Hidden Treasures

Isn't christmas the most wonderful time of the year. I love it? I am still such a kid at heart, I get so excited. I make cookies, fudge, Haystacks, Trail mix. Course I make sure that my Kids(?) get some of all this, then I make it for my special kids at school, my grandkids and now my greatgrand kids. I really have to thank my mom, Grandma to some of you, great grandma to some of you and great great grandma to others. when I first got married I had not seen my mom for several years and we wanted to spend time with each other and did, When Christmas came I was pregnant with my first child feeling very lonely because I had grown up in Nebraska, that was where my home had been for twenty years.But when we went to visit Mom and Grandpa Ted. It was such a great time of the year and with the snow etc, I began to feel that maybe I wasn't so homesick as I thought I was. Mom had all these coffee cans, she and Ted were big coffee drinkers, always a pot on .Back then coffee came in decorative cans, 3lbs per can, Mom saved them. (she was not a pack rat only a collector) When she started to bake cookies she figured out how many people were in each family and filled the cans appropriately. Every year she looked for a new cookie recipe to try out and give us. But thru the years Haystacks have stayed my kids favorite. They are very simple and are fun for children to make too.
Now my grandkids love them and I have to make haystacks. In later years I got the trail mix recipe from my good friend and because they love that too, I always make sure they get some.

Then earlier this year I mentioned my grandma Hayward grew Turkeys. that started me on a quest to find a picture of them. Well, I now have 127 pictures scanned on to my computer from those old days and I must say some of them are very ,very old. I have a picture of my dad,Joe Hayward that has the date of 1927 and it is still good. So my project for the next year is to put those in a photo album for all to see. I am a pack rat so. When I turned 45 a few years ago, my oldest daughter put these pictures in albums for me. Now I want to share them. I hope all will view them and enjoy them.

Now on to more hidden treasures. I live alone, I like it. I have also thru the years managed to do minor repairs on things in my house or some on the cars. I always say that it is my midwestern upbringing. Maybe so , maybe it is the stubborness I inherited from my Mom and my Grandma Hayward. Anyway a few months a go I started smelling a strange smell in my water, mostly the hot . I kept trying to get hold of the water company and be putting on hold drives me crazy, leaving messages didn't seem to help. Tues, when I went by to get my check from Foster grandparents, I remember that the water company was neighbors to my office, I stopped in .The lady was more interested in sampling the festive goods then waiting on me but finally to rid herself of this annoying older woman she agreed to file a work request, for them to check the water. I was busy all day and left for Chowchilla to be with my daughter Patti and family for Christmas and did not check messages. When I got home Christmas day, I checked phone messages. water man had called left several messages. When I called him yesterday. He told me how to flush the water heater and then the rest of the lines. I knew I could do it cause all I had to do was hook the hose to the water heater open up the line drain until there was cold water and then go thru the process in reverse. then flush the house pipes. Sounded easy ,Right Right! except the turn off valve would not go back on, I am not able to turn off the outside water, should have done it before I took the hose off. That would have been too easy. couldn't get the hose on , had water gushing. So I ran outside praying that I could get the water turned off, this was my second try. Well it worked, but I was soaked ,my garage was flooded and I was almost beside myself. I rushed to the phone and called my friend Bob the father of my adopted great grandkids and said HELP. He came, put a new faucet because the old one had the threads stripped . Well, then I started working on drying out the garage. Crying a little in flustration,
luckily have most things in plastic out there. that is the important things like fabrics. Worked for a while, said I'll work again tomorrow when it warms up. Today it is drier and I am sweeping, when I ran the broom under the dryer, out popped the hidden treasure. I found 59 cents under there. Thus the hidden treasure. I laughed and laughed.

Haystacks

I use two packages large packages of Chow mein noodles

Two large serving spoons of peanut butter.

Two 11.5 oz packages of butterscotch chips

Melt chips and peanut butter in large pan over low heat

stir chow mein noodles until well coated drop by spoon fuls on waxed paper, let set up .

Enjoy!!!

Trail mix

M&M's

cashews

raisins

Amount depends on your personal needs or wants Mix together ENJOY

This recipe was given to me by a friend who was a diabetic also a kidney transplant patient. She assured me that it was very healthy.


Sorry this is so long. just had to tell you all MERRY CHRISTMAS AND HAPPY NEW YEAR. I enjoy reading what you and your families are doing. Hope I don't bore you too much with the family history.

HAPPY THANKSGIVING

I am just popping in to say Happy Thanksgiving . Every year at this time I take time to think of my Grandma and Grandpa Hayward. For years Grandma raised Turkeys, She gave them to her children . Back then to have a 25lb turkey was unusual and to have white turkeys was unheard of. Grandpa said she liked the turkeys better than she did him. She literally hand feed them to hear him talk. She is part of the Nebraska State history for raising those turkeys. I don't remember much about those years except what I heard from Grandpa and saw in a book on Nebraska history. When my grandson Joseph was in the tenth grade, he raised turkeys for his FFA project. He lived in Fresno and I ,of course, lived up here. but I did manage to make three trips down there to see his turkeys and laugh. Because turkeys are the dumbest fowl there is .

Just a short history note from the archives.

WEEKENDS

When I worked at IRS , I lived for the weekends, especially when it meant a visit with my kids and grand kids. Then I started working retail and there were no sat and sun off. Then came my job at Comcast and I again had weekends off , but was too tired to do anything and the grandkids had grown up.

Now weekends are again a priority for me . This weekend Shane and Hunter came over on Sat night for Pizza. so I decided to try something I had wanted to do for many years. I found on sale a HAUNTED HOUSE gingerbread kit. Shane will be five the end of Nov and Hunter just turned two Oct 31. Being a novice at this type of project, I was chuckling to my self as I left my local Beverly's at the thought of doing this with two small children. We had fun, we had orange and black frosting on us , on the kids table, on the kitchen counters, on our clothes. but having done cookies and cupcakes as crafts for school party I said I can do this. Course I forgot that we had three adults at the table when we frosted cookies and cupcakes. I insisted that their parents take the house home. I did get pictures.

There is so much joy in having children around. I hope all of us take the time to stop and enjoy that time. I know I didn't because of my work but have been able to do this with not only the children in my family but also with the children at the school. We dressed up for our party. I wore my red hat dress, hat, braclets,purple socks, carried my queen bag and wore my purple boa .

I so enjoyed seeing the costumes on your blogs. Keep up the great work.

Hope all are well.

audio books

I love audio books because they can ride around with you and entertain you and you don't lose all that time that you wanted to read and had to run errands,go to work etc.
I have Frindel in my car right now because I pick up my adopted great grandson Shane from school and we both like stories and reading. I also have Sing a Song of Tuna Fish. I find it different. I have been using audio books for many years just because I wanted to spend some quality time in my car. It is so boring to ride in a car with just music.

Frindel makes me laugh because a few years ago I replaced a dictionary that I had had for many years and boy what a surprise to see some of the words that are now in the dictionary. Such as Quillow. combination pillow and quilt. this set me thinking of all kinds of words you only hear in certain geographical areas.

I am going to see if I can find The Grapes of Wrath on audio. I have read it many years ago,
but would love to revisit it and audio would be good.

EXPORT

Well, I finally sent my first export to India. I have a friend that I meet last year because her son was in our class. Her inlaws were going to India and wanted me to make them a quilt for their granddaughter in India. I had made my friend's son one last year with Cars on it and his and his cousin's picture on it. If I can download the pictures I will so you can see it. I used Dora, The Explorer and pink fabric for top and pink flannel for the back. Photo quilts are so much fun and I love the results. You can use any copier and buy the sew in copier material that is available from several different outlets including Walmart. It is washable, so no problem with using it on a quilt for kids. I also made a pillowcase, so the quilt fit right into it.

Lemons

When life hands you lemons, forget the lemonade make a lemon meringue pie. Takes a little longer but gives you time to think of other things.

I remember going to Kindergarten and how frighten I was, then I sent my kids to Kindergarten and as each one went I cried right along with them. Luckily I didn't happen to live in Fresno when my grandkids went , but I could certainly emphathize with them and their parents. When I started working at the preschool last year it was Nov and most of them had settled in and there were few tears shed when Mom or Dad left them in the morning.
This year is different, right off we had two boys who were so sad when their parents left. One, his mother took him home and brought him in again two days later. but the first one , I decided I would try to win him over. I stuck by his side like glue that first day, he was kind of miffed at me but he decided to let me be there. The next day he started as soon as Mom left, I again went to sit by him and talked him into going outside for recess. He didn't want to play he just sat by the fence and pouted. I asked him if he was mad at Mom, I said it is okay if you are but look how much fun the others are having don't you want to play? Well, he is now part of the big group and always waits for me to join him for lunch at his table. Victory, Lemon pie.

The other young man was harder, he can speak English, but doesn't unless it is his choice. He sat on the little couch in the listening center. Wouldn't look me in the eye. That is a big thing with me, talk to me, look me in the eyes. I noticed he seemed interested in the 3 Bears and Goldilocks book. So I took the book and made up a story about David,his Mom and Dad. And a woman they called Grandma Jo, What a funny name whoever heard of a name like that and she doesn't look like most Grandmas do. By the time the story was completed, he was watching the activity at the circle time. I had set the clock so he knew when Mom would be back. He went out for recess and one of the other guys started talking to him in Spanish and they have been friends every since. They both ate lunch on Thursday at my table and actually conversed with the rest of the kids at the table. When Mom came he couldn't stop talking. I am so pleased. I will have to learn some key phrases in Spanish so they feel more comfortable. My greatest joy is when one of them comes up to give me a hug before they go home. Call me weird . But as my kids say this keeps me off the streets and happy.

What a weekend, I managed to piece a quilt for community service for my quilting guild, finished up my Hungry Caterpillar quilt top. almost finished my wall hanging for October and managed to start another mystery book. I also went with My preschool teacher to TIME OUT FOR WOMEN. She invited me to go as her guest. Had a very pleasant day. I needed some adult time. I also found a new title for myself. Queen of The Travel Agents. Why? Because I book so many quilt trips for my kids especially. Pretty cool huh.

All for now. Remember I love all of you and hope you are all well.

Weekend

Wow what a weekend. My grandson Bill came up on Friday night and my grandson Joe, who lives here in Sacramento and is his brother, came over to visit also.We have not had a chance to really visit since our annual NEW YEAR'S EVE celebration. So we had a lot of catching up to do, talking about our jobs, they both work with autistic children, my Foster Grandparenting. We had Chinese food, another one of our traditions, watched the Olympics. Bill will start his doctorate studies in psycology tomorrow and Joe will go to American River College here in Sacramento to work on his teaching certificate in Special Ed.

Bill and I went to see The Dark Knight. He had seen it before but decided Grandma needed to see it also. It was a great movie, I loved it . Later, Joe came over to visit and they cooked beef strognoff for dinner. I finally went to bed about 11:00 and they were still up chatting. It is so nice to see the grandkids together.

Have you been watching the Olympics? What a thrill to see the young people who invest so much of the lives to become champion athletics.

Tomorrow will be the first day of our new school year. I personally am excited, a little scared and bound and determined to make this a good school year for these boys and girls. We, the teacher, the aide and I have spent the whole week getting ready for this day. We will have four returning from last year but the balance of the class will be three year olds. Our class is made up of three to five year olds. So we expect a lot of tears for a while .

Hope all are well

Quilts and Life

I would be nothing if I did not have my quilting to express myself in. I have been making quilts for many years,my first one was a Sunbonnet Sue Quilt. It served several purposes. One, I then had a quilt of my own, two I learned to bast in small stitches, three , I also learned to sew sraight lines on a sewing machine. I had recently joined a family in my grandparents neighborhood who had a spare room, a need for someone to help with garden, canning etc. Their son had a Overall Sam quilt. I had none of my own and this was a way for me to feel part of their family also.

I made quilts for my kids, grandkids, friends of mine,friends of my grandkids. Then I sold my house and moved to my current home . I meet the young lady next door. We became good friends(she is like a granddaughter to me). she decided to take a quilting class when she had her little boy, Shane. I couldn't keep my hands off the new things she learned in quilting. There are so many things that I had never had the time or money to explore. Thus started a very joyous
time in my life. I could use my imagination, my talent(?) for colors and make things that I would never had thought to do before. Of course about this time I was diagnosed with The Big C. I wasn't going to let it get me down. My friend, Cheryl and I have spent many hours working together on quilts, we have even made wall hangings. We, I say we. because it is a two person experiment have not yet learned to quilt on my quilting machine. I have done three , two were just plain fabric which I just practiced sewing in designs, my own mainly and writing different things on with the sewing machine. The third one I had pieced for Patti, my daughter. I enjoyed making that one but I had a hard time getting just the right design. She loves it and that is all that matters.

I, now have two adopted great grandsons. Shane and Hunter. I have a great granddaughter who is fifteen, her name is Eden, Her brother is eight, his name is Ion. My Great grandson Ethan will be eight in Sept. plus Tommy, Luci and Joshua.

Eden,Ion ,Ethan and I went to Fresno on the train in June.It was a lot of fun. I enjoy the kids.Sometimes I feel as if I am too old to be with them but when I am with these children I feel young again.

Grandkids

A short rundown on my grandkids. I have 6 grandsons and two granddaughters. Teresa is the oldest of the grandkids and she is a massage therapist who lives in Suisun City. She is 29. Has been a youth minister. She isn't married. Todd is the next grandkid, he is going to be 27 in October. He is married and has two sons, Todd Thomas who is 3 and Joshua James who is two weeks old almost. Chris just turned 25 on 08-08. He isn't married still lives at home and works with his dad. Joseph is going to be 25 in Nov. not married, going to college to be a special ed teacher. Currently works with autistic children in their homes, teaching them social graces,etc.
Mike is 23, he works as a nurse, has been to Iraq with the army and is currently living in Washington state, was in Idaho. Also not married. Bill graduated from Fresno State college in May with a masters of art in psychology. He will continue with his studies for his doctorate in the fall. Bill is a very tall young man. He is 6 ft 7 in. I just fit under his arm. He is also not married.
Nathan is going to be 22 in Dec . He was in the Marine corp and served two tours of duty in Iraq. He is not married and lives in Ca. Jessica will be 21 the last of Aug. she has a baby girl Lucinda, born July 13,2008. She is also not married.

HELLO,MY NAME IS JOANNE

Well, I decided maybe I need to introduce myself. I live in Sacramento,Ca. I have lived here since the 1980's. I was born and raised in Kearney, Ne. When I was 20 I married and moved to Ogden, Ut, we lived there for eight years and then moved to Brigham City. We lived there for about six years and then transferred to Fresno, Ca with IRS. I had five children, Three girls, Kathryn, Tamara,and Patricia. two sons Robert and James. My daughters and my son Robert all live in Fresno. My son James passed away in 1995.

Well, now that I have given you a little history about me. I will tell you about me and my life now.I retired from IRS after 23 years, I, then worked at a fabric store for a while, big mistake I love to sew and bought a lot of material . Then I went to work for a Bead Shop. That was fun because I got to make things ,used my imagination a lot. Then I went to work for the local cable company and retired about six years ago. I have been making quilts for quite awhile now and am still doing that . Love doing that because I can make things using my imagination and give them to friends, relatives and organizations who dispense them to the needy.

But my most rewarding Job is the one I have now. I am a Foster Grandparent. I work in a head start program at a local school. I started last Nov. one of the reason for starting was because I wanted to give something back , and my little adopted grandson was going to that preschool. By the end of the school year, I had several new friends and their parents who call me Grandma Jo.
This summer I worked in a different classroom, the children were either down syndrome children or autistic children. The first week I came home sure that I would not make it. I am a talker,hugger, cuddler. Most of the children did not respond. I made a vow that I would get them all to talk to me . So I appointed myself the person in charge of hand washing . While we washed
hands I sang little songs that I made up using the childrens names. Before long they talked to me
hugged me, let me touch them, hold their hands.
It was a real education for me and rewarding. I make little rice packs for kids to use on their bobo's, they are made with flannel, and I put them in the freezer so they are better than Ice packs because they are mouldable . The kids love them because they can hold them in their small hands.