Another view of House on Nowata Road

Here, Carla is about 3, so the addition onto the house is also about 3 years old.  You can see the addition right behind me (in yellow dress), my sister Cindy (in orange), Larry, and Carla.  The front porch, living room window, and master bedroom window are all visible here.  Also, see the moose antlers hanging on the garage.  My dad shot that moose, and Larry still has the antlers.

House on Nowata Road

This is the first house I remember, 5 miles outside of Bartlesville, Oklahoma.   When I was tiny, we had 4 children in one bedroom, and my parents in the other bedroom.  There was one bathroom with a bathtub (no shower.)  There was a window air conditioner only in the living room.

  Later, just before my sister Carla was born, my parents added an addition onto the house, connecting it with that garage you see on the far left.  They added a living room, a master bedroom and another bedroom, making 4 bedrooms in all.  Plus one more bathroom and a small sewing/utility room.

I can even remember my telephone number.    
The prefix was "Edison", so the phone number was ED 3- 1187,  or 333-1187.  It is amazing what you can remember when it was the first thing you ever put in your brain.  I will probably remember that number when I have Alzheimer's.

Cool car in 1961

This is a picture of my older sister Cheryl and older brother Larry in 1961.  Look at our family's cool car in the background!  I wish I could see the whole thing.  One of my earliest memories is waking up in the back seat of that car, and seeing mountains all around as we were driving from Oklahoma to Arizona.  It was the first time I had seen mountains.  I also remember being very sweaty and hot, since there was no air conditioning.  Those were the days!

And look at the vast emptiness all around our house, we had zero neighborhood kids to play with.

Anson's eyes

Here I am, about 18 months old.  I definitely see a resemblance between my eyes and my grandson's Anson's eyes.

A quilt for Sally P.

A dear friend, Sally P., has cancer again. I found out that Susan Y. and Amelia B. had made a quilt top for Sally, and I offered to quilt it for them on my long-arm machine. 

First, I had to add strips to the backing because it wasn't big enough. 

Then, since I have very little experience on the long-arm, I had one fiasco after another as I tried to load the quilt top, backing, and batting onto the machine, and again as I tried to figure out how to use the laser and follow a pantograph. 

But miracles do happen, and I got the quilt quilted between 11:00 pm and 1:30 in the morning on Sunday night.  Amelia was able to bind it on Monday, and Susan and Amelia delivered it to Sally on Tuesday, before she went in for surgery on Wednesday.

I think it is beautiful!

 The front, which was pieced by Amelia and Susan.

The back.  I added three of the strips to make it big enough.

Boy Scout camp was at our house

 We hosted Boy Scout camp for our ward and one other ward for 5 days in July.  All the cooking and eating was done around the garage.  It was pouring rain every single day.

 Merit badge classes were held on our front porch and our screened porch and other places.  I couldn't look out any window without seeing bunches of boys and leaders everywhere.

 

 They held flag ceremonies every morning and evening.

The archery merit badge and fishing merit badges were taught in the front pasture and at the pond.

I got no pictures of the horsemanship merit badge, which was taught near our barn and in the adjoining pasture.  Our friends brought 2 horses over for the week.  It was raining so constantly that I never went out there.

All in all, I think it was a good experience for everyone.  The only lasting consequence was that we had a lot of flies in our garage and in our house for a few weeks afterward, but now they are all gone so life is normal again.