Thanks, Dr. Dentist!

OK. I know it's not the dentist's fault. But look!

Today's whine:

(My) left corner of mouth stretched and dry from last week's extraction. (Not really visible. You'll have to imagine it! Imagine big, black, and ugly!)

(My) left upper lip swollen from my chewing on it yesterday while it was numb for this week's filling. And when I do a photo this close up, my wrinkles are so obvious!! Aaaargh!!!

Pupusas Revueltas at El Salvadoran

 Celebrate the last day of August....with Central American Pupusas!
(and Leland's mother Arla's birthday!!! ) She was adventuresome, and I'm sure would have enjoyed a birthday lunch with me today, right, Leah?)

These don't look as good as they taste, but they are DELICIOUS and CHEAP!! I tasted my first pupusas after LeeAnn's mission. She had Central American converts and friends after her Spanish-speaking mission, and she made pupusas for us back in Orem. They were quite time-consuming to make, so she made them only a few times. Years later, when I discovered the El Salvador on Center Street in Provo, I had to give it a try. Exceeded my expectations!!

A friend who shall remain nameless thought they were papooses and had no interest in eating them...:) Said friend is now a huge fan , although he/she has yet to go beyond the pupusas revueltas and the tamal de elote (YUMMM!!) Three items from the menu: 3 x $1.60 = $4.80 + tax and tip.

Sunday Musings

I love the Sabbath Day. I see it as another evidence that our Heavenly Father loves His children and wants them to be physically, emotionally, and spiritually healthy. This is why He has asked us to take a break from our everyday cares and focus on spiritual peace. A few years ago I read an article by someone who wrote about the secular benefits of having a day of "rest" or "meditation" or "centering" or an otherwise break from the hustle and bustle of the world. It might not be consecrated the same way for all of us, but the wisdom of the principle didn't escape me.

Tonight I was out and about and I couldn't help marveling at this dramatic manifestation of our Heavenly Father's love.

Looking west, Orem, Utah 8/30/15

I'll say more about this sometime in my Serious Swag. In the meantime, may I share a few evidences that shout to me, "There is a God!" The reality of a Higher Power or Supreme Being is so self-evident that I have difficulty wrapping my mind around the contrary.




The hard and absolute Truth is this: We choose what we wish to believe. I choose to believe in goodness, and love, and kindness, and a forever family. Blessings to you.

Beautiful, miraculous Daphne

My darlings Echo, Maddy, and Busbyberkly at the Manti Temple

My much loved daffodils in Scotland in March

Koz, Ansem, Sora
Such a beautiful scene!

Straining my brain!

Trying to figure out how to do subpages for this blog is making me a little crazy this afternoon. I am so annoyed that instructions that I would have totally understood and quickly implemented in my former functional level now take me literally hours to do!! I am actually pretty technically savvy for an oldster. Small consolation. I may be about 50% of kindergarten savvy! Sorry, children and grandchildren, if I pester you. I was the mother in our family, and believe me, I have experienced PESTER!! This is nothing!!

Gotta Have Swag

Hi!

Everybody knows grandmas aren't your same old grandma anymore. My Nana sewed lovely flannel nightgowns for both me and my dolly every Christmas. She had 10 grandchildren and was widowed for over 30 years. (I include that because every grandma knows that having a husband seriously limits the attention she can pay to her grandchildren. She lived for her grandchildren, and oh, the stories she could tell! My other grandma had a bazillion grandchildren and who knows how many greats long before I came along, so for Christmas every year her bachelor son gave the grandchildren a box of orange sticks (remember the chocolate-coated jellies in the skinny rectangular box?) from her, while she was re-gifting the blouse/sweater/robe/nightgown/stationery/ lotion/slippers that our parents had given her the year before. I adored her, although truly, for me, she couldn't have been a more polar opposite in the "kindly, sweet, talcum-powder-fragrance-wafting" old lady continuum than my multi-talented diva Nana.

Me? I have had nearly 20 grandchildren for 15 years and the count is now up to 31 grandchildren, 4 step-grandchildren, 4 great-grandchildren, and 3 step-great-grandchildren ranging in age from 30 years to 6 months. I'm definitely not a "new variety" grandma. I have cousins and friends who go biking, hiking, camping, rock-climbing, marathon running, scuba diving--you know all that stuff--with their grand kids. That's not me. I'm not sure that any of my descendants will have that kind of grandma, and I'm very sure they will NOT have a grandma like either of mine, or like me. Maybe from the other side of their gene pool. 

So what is a grandma these days? More specifically, who am I? I've had three distinctly different careers: elementary school teacher; corporate consultant; and co-founder of a high-tech, state-of-the-art online training and consulting company. while being divorced once, widowed twice, married 3 times, birthing 6 children with the same father, and living in over 30 different apartments or houses over 54 years. And obtaining a Masters Degree while supporting 6 children on a student stipend and a teaching assistant fellowship. 

So I'm not your ordinary Gramma. This Gramma's got SWAG. Major swag! 

You can stay on this site for interesting comments, or you can find Silly Swag at www.sillyswag.blogspot.com or Serious Swag at www.seriouswag.blogspot.com.

Thanks for visiting my blog Gramma Got Swag. You can also find me on Instagram and maybe Facebook. Soon maybe YouTube. And next year on The Ellen DeGeneres Show...... 

Seeking Silly Swag   www.sillyswag.blogspot.com

Some people really like silly swag. Some others are totally disgusted with an over-70-year-old goofy gramma that's into SILLY. So if you like SILLY SWAG, here's the link. If you want SERIOUS SWAG, you'll have to go to a different place! Or maybe you aren't interested in this blog site at all. That's OK. I won't be offended, and I hope you won't be, either.

 They didn't choose me for any important parts at the Shakespeare Festival in Cedar City this year, so I had to create my own role. You can use the comments section to tell me what you think it was.











Don't you just LOVE Independence Day??

Thanks for visiting my blog Gramma Got Swag. You can also find me on Instagram and maybe Facebook. Soon maybe YouTube. And next year on The Ellen DeGeneres Show...... 

Friday, August 28, 2015

 Serious Swag  www.seriouswag.blogspot.com

So sometimes this gramma wants to be deep serious about important things. Serious swag is for my spiritual insights and observations. I'm not interested in disputes or uncivil dialogue. You will have to contact me personally to discuss your disagreements with my opinions or beliefs. And anything uncivil will be unanswered in any case.

I enjoy respectful, thoughtful dialogue around diversity of ideas. I consider myself to be intelligent, spiritually experienced, well-informed on a variety of religious and philosophical perspectives, generous-hearted, and have an inclusive definition of "truth", consistent with my age and stage of life and the challenges I have faced and overcome with God's help. So I don't say this with arrogance, but with gratitude. I don't much care for spiritual silliness or sophistry. I am secure in my own spiritual path, recognizing and accepting my flaws and weaknesses with confidence that they are leading me to be more Christ-like in every aspect of my mortal journey.

"Families can be together forever, through Heavenly Father's plan. I always want to be with my own family, and the Lord has shown me how I can."

-Ruth Muir Gardner

Thanks for visiting my blog Gramma Got Swag. You can also find me on Instagram and maybe Facebook. Soon maybe YouTube. And next year on The Ellen DeGeneres Show......