great grandma and her great grandchildren

My how these children have grown up. All but baby Julianne and baby Milo and Lincoln have children of their own. This is one of the last pictures with all of the children and their great grandmother.
She was in her 80's then. About 22 years ago. Everyone lived close then and now they are grown up and all over the United States. Julianne is even in England. Times do change and it also goes very fast.

Check it out

Check out Montage-creative blogspot.com. Matt and Katy and kids. Really a good one.

Grandma's carrot pudding

This is a receipe for carrot pudding that my grandmother Pearl was given in the early years of her marriage. Grandpa and Grandma lived in Exeter, Ca and her neighbor was Mrs. Matchett. This is the little paper that she copied it on and I found it in one of her books years before she passed away. This was when she told me the story about the "Carrot Pudding." I have made it many times years ago and we had it at Christmas and Thanksgiving.
This was the days before food processors and we used hand grinders. It was a lot of work. Of course it was not to healthy as it had 1 cup of grated suet.* If you don't know what suet is-it is fat that is cut off of meat before it is cooked and you ask the butcher for it and he will give you some to take home and grind. I think David was the only one of my boys that like it but it brings back a lot of good memories for me when I was a little girl.
Grandma would serve it in little white desert dishes set on a doillie on a saucer. Then she made a powdered sugar and butter sauce to pour over the hot pudding. It would melt into the pudding and was really delicious. Of course none of this had any calories????? The adults added a bit of brandy to their sauce and called it "hard sauce."
It is very moist and dark in color. I add chopped walnuts and some raisins.
If you are ever hear at Thanksgiving or Christmas I will make it for you!
* In answer to Ginger, I did use shortening instead of suet and it worked very well and I felt better about it.!

Idlywild

In 1953 we went toPine Cove in Idlywild and spent some time at Grandma and Grandpa Potter's cabin. There wasn't alot of snow but enough to have some fun in. The cabin is still there but the people that bought it fixed it up and painted it with red sutters and a red door.
Let me explain the cabin. Grandpa build it on the lot that he bought and it started out to be the garage and he was going to build a bigger cabin when they could afford it. However, it never got done and he had made this "garage" into a very livable large room! On the inside he built a loft. This was a fun place when I was a little girl. I could go up into the loft and see down below. It seemed so high. He built a ladder that fastened up to the beams and if you were as tall as an adult it was easy to undo it and put it down so that you could climb up. It was made out of manzanita wood as well as were the railings on the loft. There were two beds up there for sleeping and a window that you could see outside.
As you walked in the front door you could see the whole place. There was a sink and drainboard on the left with tile counters that grandpa had made. The tile was mismatched in bright colors. Oh yes, there was a water faucet on the sink but it was only cold water. If you wanted hot water or wanted to cook there was a wood stove . There was no electricity and we used oil lamps for light. So needless we went to bed early. The cabin was full of antiques that were not antiques at the time. Two brass double beds and 2 birdseye maple dressers. There was an old large windup victrola with many old records that as children we loved to play.
The one think I did not like was the "outhouse." I am sure the new owners have indoor plumbing. In the winter we kept our food in a box that Grandpa had built in the tree out sideof the front door. It was cold outside so we didn't need ice. A different story in the summer. Then we had to get ice from the little store down the road.
We always had fun and looked forward to going to the mountains.
Bill and I even spent our honeymoon there. As it was December it was sooooo cold and we had to keep a fire going in the old wood stove.
Not sure the boys remember our time at the cabin but I hope so.

We were young once! This was taken in Palm Springs where Bill was leading a conference for the Merchants and Manufactures Association in Los Angeles. So this had to be about 1958. We were living in Covina at the time and Bill was driving into Los Angeles for work every day. This was about his last year of working with this Association as he found another job close to home and the opportunity was much better. He and 2 others started the plant project for Hoffman Electronics in El Monte. This involved building the plant, hiring the workers, etc. In other words starting from the beginning. The plant was for the growing of solar crystals to be made into solar panels, etc. He was a very busy husband and father as the job required most of his time. It didn't last forever though.

Our first home

Have been taking a writing class on stories about our family. I started with stories about meeting Bill. One of the stories was about our first home. Yes, it was this lavish, luxurious quonset hut on the Chapman College Campus.
This was also Bob and David's first home as they were both born while we lived here. You can see diapers hanging on the clothes line and the baby buggy with Bob in it. I look at this picture and see how far we have come. It was fun there though as the other quonsets had students just like us with babies and we were all poor and knowing that it would't be that way forever.

This is what I have been working on. Invitations to our big event in Dec.
We usually have about 400 men and women so it is one of the holiday luncheons that many plan on. I think it is the tree drawing that gets them there. We have at least 30 3'high fully decorated trees in the drawing. I usually do about 7 or 8 so it does keep me busy at holiday time. As co-chairman I want to get as much done as possible now so that I can enjoy the holidays and all of my wonerful family coming in Oct.
Now vote on which one of these invitations you like the best. Then I can go to the printer and get them all done and stuffed!!! Paula, our president, requested an elegant looking invitation and this is what I came up with!