A Mystery Solved

It occurred to me that it was really easy to get an answer about why Sara was blind in her right eye. I called Aunt Norma. Norma said that when Sara was a in college she got a cinder in her eye. As soon as she said that I remembered hearing about the cinder in her eye. Beckie will remember it, too. But I still don't remember ever knowing she was blind in that eye.

Norma said the cinder came from the Bamberger railroad that ran between Salt Lake City and Lagoon. It apparently no longer exists. Norma remembered that Sara put drops in her eye every day, hoping to heal her eye.

Quiet Books

Since Pam wants to make a quiet book and Heidi expressed interest too, I will give a few suggestions. I do have a lot of patterns. The problem is I don't know where they are since we moved. I will keep looking for them. When I find them I will scan and post them.

In the mean time there are some really good ideas on the internet. Google lds quiet book pattern. You will find two links there that will be really helpful. One is at theideadoor.com and the other is at mormonchic.com. Google it first and then click on the link because it is hard to find the quiet books if you go directly to the web site home pages.

The idea door suggests making the quiet books on heavy pellon. I made mine on muslin and I think it is probably more durable. Otherwise she used a lot of the same methods I did. Tracing pictures with a Sharpie and then coloring it with crayons works really well. Be sure to iron over the crayon with a paper towel over it. This sets the color into the fabric. For more intense color you can color it with the crayon again and iron it again.
I also suggest sewing a thin ribbon to each separate piece and attaching it to the page so pieces don't get lost.

An idea for some pages would be to use transfer paper to put photos of family members onto muslin and cut them out. You could do a family tree page. And a page with your immediate family-perhaps with a simple drawing of your house or of your city in the background. (You could do this with photo transfer paper, too.)

Dutch isn't old enough yet, but Heidi could us some of her kids artwork as background for some pages or even have them draw on the muslim pages and add her own elements to it.

I will add more ideas when I find my patterns. Let me know if I can help.

Marshmallow Peeps

I am curious. How many of you who are related to my mother inherited her love for marshmallow? She loved toasted marshmallows, marshmallow cream, mint dreams (with a mint marshmallow filling) and marshmallow peeps. I LOVE marshmallow peeps. Actually, I prefer the bunnies to the peeps and I only like the traditional colors of yellow and pink. I am never tempted to buy marshmallow peeps at other times of the year (ie. halloween peeps or snowman peeps.) Anyway, I always think of my mom at this time of year as I enjoy my marshmallow bunnies.

Another Journal Entry

It has been a couple of weeks since I last posted one of Carolyn's journal entries. I will remind you that Sara needed cataract surgery.

April 1, 1992 (she actually wrote 1922, but I am pretty sure she meant 1992)

Time is going too fast. It will soon be a year since we came to Manti.

We have had lots of company again Don and Kathy Lind were here a week ago. (Don Lind was an astronaut and one of Popi's best friends.) They stayed to Mon afternoon. I took Mother to have her eye done on thursday-Then John, Annette and Rebecca came on Sat this week-stayed til Sun night-Monday I tended the little girls (Katherine and Samantha) Then Tue Bill and Polly came It looks like now the weather is nice we will have more company.

Mother had her surgery on Thur-we came on home because we finished by 1:30-We went back the next day all is well now but she was slow to recover-It worried me because by Sunday she still could not see anything She has been blind in her right eye since she was in college. So when we operated on the left eye and took the sight from it with the swelling she was totally blind. Her cataract was so dense it was solid brown- It took 7X as much to get it out as normal so she was more swollen than usual. She is seeng better each day now.


What amazed me about this journal entry was that I never knew my grandmother was blind in her right eye. She NEVER mentioned it. She complianed about her feet-they hurt all the time-but in general she was not a person to complain. I asked Popi how she lost her sight, but he couldn't remember. I just find it ironic that my maternal grandmother was blind in her right eye, my father is blind in his right eye and I am blind in my right eye. I must say that Omi was an amazing and wonderful person.