest, the seemingly solid rock beneath her was preparing to absorb her amino acids to sustain its life force."

Randy Merrell Celebration

A box of pictures fell out of my closet and so I took the time to go through them.  Here are a few I'd like to share with all those who knew and loved Randy as much as us...in honor of his 3rd year anniversary. One of the pictures for my movie doesn't show all the kids so I am including it separately.  It is priceless because Karen is doing the "I can't believe I still have to hold this lamb" groan, which everyone took a turn doing sometime during the line-up with Dad.  Good Times...in retrospect.

Super Bowl Sunday

Sowards don't have cable so they came down to St. George to watch Green Bay play Steelers. Ben served his mission in Green Bay teaching the Hmong people so we all felt obligated to cheer on Green Bay.  Here's how we celebrated:

Randy Merrell Video

Hawaiian Christmas

Our generous Mom took Robin and I to Hawaii for Christmas.  We were on the islands 11 days.  We did the cruise thing around the islands and went ashore everyday for fun excursions. My favorite days were snorkeling and the day we went to the Polynesian Cultural Center. Here's a picture of  Robin and I doing the hula with the natives (great hip action) and Mom standing outside our hut. My favorite moments were hearing the "Hawaii 5-O" song played in different places and Elvis' "Blue Hawaii" sung in the Fern Grotto.

Baby Boom !!!

Our family was blessed to have three healthy (very lucky) babies born at the end of 2010.  Valerie Sowards was born to Ben and Connie Sowards October 8, 2010.  Tyler Adair Merrell was born to Brian and Caroline on November 16, 2010 and RyLee Alysa Merrell was born to Ron and Verenda on December 16, 2010. I now have 9 grandchildren. Grandmahood is fun.

Programming Students' build 'dancing robots'

    We are so behind in our posts but at her high school,Audreys   ' robot won second place.  Under the picture it says "Desert Hills Computer Programming students Kira Benitez and Aurey Merrell check the robots they programmed for a robotic dance competition on Sept. 9.  Kira's grandpa was the cropduster that sprayed all of Grandpa Merrell's crops in Animas.  They lived in Deming.  Small world, huh that now their granddaughters are best friends.?