Sophie's Story

   In case you happened to be out of the country, in a coma or just plain not paying attention Kim Kardashian and Kanye West got married over the weekend. Many internet articles have been posted over the past few weeks speculating on the location, the clothes and the guest list. It was being built up as the epic wedding of all time.    Now that it's over there are articles and pictures of all the events. There are pictures of the dresses, the venue, the kiss and the reception photo booth. There's coverage of the after parties and honeymoon.    A few of the things I have seen have quoted the cost of the wedding dress. I'm having a hard time wrapping my head around the fact that someone would spend that much on an event that lasts a couple of days. It seems almost obscene and wasteful to me. There are so many ways that money could be better spent.   I've been trying not to look at any of the articles or any of the pictures. I know that I'm going into middle aged

   It's Memorial Day and a day that we should all pause to remember those who sacrificed to allow us all that we have today. Mainly we pay tribute to those men and women who served in the military.   Those that fight in wars pay a high price. All of them pay with their lives. Some of those lives are  lost. Some of those lives are altered beyond all recognition.    Every year on this day I remember my father-in-law, Mr. Warren. He came back from the war a changed and somewhat broken man. He worked hard and did his best, but the war had taken it's toll.   I'd like to talk about the contribution of a man who did not go off to war. His name was Rinaldo. His father had come to the United States from Italy like so many immigrants looking for a better life. Rinaldo's father, Salvatore, came over as a young man with his brother. On one of the first days in their new country, children yelled insults and threw food at them. Salvatore did not understand the words coming o

   Everyone in our family has a nickname. All of the kids do from Denise to Carmen. C has a nickname and so do the cats. The only person who doesn't have one is me.    I decided that this needed to end. C and I have been married for nearly ten years now. I think that it is time I had a nickname of my own.    The problem is that a nickname is usually given to you by someone else. I've had a few. Motormouth, Poodle, Storytime, Little Boat Girl and Poof. Needless to say none of these were meant to be flattering. No way I was going to reuse any of them.    Nicknames are sometimes short versions of a given name. There's not a whole lot you can do with Sophie. It only breaks down into "Soph" or "Fee". Not really good nickname choices.    Still, I wanted a nickname. I wanted to feel more like I was a part of the family. It was unlikely that I was going to be given one. There was a chance I could get one that I wouldn't like. There was only one thing

    C and I have been asked to speak at Sacrament meeting on Sunday. For those of you who are unfamiliar with the way worship services are conducted at The Church Of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints, I'll explain. Sacrament meeting is the time when the Sacrament, which is known as Communion or The Eucharist in other churches is passed. Announcements are made about church events. Callings and releases are done at this time as well. Hymns are sung and people give talks. The speakers are asked by the Bishop or one of his Councilors and are given a topic.   I was pretty sure I was safe from any such invitations. I'm certain Bishop Nealy said that he wanted to ask people who had not spoken in a very long time or those that didn't really like or want to speak. Since I did speak less than five years ago at the request of President Campbell, who was bishop at the time, and I don't mind speaking, seasoned Toastmaster that I am, I figured I was immune from any such requests.

    Hi! This is Scamp. I have taken over the writing duties this week. I want to tell you about something that happened a few weeks ago.    Sometimes Sophie posts conversations that she has with us on Facebook. Most of the time she gets it right. Several of her friends really like to read these. I'm not surprised. I'd rather read about me and Colby than some famous person's wedding plans. (Does anyone really care anyway?)   The popularity of these posts made Colby and me think. Maybe we should have a Facebook page of our own. It would be so much easier if we did. Then we could post on our own. Sophie doesn't like it when we post under her name.   We had be to careful about how to bring up the subject. Sophie is very careful of us when it comes it the internet. We are not allowed to use it unless she is with us. We are also not allowed to download anything. The internet has a lot of good stuff like videos of lions and instructions on how to arm knit. (Colby thinks h

  Normally I get this written in the morning, but we had lots of things we wanted to do today. It was very important to get an early start.   The weather was supposed to be nice so we decided to go to the Minnesota Landscape Arboretum in the morning. C wanted to be on the road by nine AM. We decided we would have lunch there. After that we would continue to do the rest of our errands. We needed to grocery shop, go to Trader Joe's and buy cat food and litter. If we started out by nine we could get all these things done and not get home too late in the afternoon.   I remembered that today was Stamp Out Hunger Day. It's the day you are supposed to put food by the mailbox. The letter carriers pick up the food and donate it local food shelves. Since we have a post office box it meant that I would have to take it to the postal station. I didn't think it would be a problem, I was pretty sure the station opened at nine. We could drop it off on our way out of town.   We didn

    A few weeks ago I was thinking about how different my life as a kid was than the lives of some of the kids I know now. Many things that are very common now, like computers, were unheard of then. There are things that kids do now that would not have been allowed when I was a kid. I started thinking about some of the things I was told when I was younger. I remembered some of the things were clearly not true. I never understood why I was told these things. At the time it just seemed a little weird. Now I think it's funny. Allow me to share with you a few of the less than true things that I was told growing up.    "Eating raw cookie dough will give you worms." I'm sure we have all heard that one. I never understood it. From the time I was old enough to operate the oven alone, I was delegated the task of baking treats for the family. I didn't mind. I love to bake and I still do. I wondered where the worms would come from. I knew what I put into the cookie dough