A Plethora of Projects and a Pair of Parodies

 

I think most families are familiar with the popular children's book "If You Give a Mouse a Cookie" featuring a cute little mouse who wants more and more ... and more. The parallel to home projects is pretty predictable (continuing on with my title alliteration). You start with one thing, but changing it makes you realize something else should be changed as well, and so on and so on ...

The Blackham family did some home renovations in 2020 ... as Callahan got married and moved out, Keaton would be taking over that bedroom. But the wall was damaged, so it was necessary to fix the wall. Then that wall needed to be painted, so why not paint the whole room ... I mean the whole basement? With the fresh paint, the old carpet looks awful, so replacing the flooring is next. New lights are next. Where do you stop painting? Best to just continue all the way upstairs, right? The Blackham renovations stopped there. For NOW anyway (the kitchen floors no longer match the new paint, but then the cabinets, which match the floor, would need to be replaced too, then would the furniture match?)

Derek and Danielle had numerous projects in their home during 2020 (with quarantine, there wasn't a whole lot else to do!). In August, in an email he mentioned:

I've had a dumb little idea for a parody children's book for a while. We were talking to our friends about their new sofa, and she was saying: "so, we got the new sofa, and we love it - but it doesn't match our room perfectly, so we needed to get some new throw pillows, and then a rug - but the rug was too big for the space so we had to..." then she proceeded to talk about all the things that resulted from the new sofa. I joked how it was like the kid's book "If You Give A Mouse a Cookie." So I finally sat down and wrote out "If You Give a Spouse a Sofa" in the same style. See attached.

Wendy commented that SHE had also written a parody of this SAME little story based on a drippy-door painting project back in 2009! Here's a link to her blog post about it, and the text included below ...

Have you ever heard the story "If you give a mouse a cookie?"
Well, here is our TRUE story of "If you give your husband a request..."

If you ask your husband to put the closet doors back on your daughter's room (that he took off and put in the shed two months ago to paint and never did), then he will go and rent a paint sprayer so that he can spray the door before putting it back on...

And if he rents a spray gun to spray the door, he will decide to spray all of the closet doors that are sitting in the shed before putting them back on...

And if he decides to spray all of the closet doors before putting them back on, he will also take off all of the other doors in the house in order to paint them too (even if his wife tells him over and over not to)...

And if he takes all of the other doors off their hinges, then he will carry them all into the garage and stand them up while he attempts to paint them (even if his wife tells him that it looks very precarious and perhaps he should lean them against the garage wall instead)...

And if he balances the closet doors capriciously, and begins to paint them with the paint sprayer, then right before he is almost finished painting all of them, one will fall over and knock another, which will knock another, which will knock another, until just like dominoes, all of the freshly painted doors are now all over the garage floor with paint everywhere and a husband who is covered from head to toe in splattered white paint...

And if there is a husband covered with splattered white paint and doors all over the ground, then the paint splattered husband will enlist the help of his tired wife who was almost ready to crawl into bed, while he tries to brush the drippy paint (and dirt) off the doors. 

And while brushing debris and splattered paint off the doors, the husband will ask his wife if she will hold the doors while he sprays them. The wife, not wanting to be sprayed in the face with a paint sprayer, politely declines but attempts to help brush the drippy paint. But since the wife's painting skills are no better than her husbands, she is not much help.

And after two frustrated tired people try to salvage messy doors, the husband will try again, re-spraying all of the doors making more drippy paint.

And after leaving the doors dripping with paint and the time almost midnight, the husband will ask the wife if he should go paint the outside doors now.

And if the wife exasperatedly vetoes that idea, the next morning, the husband will go check on the doors and inform his wife that all of the doors look like someone just threw a bucket of paint on them and they are now completely ruined. 

And if the doors are ruined, the determined husband will still go ahead and begin to paint the outside doors of the house.

And if the husband begins to paint the outside doors of the house, the paint sprayer will start to spray paint in every direction.

And after the paint sprayer starts to spray paint in every direction, the husband will bag the paint sprayer and start to paint with a brush.

And after the husband starts to paint with a brush, he will run out of paint and go to Home Depot to get some more.

And if the husband goes to Home Depot in order to get more paint, they will say that they don't have any more paint in that color.

And after going to Home Depot and being told they don't have any more of that kind of paint, the husband will get very indignant, and blame the sprayer and Home Depot and the doors and say, "I never should have started this project..."

And after the husband frets and complains and blames Home Depot, the sprayer, and the doors; the wife will murmur under her breath...but will refrain from thinking, "This is what I get for marrying a musician/teacher instead of a handyman.."

And after the fretting and murmuring, the husband will tell the sons to go ahead and put the dried drippy doors back on their hinges so that he and his wife can fulfill their obligation at the temple that evening...

And after the boys put the dried drippy doors back on their hinges, the husband hurries and puts the still slightly wet outside doors back on so that the baby will not escape and the kids won't freeze with the approaching evening.

And with the doors back on the hinges, the husband and wife leave the 11 year old son in charge of baby-sitting all of the kids, fixing dinner, and putting on the rest of the doorknobs, since the 13 year old daughter got a last minute invitation to see the movie, "New Moon."

And if the husband and wife get home from the temple and find that all is well (except for having to live with dried drippy doors)...

And if all of this happens on the husband's birthday...then the wife has no choice but to close her eyes so that she doesn't see dried drippy doors and ask her husband to sing her a nice soothing love song...and tell him that someday they will laugh over this day, and that they will celebrate his birthday tomorrow...

And please oh please, if you happen to come visit this particular house, just don't ask who painted the doors!

Check out the Westra Writing ~ Stories and Poetry for other creative contributions over the years! And here's a little look at a little book Derek wrote and had animated ...

 

Angel of Lost Keys

 Mom encouraged the siblings to share a "prayer story" and so here is one from Wendy.

The sharing happened Dec 2020. The memory happened in 2019...

I went to bring Jaiden to tumbling after school, but couldn't find my car keys anywhere. Luckily Rick was home and so I was able to use his spare key temporarily, but I knew that I needed to find mine. 

When I returned I said a prayer that I would find them. The whole family joined in the search but with no success. I was getting nervous because the key fob costs about $200.00 to replace. I checked all of the usual places several times. A few hours later I decided to try again and said another prayer mentioning the cost of replacement and even threw in a reminder of how I had paid extra tithing all last year, ha ha! I explained that I would really love to find my keys and we could really use this little tender mercy! 

Anyway, after dinner I thought that maybe I should check the garbage can. Although, why in the world would they be there, right? I took out a garbage bag and started pulling out the garbage piece by piece, putting it in the bag. I had gone through the entire day's garbage and was moving on to the garbage from the day before. I was about to give up when I saw a round black thing. I pulled it out and sure enough, there were my keys near the bottom of the garbage can! I was so grateful!! I gave several "thank you" prayers expressing gratitude at God's tender mercies! If I hadn't received an impression to check there the keys would have been thrown away and lost forever! 

Rick joked that there was probably an angel in heaven whose sole responsibility was to help people find their lost keys -- in fact maybe there was one specifically assigned to the Jensen family, ha ha! He then shared his own miracle experience of when he had lost his keys at Tuacahn. He had been in the costume room getting a costume together for a seminary assignment. He was nervous because he was in a hurry and only had ten minutes before he had to get to his assignment. He knelt down and said a prayer asking for help to find his keys immediately so that he could get to his appointment on time. He then looked over and there was a basket of boots. He reached into one of the boots and there were his keys! 

I am grateful that God is aware of the tiny details of our lives and blesses us with tender mercies even when it is something as inconsequential as missing keys!

Memories of Mom for Mother's Day!!

For Mother's Day (May 11, 2003) I decided to send mom a list of memories! Here is the letter (from Wendy):  

Dear Mom, I thought I would share some more memories I have of you for Mother’s Day!!

I remember…

…when I was a small child overhearing you telling someone how obedient I was.  It really made me want to live up to that!

…how you didn’t want to share your testimony in Fast and Testimony meeting for fear you would get emotional.

….there was a particular Religion Instructor that you really liked. Some of the things he taught were things that none of us heard anywhere else and so if we heard some unusual doctrine we always figured that is where you must have heard it!  Kind of like the boys asking me, “where did you hear that – from your girl scout teacher?” 

….learning in family home evening that if we ever got visited by an angel all we had to do was give him or her the “handshake” test!

…us all goofing around singing “Jr. Bird Man” and using our upside-down fingers for glasses.  (You probably don’t remember this, but I don’t think I had ever seen you laugh so hard!)

….you telling us the joke about the “Wide Mouthed Frog” and the “The Army joke of  “We have good news and bad news (the good news was that they could have a change of underwear that day – the bad news was…John, you change with Bob, Bob you change with Jim….!”

…our multivitamin and little pink fluoride tablet by each of our plates.

…there were some big brown vitamins that we couldn’t stand to eat and so I would pretend to eat them but really threw them away! 

….watching home movies on the living room wall with the movie projector.  We loved to watch them backwards and would laugh and laugh when we slid up the slide backwards and zoomed backwards up the tubing hill!

…you would strategically place certain newspaper articles and clippings on the kitchen table for us to “happen to read” as we were eating.

….giving us bowls of apple slices as we were watching TV so as to get some fruit down us (I do this with my kids too – it works!)

…you told us that if we were ever in a bad situation where we didn’t want to do whatever it was our friends were doing we could always blame our parents “I can’t because my parents won’t let me!”  Or pretend to be sick and call you to come get me.  Or call to check in and give a “secret code word”  like “Geronomo,”  to let you know we were in trouble and needed you to “demand that we come home right now”.  Or call to tell you that we’d forgotten to feed the neighbor’s pet or whatever, so we could say that you were angry and demanding that we come right home!

….the aroma of yummy homemade bread and eating big slices of it right out of the oven with melting butter and home-made strawberry jam! (Now I am in the habit and make home-made bread for our family every other week!)

…delicious home-made fruit leather sitting out to dry on our back deck.

…dipping apple slices in sugar and cinnamon on one side to put on the dryer to make dried fruit (although we ate half of them before they ever made it on the tray!” And loading apricot halves for drying.

…boxes and boxes of coupons!!  You would go to the store and save hundreds of dollars by double couponing.  I said when I got married I would never go to all that trouble – it’s a good thing my husband does the shopping!!

…asking “when are you going to buy more wheat thins?”  You would say “When they are on sale!”  Now I ask my husband to get this or that and he says, “When it’s on sale!”

…practicing the piano every morning at 6:30 (Jeni and I  would trade off so that sometimes we were first and sometimes second – we loved to be second so we could sleep in an extra half hour – Now I am having Janika practice at 6:30 a.m. – it’s the only time it gets done!)

…whenever we were speaking or singing in church you would tell us to pick different people out of the congregation to look at who were smiling at us, so we would be less nervous and to pick out different people and give them a big smile (because we had such a beautiful smile, and then it would be natural).

….when you drove to Logan to bring me my mission call.  I remember I went off alone to the door of my apartment to open it, and then came over to share it with you. Later that night  I signed “In this Very Room”  at my New Horizons concert and they made the announcement of my ASL mission.

…you pretending to do laundry at 6:00 a.m. when you were really seeing why my current   boyfriend (who was sleeping over) was sneaking downstairs to my bedroom (you had made him sleep upstairs)!

…Rick and I talking in sign language on the couch in our living room so that you and Dad couldn’t overhear our conversations!

…you always telling us how lucky you were to have a good marriage and to be married to such a good man who helped so much around the house.

…you telling us how lucky you were that you were blessed with such wonderful children!!  (Although I’m sure there were many times you didn’t feel that way when we were acting up!)

…instilling the desire for further education within all of us.  It was never a question of whether or not we would go to college, but only a question of where we would go.  That’s probably why all of us graduated from college!

…giving me a date book to write down every guy I went out with.  I think I ended up with about 100 names by the time I got married!

…bawling when I read an apology letter from you that you had left on my pillow after we had gotten in an argument. 

…Easter baskets, New Years surprises, and Christmas stocking lined up on our white couch – with our favorite sugar cereal!

…making new year’s banners for each new baby and taking their picture (we do that too now!)

…spraying the white couch with furniture polish (which made it very slippery) and then running and sliding across it.

…piling up pillows in the hallway and running and jumping over them!

….playing “muddy mess” in the sand-box! (My kids love to play that too!)

…working hard to earn stars on our star chart (no wonder several of us kids have made  chart just like it for our own our families!)

….coming home from dates and coming into your room to tell you all about them.  I always knew you would be there asking me if I had kept the rules!

…playing games like Boggle, Progressive Rummy, Master Mind, and Pit.

…reading books to us (I particularly liked the one called “Marrow of the World”)  I think you really instilled within us a love for reading!

…Jeni and I talking in English Accents after we were in bed, “Sista, sista, is that you?  I think we are in a witch's castle!!”  (I don’t know if you ever heard us doing this or not!)

…mixing milk half and half with water and powdered milk to make it go further – yuck!  No wonder I’ve never really liked milk!

…loading me up with a car load of food whenever I was heading back to college after a weekend at home.

…receiving little rebate checks while I was away at college!

….going out to Pizza Hut as a family and getting an extra large pepperoni pan pizza and a pitcher of rootbeer!

Mom – thank you so much for all of the wonderful memories and for all I’ve learned from you.  I think it is neat that we children have passed down many of the things we have learned from you and I know there will be much more as our children continue to grow older.   Thank you.  again for everything!!  I love you!!  Wendy

My Great Grandma ~ by Wendy

 Wendy had an assignment for school to write about one of her ancestors. We are very lucky in that there are some very thorough autobiographies to help with such a task. Wendy chose to write about her Great-Grandmother Hannah Lucinda Howell Hurst Bohne. Hannah wrote a very detailed autobiography, 30 pages long (see it HERE). Wendy focused on Hannah's early life, and used some of the excerpts from her history in her paper.  You can read it below ...

My Great Grandma - Hannah Lucinda Howell Hurst Bohne

Written by Wendy Westra Jensen

Now, at ninety, my Great Grandma Bohne, with her soft gray hair and wrinkled skin, has trouble even remembering my name. But as she tells us the stories of how she got the scar on her wrist, and other stories of her growing up, her memory becomes vivid and sharp . . .

“ . . . My mother often told me how she used to sit me in one of those big half-bushel tubs when I was just a baby. This particular day, when I was just a young toddler, mother was peeling peaches. I began to become restless, so she sat me in the tub right outside the door of our small house, with a peach in my hand. Other families lived nearby, and some of them had pigs running loose. Mother was very busy with her work until she heard a frightened cry. Upon looking up, she saw that a large sow had grabbed me by the wrist while attempting to get the now slightly squished peach. It had tipped over the tub, and it was still dragging me by the wrist. My uncle was just coming around the corner of our small bunk house and rescued me before my mother could get to me. I am still carrying the scar from that pig’s tooth . . . “

The small town of Dublan, where my grandmother lived while growing up, had many buildings around, but not as many houses. They had moved into a small brick house with a fairly large farm. As nice as they thought their home was, they still had their problems. Their home was the farthest North in town, and they were in the Mexican district. My grandmother remembered when she was a young girl, and Mexicans would come to the Carletis ranch and from the San Jose district to trade at the Diblan stores. They would gather in groups in front of grandmother’s house to eat their lunches and drink their tequila, which was a poor grade of Mexican alcohol. They often became so intoxicated, it worried my grandmother’s mother.

“I remember how my mother would lock the doors and not allow any of us children to take a step outside”, my great grandmother told us.

By 1910 they were considering building a new home. There was one major drawback however; the Mexican revolution was doing its worst. The whole country was in an uproar and everything was unsettled. My grandmother wrote about what happened one particular day.

“I remember one Sunday late afternoon, a Rebel army marched through our town. They were a pitiful looking group as far as poverty was concerned. Some of them were barefoot, and their clothes would hardly hang on them. They were headed for Casus Grandes, which was a distance of twelve or thirteen miles from our town. At four A.M. the next morning the ferocious battle raged until the middle of the day. I remember I was working in the candy shop that day. Many places of business were closed because people were so upset they couldn’t concentrate. I have often described the noise from that battle as sounding like a community of lumber buildings, all falling down at the same time.”

Conditions went from bad to worse. Things went on this way until the July of 1912. The colonists could see that they were in grave danger. The church and the U.S. Government came to the rescue. Word circulated that they should evacuate the colonists, and railroad cars would be there Sunday to take them. They worked all night Saturday and Sunday to leave the best way possible.

They were only allowed two mattresses, a few quilts, pillows, and their best clothing. They had to turn loose their animals and leave the only life they ever knew. They fled to Utah with the other colonists and made a new life there. Here is the story in my grandmother’s own words.

“The whole town was there at the station at ten P.M. Sunday evening. We all stood there and waited until six A.M. the following morning. When the train finally came, it wasn’t nearly large enough to take all of us. It was finally decided that all of the women and children under seventeen of age would leave, with barely enough men to take care of us. The remainder of the men were left.

No more had the train pulled out, than a mob of Mexicans came into town. The men grabbed their horses and firearms and fled to the hills, with the Mexicans firing on them. My father, and the rest of the men found a place in the hills where they could march around a hill and make it look like there were a great many more than there actually were.

They fled to Colonia Juarez. Here they felt quite safe because they could ward off quite a large army. Many privations were experienced due to the fact that they didn’t have a chance to gather food or clothing, or bedding of any kind. Someone did take a sack of flour however. I heard Father tell how they stirred flour and water together and made hot cakes, and cooked them on a piece of tin over the coals of their campfire. It was two weeks before they were able to cross the border into El Paso, Texas, where they joined their families

In the meantime, we (the woman and children) that had left on the train the morning of July 29, 1912, landed in El Paso the same afternoon we left. I remember how terribly tired we were as we hadn’t slept since Friday, and this was Monday!”

When my Great Grandma Bohne and her family, plus the other women and children, had reached El Paso, they were given a small division, like a stall for horses. It was large enough to lay the two mattresses down, but there wasn’t enough room to walk around or between them. Their food consisted mostly of bread, milk, prepared cereals, and canned foods.

It was about the 19th of August before the men arrived from Mexico. How very glad my great grandma and her family were to see them. Her poor dad looked so pitiful and terribly worn out. They hadn’t as much as had a chance to shave or change clothes! Her dad didn’t even have a saddle on his horse most of the way

“Oh how glad I was to see my poor Dad after all that!” my great grandma replied, remembering everything that had happened that day.

Later, on August 21, 1912, Great Grandma Bohne’s family set out for Utah. They went to Fairview to live with relatives until they could maintain a home themselves. They had so many ordeals trying to keep a home and family. It was on May 16, 1949, that my great grandma’s mother passed away at the age of seventy four, followed by her father on February 6, 1956. He was buried next to his sweet and wonderful wife.

My great grandmother is now ninety, and will probably soon pass away too. I look at her now, with her wrinkled hands and small body, walking along slowly with her cane next to her, and try to picture her as a baby, being dragged by a pig -- a young girl living in Mexico -- and a young woman fleeing from her hometown to Utah. It’s hard to picture her this way, looking at her now, but we have learned much from her, and love to read and listen to the stories of what life was like for her when she was a little girl!

---

In 2022, Christopher found a hard copy of Wendy's paper with some other printed histories. Unsure if Wendy had a copy, he retyped it so it could easily be included here and on FamilySearch.com. 

Also check out the blog post featuring Hannah here on the blog. Lots of pictures and a condensed history.  The Life Of Hannah Hurst Howell Bohne

1983 ~ Wendy's Write-Up

Wendy has kept a journal for years. That's been a great thing for family history. If we need details about an event, there's a good chance Wendy had something recorded. Below (check out Dropbox for a clearer copy, Word doc or PDF) you can catch her recap of 1983. While a lot of the details are about what a 9th grade/10th grade girl's life was like at that time, there is oodles of information about the family and other activities.

Scott left on his mission. Chris fell into the orchestra pit at the high school and broke his ankle. Wendy got her ears pierced, her braces off and got a perm. She loves waterskiing, tried snowskiing, and ran track. There was a family reunion for Mom's side of the family in June. A family reunion for Dad's side of the family in July. A fishing trip to Strawberry Reservoir. Griffiths came to visit. Mom&Dad went to Vernal. There was a Bishop's Youth Outing to the Uintas, big floods and a huge hail storm. The Westra's got their first family computer!  It's interesting to compare Wendy's wrap-up with the annual Westra Christmas Newsletter recap.  We still need a complete BLOG recap too, based on all the information and pictures we have for the year. But Wendy's write-up is pretty complete!

Wendy's Memories ~ 1982

 Another peek at Wendy's record keeping ... her journal/recap of 1982

What was Popular in the 1980's? Here you go!!

(Wendy) Since I have a little more time on my hands during this quarantine, I have been working on some family history projects. I am starting to digitize some of my childhood journals (or at least highlights from the journals) and making a timeline of these events to put into our shared family Dropbox. I found this entry pretty interesting: 

October 18, 1982: My Grandma and Grandpa Norman were on a trip to Mexico. I was disappointed because I had to ask them some Genealogy questions for an English assignment. When my parents got home they helped me answer the questions, but my parents or grandparents couldn’t remember things like what foods they liked as a kid etc. So I am going to write down some things in case my kids need to use it…

The popular foods now are pizza, fries, coke… I love pizza and sprite (I hate coke and Pepperoni and hot spices and stuff) but I do love pizza – yum! Popular clothes are Levi Strauss – Izod shirts, those kind of church shoes with the bows on them, knickers, bermudas, and vuarnet sunglasses. Also Jan Brady (white tennis) shoes – I love those and wear them a lot. Popular hairstyles are hair curled (flipped) up or permed. My favorite T.V. shoes are Fame, Different Strokes, Facts of Life – but I don’t really have enough time for T.V. these days – hope this info will be helpful!!

So when I was 14 years old I was thinking about my future children and how I could help them with their Genealogy assignments in their English class! Aren't I considerate, ha ha!! (First picture is at my Great Grandma Bohne's 90th Birthday Party in February). I just cringe when I look back at these pictures with at my big, permed hair! Jeni looks so cute in her childhood pictures because she kept her hair long and straight!)

Playing Piano

This will be backdated to 1982

The picture on the left was in 1982 I believe, the ones on the right were in the 1980 Dropbox folder. Both Wendy and I took piano lessons from Lorraine Peckham for years. We would ride our bikes up past the church to her home (having to go past a house that had Dobermans that would lunge at the fence and bark at us ... scared me to death!) I remember we'd be required to practice 30 minutes a day, and I think lessons were once a week. Recitals were held in the chapel at church.

As for the boys ... Scott didn't ever take lessons, but Chris did for about eight months. Some friends in the Delta Club Group had a son that played "The Entertainer" on a TV talent show. That inspired Chris, but then he lost interest and wanted to quit. Mrs. Peckham said it was too bad, because she felt he had a natural ability. I remember Chris thought that if he knew how to play two songs, he could still use that to show off to girls (I think his plan was "The Entertainer" for his first, and "Jessica's Theme from Man From Snowy River" for his second.

Derek seemed to have a natural talent as well, learning to play by ear, and taking lessons for a short time in high school. I really never remembered him playing and was pretty surprised when he ended up quite the musician (see Derek in Concert). He has quite a few piano spotlights on his Instagram account, as well as his cover albums.

Back to the 80s ... Recitals always stressed me out! I'd practice and practice, and get semi-memorized, enough that sometimes I'd zone out, and then not remember where I was in the piece. In my later years, I always said I was more of an accompanist than a pianist. I could follow a singer (or I was the singer) but was never very technical. I'd always ask my piano teacher to play through the music once before I attempted, as I really struggled with reading the timing.

There were some programs saved from recitals over the years ...

In the 1979 program, you can see the Westra girls at #12, #14 (duets), #23, #27 and #35. How long was this recital? I actually remember the name Palace Garden and Grandfather's Clock (while not really remembering the melodies). Wendy did some classical pieces and 5th Avenue Poodle. Glancing through the program, most of the names of the other students are familiar to the Westra siblings (friends, neighbors, other kids in the ward). Apologies for the quality (or lack thereof, this is actually the improved copy)...

... another program, this time from 1983. This recital doesn't look nearly as long as the one in 1982, AND it was broken up into two separate performances to trim it down even further (good move!) I don't remember "Solfeggio in C Minor" but "Moonlight Sonata" is a famous number.

It wasn't just recitals ... we would play in school, girl scouts, family reunion talent shows, in church, etc.

The program below was from Woodstock Elementary, 1979 (2nd grade for Jen).
I wonder what song I played?

This piece (Hungary) wasn't listed in these saved programs, 

but I remember this as a recital piece, and I still have the music.

 I've even attempted (unsuccessfully) to try and play it again. 

You can see it being played HERE (not by me, but you can imagine)

A few of the classic Westra music books ... interesting to note, you can see the price (middle/bottom half on the blue cover) ....$1.25. That was for the book, with six long pieces in it! The Burgmueller has a price of $2.50 printed on it. The theory book (ugg, theory!) was $3.95 - you can also see it was purchased at Day Murray Music down on State Street (it's still there, it's where we bought most of our music). Hungary (above - single sheet) had a price tag of $1.95 ... as of 2022, it's $5.99. Inflation, etc.

Here's a little sample of the Burgmueller music ...

This totally brought back music memories!

https://youtu.be/YmrAIf5WlaI

... and the Sonatinas (I went with #3, most memorable to me)

https://youtu.be/42qx4zVyjmw

Are any of the grandkids taking piano lessons now?  Wendy's were for a while (blog mention here). I did an email search (in the WriteOn blog) and found taking lessons mentioned ... Adria (2010), Adria&Rella (2014) and Ani (2021) ...

It would be interesting to compare the types of music (I assume classical is still a big part), prices, and how music is purchased (most sheet music can be found and downloaded online, printed off immediately at home). How much is technology used in teaching today? As all the YouTube links above indicate ... I would no longer need my piano teacher to play the piece for me so I could hear the timing. Progression of piano playing over the years. 

Anyone up for playing "Chopsticks" ... or perhaps a duet of "Heart and Soul"??

Twirly Girls

The Wonderful Westra Sisters! Wendy and Jenny were marching in parades in 1978 and 1979, dressed in these tiny, sparkly red costumes, and twirling a baton. Really, it was all in the wrist, we never even attempted a spin with fingers. It was more about the marching. A red bow on the back of the head, or a sparkly headband with a feather ... in the "winter" costume, note the white earmuffs and the red pom-pom on the shoes too.

The leader of this incredible group was our neighbor across the street from our Hermitage House. You can see the group really varied in age (and height).  We marched in several parades and participated in competitions and I'm sure Scott, Chris and Shane just loved coming to watch!

Here's some of Wendy's memories from her journal ...

• December 1978: My name is Wendy Westra. I am 10 years old. I take piano lessons and baton lessons... My sister, Jenny is 8 years old. Me and my sister made up a routine in baton lessons, We did it to "It's a Small World." Our teachers thought it was cute!
• February 1979: For baton I did a routine to "Music Machine." It was my favorite record but the record melted and I was really worried because we needed to listen to it to do the routine because it was my best one and there would be trophies and prizes! Now I will have to borrow our neighbors. 
• July 3, 1979: We went to swimming lessons and to primary and then we took a shower and ate lunch and started getting ready for the Children’s Parade in Provo. We ate there and saw Cannonball and Harvey and we won second place out of the teams like drill, baton, pom poms, etc. (Last year we won first). We goofed up but the judges thought we were cute both years, but everything turned out pretty good.
• July 4, 1979: It’s the 4th of July. We were in a parade at Murray in the morning. Mom and Dad, Chris, Scott, and Shane came and watched us. There were lots of horses and I’m glad we weren’t after them because they went to the bathroom all over! There were people dressed up like Spiderman, Superman, Wonder Woman, etc.
• July 18, 1979: We had a slumber party at Shauneen’s house for baton. We slept outside and everyone brought a treat. We played games and had a lot of fun. They have a trampoline that we played on. I didn’t fall asleep till 12:30.

There was even some video footage uncovered!

https://youtu.be/tIAgBv18dtU

**FLASH FORWARD TO THE FUTURE

In 2012, Mom/Margie uncovered the little red baton outfits in storage. 

She passed them on to Wendy, and the Jensen girls tried them on and had a little photoshoot. 

Janelle, Jaiden and Jenna

Wendy wrote "One thing I remember (probably a few days before the parade) is Shauneen Hadley telling all of us to wash our hair really well the night before the parade so that it would shine! Then she told us that after we washed it -- wash it again! I thought that was funny that we had to wash our hair not only once -- but twice -- to make it shine!"

That reminded Mom/Margie of a memory ... "Talking about washing your hair twice brought back memories of how my mother always shampooed us once, and rinsed, then shampooed a second time, then rinsed. Then she rinsed our hair either with lemon water or vinegar water. The way she would curl our hair when we were little is with little strips of rags. She would roll a strip of hair up with the small strip of rag, then tie the rag to hold the curl in place. She would do this overnight and take the rags out in the morning----and voila, curly hair." 

Maybe Wendy and Jen should resume a routine and perform it at a family function! *Ü*

Wendy's Baptism ~ Shane's Blessing

There are no pictures of Wendy in a pretty dress or a white baptismal outfit, but there is a certificate to indicate it happened (typo on Dad's name too!) Here's Mom/Margie's memories written in Wendy's baby book ...

You were baptized on June 5, 1976 (Bicentennial Year). You would have been baptized in May, but we were expecting baby Shane any day (due April 17). We waited a month so that the baby could be blessed on the same Sunday you were confirmed. 

So on June 6, you were confirmed and baby Shane was blessed. You bore your testimony during fast meeting. It was the first time any of our children had borne their testimony. We were very proud of you. Both your grandparents came and Aunt Lorrie and Jason and Katie (Uncle Merrill was out of town on business).

After Sacrament meeting, we had a nice family dinner. Saturday, after you were baptized, Dad took you four kids to dinner at Farrells to celebrate and we gave you a book about Joseph Smith. 

While not specifically labeled ... this looks like it was the Sunday in question. Shane looks very young, dressed in a white "blessing" type outfit, and as mentioned in Mom's memory, Jason and Katie are there in the picture too.

The next generation repeated this baptism/blessing combo a couple of times. In 2002 Chris's crew combined Kaden's baptism and Camden's blessing, and in 2003, Jen's family had a baptism/blessing with little Landon and baby Cooper. 

Dutch Christmas Song: SinterKlaas Kapoentje

When we were kids Dad often had little songs and sayings that he would share with us. One of these was a little Dutch Christmas Song called "SinterKlaas Kapoentje." I asked Dad to share the lyrics of this song (with the correct spelling) and he sent me this information:

Here is the little song they sing in Holland on Zinterklaas Dag, which is on the 5th of December.  

This is how it is spelled in Dutch (Nederlands).

SinterKlaas Kapoentje

Gooij wat in mijn schoentje

Gooij wat in mijn larsje

Dank ja SinterKlarsje 

Here is how we might pronounce it in some kind of phonetic way. 

SinterKlaas Kapoontcha

Go-ee vat in mine schoontcha

Go-ee vat in mine larssha

Dank ya SinterKlarsha

Here is a translation in English.  

SinterKlaas You little elf

Throw something in my little shoe                  

Throw something in my little boot

Thank you little SinterKlaas

Gooij = throw

Wat = something

Schoentje = little shoe

Larsje = little boot

Rick recently did a podcast of both Mom and Dad and Dad actually sang THIS SONG in his podcast! Dad starts to explain the background of this song around (9 minutes and 40 seconds into the podcast and then sings it! ) I think most of the Westra kids have this song memorized!  

My Dad has some wooden shoes from his mission that we would often use for Show and Tell at school. Jeni is wearing them in this picture at our Girl Scout Cultural Night:

 I think this picture was taken on Dad's mission. It shows the Dutch people wearing wooden shoes.  

Perhaps we were celebrating Netherland traditions with my primary class in 1975 when we placed all of our shoes outside the classroom and then later found them filled with treats!

1975: Wendy's Primary Class in the Cottonwood 11th Ward (Teacher DeLora Gould)

(Back Row) 

Tally Lloyd, Robbie Lindsey, KirkWahlen, Tanji Anderson, Julie Monson, Michael Richards 

(Front Row)

 Joey Orvin, Wendy Westra, Anna Marie Tims, Wendy Woodbury