Good-bye hair

Grandpa Cope and Kathy came to visit after Logan and Ashli went to the Newport Temple and were sealed for time and all eternity. They stayed two nights with us and we had a good visit. They have been serving a LDS mission in New Jersey, so the kids hadn't seen them in 2 years. Kim and I got to see them last September at the airport on our way to Germany. As they were getting ready to leave, Karly announced she wanted her hair cut. I told her to make an appointment and go into the shop. She said no, she wanted me to do it right then. Thinking she would give up the idea, I reminded her I was blind and to have grandpa do it. He has had more experience cutting hair, since he use to cut hair at my Uncle Harold's shop back in the day, beside he had always cut all us kids hair at home.

She said okay and asked him and before I realized it Karly's hair was being cut with a razor blade.

Grandpa told her how to prep it for that much to be cut off, she did it and with a big grin on his face grandpa cut 9 inches off.

She looks great, grandpa had a good time and they have a memory neither will forget.

Thanks, Grandpa

Turkey Time

When do I eat mom?

The table was set and finally it was time to eat Thanksgiving at the Porterfield's!

Grandpa Porterfield and Grandma Jane rode the train down for the day.

Daddy carved the turkey and then we ate until it hurt!

After dinner it was the standard, rest, sleep, read, play games and then eat more.

Baking with Baysil

The day before Thanksgiving has always been baking day in our family. This year you can see who I got the most help from.

If I Had A Wish

If I had a wish
I'd wish for more,

More sunshine in the mornin'
More clouds in afternoon
More autumn leaves a' fallin'
beneath the starry moon
More happy smilin' faces
that show that love abounds.
More love for other races
More hope
More friends around
I want a world more grateful
for family and for foe.
I want a world worth sharing
with everyone I know.

If I had a wish
I'd wish for less

Less anger in a neighbor
Less sadness on a face
Less hatred for another
Less pride in human race
Less sorrow
Less sufferin'
Less bitterness and greed
I want a world less hungry
with little mouth to feed.
I want a world worth savin'
to sow for future seed.

And though this wish
may not come true, I ask,
Have I really cared?
Have I given to another,
This life I was asked to share?
Help me open up my heart
To make this wish come true.
For if I had I wish to wish
I'd wish it all for you.

copy write Karie Porterfield 2008

As I was going through files and throwing stuff out, I came across this poem I had written in December of 1991. If you remember, 1991 was the year of the Rodney King beating. We were living in Long Beach near Cal State Long Beach at the time. The Long Beach school district is one of the So Cal districts that buses kids from inner city to the good part of town. Where we lived was considered the good part of town, I laugh about that now. As much as I loved living there, we never consider our neighborhood a good part of town. At that time it was safe enough for the kids to play in front of our house as long as a grown up was watching. Only the 3 older girls were in school at the time and almost all of their friends rode the bus from inner Long Beach. Because of that, we were very aware of how hard life in inner Long Beach could be. At our elementary school, Tincher, English was the 5th major language spoken. If I remember right, Cambodian was 1st, then Mandarin, I don't remember what 3rd and 4th were. Like most schools, our school participated in the Reflections program. I have a friend who is an amazing artiste and always encouraged her girls to participate in Reflections. I loved hearing about their projects and how into they got, so I decided I would encourage my girls to really get into it that year. They all loved telling story's or writing poems so I thought that would be what I would encourage them to do. Our school invited parents to participate and so I decided if I was going to encourage my girls to participate I should also. One morning as I was going about my normal stuff I thought about the theme for the year, "If I had a wish. . " The events of the time defiantly influenced my train of thought. In a very short time I had this poem written. I never turn it in, it seemed too personal to enter in a contest. Instead I dedicated it to my kids and shared it at our annual family Christmas poetry reading.

Food We make

I have started a new blog, Food We Make. I am very excited about this blog. It's a place that friends and family can go to share recipes, hints and ideas about cooking. I know there are lots of blogs out there about cooking, I know because of all the names we had to go through to find the right title for our blog. Cooking and baking have always been therapeutic for me and right now, I can use all the therapy I can get. This is also a great way to share and preserve family recipes, plus cooking and baking hints. We have just started the blog and I am loving every minute I can get on and post. I'm having trouble not thinking about the next recipe I want to post. My family may have to go with out meals until I get this out of my system. If you are interested in being a part of the blog, leave a comment and I'll run it by the committee.

Lonely

Things around our house have gotten very quiet lately and Georgia May is lonely. With only Karly and Kloe at home, there just isn't as much noise and chaos as there use to be.

Recently I was feeling lonely and so I let Georgia in the house for the day, thinking it would help me not to feel so alone. She came in the house all excited and ready to play. She did her normal run up the back stairs and checked out everyone's room, looking to see who was home and who wanted to play. . . .

She soon realized it was just me at home. She gave me a little attention, but then went to the top of the back stairs, sat down and waited. You could tell she expected someone to come home soon. She stayed like that for almost an hour till she finally gave in and laid down.

The only time I could get her to get up was to go outside to go to the bathroom. At one point I was at the other side of the house and I could hear her snoring, but she didn't move. As the day went on her face just looked sadder and sadder.

Poor Sweet Georgia May misses all the kids being at home.

She is not the only one, we all seem a little out of sorts in an empty, quiet house.

Elder Porterfield

It's been a while since I posted anything about our son Kyle, who is serving a LDS mission in the Pennsylvania Pittsburgh Mission, so I thought I would bring you up to date. He has now been serving for 15 months. Time is going much faster than I thought it would.

He is now living outside of Pittsburgh in the New Kensington area. He is doing great and working hard. Kyle is the second from the right in the picture above. You might notice that the Elders in this pictures all have very similar hair cuts, that's because Elder Porterfield is the mission barber (what do you think Grandpa Cope?) and he only does one style.

He loves his mission and the people there. Since being out on his mission Kyle has developed a love of reading. I never would have guessed that would have happened. He is always asking us to send him books. My only concern for him is that he tells me he has lost weight. Oh well, that can be fixed easily enough. I think I would lose weight too if I was eating the kinds of food they are making in the video, they seems to enjoy it though!

All Better!

For those of you who tried to post on our blog, but were having trouble, the problem is now fixed. If you are still having problems, chances are it's your internet server. Maybe you should try firerfox. It worked for us. Just a thought.

I Know You're There . . .

You can't hide. I know you are checking the blog out and yet you leave no comment. I am as guilty as you are, but I will make you a deal. I will try to be better at  leaving a  comment when I visit your blog, if you will try to be better at leaving a comment when you visit mine. 

Deal? 

Now enjoy the blog and have a great day!

(I know my kids are embarrassed by this, but I just had to get that off my chest.)

To College He Must Go!!

I am way behind with my blog. Since I last posted, stuff has happen, maybe I'll get back to that and maybe not.

Most recently Kody has gone off to college.

That's right our little Koderman is graduated and is a freshman at BYU-I.

We had a family pot-luck for all the kids from church going off to school. A nice evening to say good-bye to friends and enjoy yummy food.

Kody and I left to start the road trip the Sunday before Labor Day. We spent a few days with Kerin and Cory in Parowan enjoying their county fair festivities.

 

We drove up to Salt Lake, enjoyed lunch with Grandma Judy and Aunt Kristal, and some last minute shopping with Tanta Jody, then on to the airport to pick up Kim, some more last minute shopping and then on to Idaho!

 

Kody quickly jumped into college life. We spent a day getting his dorm set up, getting his I.D. card, books and school supplies and getting his computer on-line.

He seems to have a nice roommate, even if he did bring his x-box up to school! 

Friends were found and the fun started the minute Kim and I left him.

When we talked to him a day or so after we dropped him off, he seems to be doing good. He reassured us that he is getting enough sleep and honestly told us he's been getting to sleep about 3am, but not to worry because church doesn't start until 1pm.

We love and miss our Koder!!!

Life's a Beach . . .

. .at least for now.

Our summer seems to be flying by, so we girls are trying to stop and feel the sand under our toes, and in our fingers. This week we had a perfect day at the beach. I love a beach near our house called Grandview. There is a little parking lot at the end of a street called Neptune and there is always a place to park, an important factor in that neighborhood. If you have never been there before you might think that maybe you got the instructions wrong. Across from the parking lot are stairs going down and the view is amazing. It is a long flight of stairs, but it is worth the climb. This picture doesn't really give you a feel for how high up you are and the length of the flight of stairs.

Grandview is just north of Beacons and south of Ponto. I was introduced to it by my daughter Kerin. I have never been there when it was crowed and there are never a ton of tourists, which is rare at a San Diego beach anytime of year. I love relaxing, reading and watching the people. The water is clean and refreshing even though I only go in up to my knees. I can sit for hours watching the surfers at all different stages. There is usually a surf school going on, some old men in their late 40's or even 50's with their long boards, young hip kids with their short boards and beginners getting a thrill out of every time they manage to stand up on their board.  There are people playing paddle ball, Frisbee and just going for a stroll. Happily on this particular day there are lots of modest bathing suits on the beach, not a common site in our area.

 

Mostly, I enjoy watching my kids enjoy the beach the way I did when I was young. They jump waves, dig in the sand, body surf and ride their boogie boards or "sponges" as they now call them. Everyone is relaxed, minding their own business, enjoying a perfect summer day.

The Grandbabies

I am in my happy place when my grandbabies are at our place all together!

My little bits of heaven!

  

Pictures by Kassey. 

Someday I'll figure out how to do a slideshow on here and then I can put up my whole brag book.