Happy Birthday Dad!

Today is my father-in-law's birthday. It is the one great thing about October 31. I think about Dad all the time, and all the great things he is to/for us. But when I sit down to write about it, it's hard to put it all in concrete words instead of just thoughts.

So, here are a few things off the top of my head that I'm grateful to Dad for:
1. He is a wonderful, loving husband, and I am thankful for his example in this arena to my own husband - I reap the benefits of that great example every minute of my life.
2. He has a great enthusiasm for life. He is actively interested in what is going on around him.
3. He is entertaining in many ways. He has a beautiful singing voice (my husband likes to sing the songs Dad sings, but never thinks he sings as well as Dad - he loves thinking about Dad while he is singing). He also entertains the grandkids - singing fun songs like "There Was an Old Lady Who Swallowed a Fly", "Shortnin' Bread", and many others.
4. Dad has spent thousands of hours composing poems and inscriptions for all the books they have ever given their grandchildren. Think about it - over 50 grandchildren times a book for their birthday, and a book for Christmas, and any other books given in addition to those! Those inscriptions are priceless.

That's just the tip of the iceberg. His name is Ray Housley Linford. My husband is Ray Austin Linford, and my son is Ray Orris Linford. My husband has always been so proud to be named after his father that he always wanted to name his first boy Ray also. One inscription Dad wrote when our son Ray was born is this:

To Ray. What a grand name. If you know my name and if you know your Daddy's name you know the name of one of the greatest grandsons we know.

I would say we would know the name of one of the greatest dads and grandpas we know.

Happy Birthday Dad!

Dad and Mom in Brazil - currently serving their fourth mission!

*If you look at Dad, you will know what my husband will look like in about 30 years, and you will know what Grandfather Linford looked like about 30 years ago!

3 good things about Halloween

Hmm, I'm trying to think of them. Yes, I'm the Halloween Scrooge of the Century (this century and last). I love autumn things, but not yucky, scary Halloween things (spiders come to mind at this point).

Okay here goes - three good things:
1. It's my father-in-law's birthday (poor man - having to share that holiday). It's one thing that redeems the day for me.
2. We have a big family dinner together to celebrate Dad's birthday, then the kids go trick-or-treating.
3. I guess there's always something good about a holiday that makes chocolate more accessible.

It took me all day to think of all three. Oh, I forgot the most important good thing!

4. I will now start playing Christmas music in the open (I feel Christmas music is okay all year round).

Lunch at the MOA

Everyone who's anyone knows the best place to eat on the BYU campus is the cafe at the Museum of Art (aka MOA). Audrey and I drove down with the boys, picked up Debra, Madeleine, and Ray, and met Beth at the cafe for lunch. Mmm, mmm, delicious. But better than that was all of us together. The grandkids were beautifully behaved and we had a great time as well as a great lunch.

Believe it or not, this was the best shot we got - the babies were fascinated with everything but the proper focal point:

L to R: Audrey, Debra, Ray, Matthew, Madeleine, Beth, Austin

After lunch we wandered through the bookstore. I forget how much I love that place. Now that we live here I don't feel so driven to make sure I get there everytime I'm in Provo. It's been a long time since I've been there, though, and I need to get there more often. At one point we were waiting for Audrey to buy something and I got a couple shots of Matthew and Madeleine side by side in their strollers.

I think in this one Matthew is trying to pull a quarter from behind Madeleine's ear:
Believe it or not, they are both happy. This is Madeleine's latest posed smile for the camera:
Madeleine's not so sure what Matthew is laughing about here:
We persuaded Austin to come over for a picture too:

It's the best way I can think of to spend my Friday afternoon!

Thank you Jeanie!

We got home from our trip to Boston (coming soon to a blog near you) Tuesday night. There on our kitchen island were two brand new aprons. My friend (and co-in-law) Jeanie made them for us. Aren't they beautiful?? They are just the right length, which is hard to find in an apron, great fabric, and best of all, we really use aprons. In fact both aprons have already been used several times.

Here we are modelling the model aprons. (Ray and I believe in doing an American Gothic pose every 28 years or so. The last one was done on our wedding day. Really.)

Mornings on Horseback by David McCullough

So far I haven't found a David McCullough book I didn't like. In fact I really like his books a lot.

Several years ago I was on a Theodore Roosevelt kick. I read Edmund Morris' The Rise of Theodore Roosevelt, and Theodore Rex. Then I read the book about TR's wife - Edith Kermit Roosevelt by Sylvia Jukes Morris. 

A couple of years ago I ran across this book, and picked it up. It kept getting shifted up and down in my pile of books to read. Finally last week I started it. I didn't realize this book was published in 1980. I can't believe I missed it before. It was terrific. To give a brief summary of the book, I'll just quote the subtitle of the book: "The Story of an Extraordinary Family, a Vanished Way of Life, and the Unique Child Who Became Theodore Roosevelt. " It is not at all a comprehensive study of TR's life. Rather, it is a study of the family he came from, and how he became who he was. The book ends when TR is in his mid-twenties - just ready to launch his comprehensive political career. Partnered with the Morris books, you can get a great view of this great man's life.  If you like biographies, you will love these. 

The Know-It-All by A.J. Jacobs

Complete title:

The Know-It-All One Man's Humble Quest to Become the Smartest Person in the World

I loved this book. My nephew David recommended it quite a while ago. I bought it, began reading it, and promptly loaned it to my son. I knew he would love it. He recently returned it to me, and I finished it.

This book is about Jacobs' quest to become smarter by reading the entire Encyclopedia Britannica. The book is comprised of various entries - spun off of actual entries in the EB. I found it witty, intelligent, and thoroughly enjoyable. It is just my cup of tea - full of completely irrelevant trivia and interesting facts. My head was already full of things that won't help me or anyone else in the world, but that I find interesting. This has compounded that problem. Jacobs also manages to weave interesting threads about his own family and life through the various entries.

I was sad to see the end of this book.

Big Boned by Meg Cabot

Cute. Light mystery. I'm now done reading her books.

Angus, Thongs, and Full Frontal Snogging by Louise Rennison

Someone I'm friends with on Goodreads said they recommend this book to anyone they know who needs a lift. So, I thought I'd check it out.

It's a young adult book, sort of a junior Bridget Jones' Diary from what I understand (I started BJ Diary, but the language put me off, so I didn't get very far). This one doesn't have language problems. Parts of it were very funny. Parts of it were cute.  That said, I am not driven to read any more of her books.