I left my mother's writing on this picture so you all could see how she wrote. This girl in the center is Chrissie Mills, who lived across the street from us. I loved her mother, Mary. We called her "Mamie" and she was like a second mom at times to me. I spent a lot of time at their house. Chrissie was a year or two younger than I, and she had a brother Carl who was my age and in my kindergarten class. We called him Carlie!! they moved to Takoma Park and we visited them a few times, but eventually lost contact with them.

Johnny often stood with his arms over his head, like in the picture. I remember the dress I was wearing!! It was a bright green, with the white collar. Note the shoes and socks we both wore.

I was in kindergarten in the fall of 1951, so assume I was going to or coming home from school. We had to wear dresses to school.

We are standing in front of our next door neighbor's house, which was the style of the houses in the neighborhood. When I was 14, my parents put an addition on to the house, making an upstairs with 4 bedrooms and a bathroom. Earlier, they put an addition to the back of the house, with a master bedroom and bathroom, and a basement underneath. Later on, after I was married and had children, dad added a family room out behind the kitchen.

Ann, her friend Cheryl, and the baby Jean

Jean has been copying pictures of us from our mom's photo album and giving us copies for our birthdays. Thanks, Jean! Ths girl standing beside me, with the bow in her hair in case you can't figure out which is me!!, is Cheryl Jetto. She lived down the street from me and we spent a lot of time together. I remember that one day when I ate lunch with her at her house, her mother gave us peanut butter cookies with the fork criss/cross on them. It was the first time I had had them and so of course MY mother had to begin making them after that! We are standing in my front yard with our backs to the neighbor's house. You can see the trunk of the tree behind me. Every yard had a Dutch elm planted in it, and most of them were struck by lightning at one time or another, bringing down power lines. We had really violent thunder storms, and got lots of tail-ends of hurricanes. Once, we even got a full-fledge hurricane. It was when I was about 10 and was Hurricane Hazel. It was terrifying. Our dad was coming home from work, and nearly got hit by the tree across the street from us when it was struck by lightning. It missed him by a few feet. I can still hear the "crack" of the lightning and the big boom as the tree hit the ground. We were standing at the front door looking out since we knew he was on his way home. This post started out about me and my friend and ended up being more, but as the saying goes "a picture is worth a thousand words" so there!! The baby in the carriage is none other than ----- guess who that is with the big mouth? Yes, it is JEAN! Hmmmm... her mouth is always open and still is! Sorry, Jean. Actually I remember being very excited to have a baby sister! I think she was wearing a little yellow cap; I remember that she was put in a little yellow outfit (jacket thing and bonnet) as a little infant.

Ann and two adoring younger sisters

This was taken sometime in 1956. As you can see, Jean and Barbara were just adoring me, their wonderful older sister. Note: Jean's mouth is big and wide as usual. Barbara was nicer (but of course she was younger). I remember that nightgown! It was white flannel with different colored polka dots. We used to wear those hair things at night to keep the pin curls from falling out. We used to put our hair up in rag curlers or else pincurls made with bobby pins. It was not until later that we used hard plastic rollers.

Recipes from Grannie!

Well, I decided to preserve some of my recipes forever! I won't mention names, but there is one family member I have to call to get recipes I have lost. My friend, Berb, always kidded me about my recipes. I don't know why I have such a hard time filing them, but I guess I need to go to a 12-step program on saving recipes! So, occasionally I will post one that is really good.

I am going to Weight Watchers again, and have gotten some great recipes there. If they are not good, I won't post them. Even though the following soup recipe is a WW recipe, I have given the recipe to so many people who have given it to others. It is great and really smells good!

Here it is:

Weight Watchers Bean Soup

In a large crockpot, cook 1 onion chopped, and 1 pound of ground turkey. (We don't like that, so I use the leanest ground beef I can find.)

When it is browned, add the following: 1 large can of crushed tomatoes (tip: I found them for $1 at the Dollar Tree)

1 can of chili (I use the Nalley's Onion Chili)

4 cans of beans, any kind you want (I usually use black, kidney, pinto, white, red, etc.)

1 can of butter beans (for those of you with Winco, their store brand is about 60 cents a can, very cheap)

add 2 crushed garlic cloves

add 1 T brown sugar (I use 2 T of the splenda brown sugar blend)

Stir well and let it cook on low all day. This makes a large amt. of soup.

If you do WW, it is 2 points per cup.

CHICKEN SALAD

1 qt. cold cooked chicken ½ cup chopped green pepper ½ cup grated onion 2 cups grapes 2 cups chopped apples 2 cans pineapple chunks, drained 1 ½ cups cashews ¼ cup pimiento 1 cup coleslaw dressing 1 cup mayo (I use fat free or low fat) 2 cups water chestnuts 2 cups chopped celery salt/pepper to taste 2 cups uncooked macaroni (which you cook first!!) Mix all together. Yum.
This makes a lot of salad!! I have had the recipe for years. Not too long after we moved to Beaverton, our stake RS hosted a women's conference and luncheon. Barbara Smith, the general RS president attended. We served this salad, rolls, and some dessert. I remember I was newly pregnant with one of the kids (I think it was Becky) and had terrible morning sickness so was not feeling the greatest. I was on the committee to fix it, and that was fine, but I was not sure I could eat it, but I actually could eat it without problems!!

Tim on the Silversmith Property 40 Years Ago!

Here is a picture of Tim with his companion at the Silversmith residence. The woman weaving the rug is Fanny Silversmith's mother. The van is what the elders drove, when they were not in a pick-up or on a horse!

NAVAJO RESERVATION, September 2008

When Tim served his mission, he spent 16 months in Lupton. The missionaries were well taken care of by George and Fanny Silversmith. George was called "Buddy" when Tim was there. Their son, Leland, was a young boy of about 5 when Tim was there.

Fanny and George recognized the name "Elder Chandler' when we visited, but could not quite place him. (A lot of changes occur in 40 years!!). However, when Tim pulled out his journal, and showed them a picture taken on their property, they instantly remembered Elder Chandler! Tim was sitting in front of Fanny's mother, who was weaving a rug behind him. This picture is taken in the approximate same spot as the one taken 40 years ago.

It was really touching as Tim read from his journal about spending time with the Silversmith. He read how he ordained their son, Norman, to the office of a teacher. A few years ago, sadly, Norman was killed in a car accident.

The Silversmiths were very kind to us, as they had been 40 years ago. They brought out bread and butter and homemade jam. Then Fanny gave us the rest of the loaf of bread, a jar of berry jam that she had made, and different pieces of Indian jewelry. Leland gave Tim a copy of the Book of Mormon in Navajo. When he was on his mission, the langauge was not written, so this was a special gift.

OK. This is just beginning for me. I am taking photo editing classes online through Eclectic Academy. I just ordered the newest Photoshop Elements, and can't wait for it to come. In the meantime, here is an old picture of my grandmother and her twin sister, born in 1887. I have to add more pictures but wanted to see how to do this blog thing!