Hanukkah!

The Hebrew Festival of Lights started at sundown on Christmas Eve. To commemorate this occasion, our family had latkes for our dinner. (Bonus--these were potatoes we grew in our garden this year.) These are fried potato pancakes.  Only I actually cooked mine in the waffle iron instead of frying them in the oil.  The oil is the important part of the celebration, so I will remember to NOT leave that part out in the future (and potato pancakes just need to be fried.).  I was just trying to be healthy-er, and it looked interesting.  I've made fried "German Potato Pancakes" for years, so decided to try to be a bit more authentic for the holiday.  The blog I found the recipe on is written by a delightful woman who is a convert to Judaism. Tori Avey. Look her up, she's a lot of fun. We had applesauce with our latkes, too! I didn't happen to have any sour cream, so we didn't have that part of the traditional meal as well, but it was a start.

And who am I try to kid about being authentic ?  We had Spam to balance off the meal! After all, we are not Jewish, just Mormons enjoying a bit of Jewish culture. A very small bit. ;-)
All photos are from Tori Avey's blog.  http://toriavey.com/toris-kitchen/2016/12/latke-waffles/

Access Services Conference

{A draft from 2014}

I work in the Access Services Dept. of the Sherratt Library at SUU. Last Summer, I was able to attend the American Library Association conference in Las Vegas, NV. It was great, it got some grant money to help pay for it, and while I was there, I learned about this conference in Atlanta. It is so specific to what I do in my library. There were about twenty or so programs or presentations and nearly every one of them were applicable to what I do--customer service, training students, electronic reserve, reserve book room, copyright, space management, etc. and it was being held in ATLANTA, GA on or around Veterans Day. How could I possibly not go?? I really wanted to, but had spent the available funding on ALA in the summer.  But I made a proposal and found a way. AND, Mike got to come, too. He didn't come for the conference, but we went out together and had a nice visit with Mom and Dad, ad you've already read about the fine time we had in Chattanooga.

This is the chapter of what happened in Atlanta. Donna included some in her blog, but, here's the rest of the story.

{And that's all I ever wrote about! Two years ago. Blogger is nice. They save everything. }

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Here is what happened in 2016--I got to attend the conference AGAIN!  Yay. The library and other funding paid for my transportation and hotel, AND I got to stay for AGW in Georgia with the gals in the family.  Mike did not come this time, but Robert was there (and David) to stay with Dad while Mom was away with us girls.

The Conference was really good. Again. I am glad my work will support me attending and I'm going to try to attend every other year, or send another of my staff. Another co-worker suggested that we present, but I don't know what we would present on.  It's not THAT big of a topic...or broad. But I'll think about it. She's faculty now; I'm merely staff, but we'd make a good team, I think.

One thing I did while I was in Atlanta was tour the Federal Reserve Bank of Atlanta. That was an interesting little museum. I had to run back to the hotel to get my photo ID--it was required and I had just walked over with a hotel key and some cash in my pocket. The Bank and Museum was right around the corner from my Hotel one way and the Conference Center down the block and over one block the other way from where I stayed. I got my 10,000 steps in on that day between that little jaunt AND walking to and from the Conference and my hotel AND walking around in the Airport(s).

It was warm in Atlanta this time. Two years ago it was really cold. I brought cold-weather clothes this time.   I ate way too much food, but that conference does really good with the food--and they know it!  Lunches both days (Thursday and Friday ) are provided; the Wednesday night reception is full of lots of good food, like a chocolate fondue bar and really cool pupu-type hor'douerves or how ever  that is spelled. I cannot even find that word in SPELLCHECK!! Anyway, the food was good.   The opening Reception on Wednesday night was in a ball room area, so on Thursday morning, that's where I stopped to pick up some breakfast from the buffet and selection they had out in that hallway.  Only it wasn't OUR food!  Yikes. I stole another Conference's food. I felt so silly and embarrassed. I was chatting with another lady from my conference while she used the table to stop and sort through papers before walking on to OUR conference, which was way down the hall and around the corner in a whole other part of the building. I did stop by the other conference registration table later that day and apologized for accidentally eating their food. They were very gracious and polite about it.  And actually the ladies I ended up eating my [stolen] food with (and they had the proper food on their plates!) said, "Hey, it's the same place, same caterers, same everything. It doesn't matter." That's probably true. Our food was different than theirs. We had eggs. They had baby spinach quiche. But our snacks are really great because you can choose from a myriad of things--healthy or not healthy. It's so fun.

You must be thinking, "What? Conferences are about food? Huh?" Well, they are that and more. I learned about Copyright, about Project Based Learning, About Trendspotting in Library Land, a really cool radio show done by LIBRARIANS!  And I learned about inventory taking in libraries, use of space and resources and outreach and all things Access Services!  Yeah. I'm way smarter now.
Let me know if you would care to read my submitted Travel Report. I'd be happy to share the Google Doc with you. :-)

The only pictures I took while in Atlanta at the conference was of my hotel room ... It was a suite with a baby kitchen that I never even got to use.  Because, you know, they fed us really well! Ha.

Aunt Nona

This is a older post I forgot to publish earlier this spring.

 

1927-2016

Nona Sharp Liebhardt Cross passed away Thursday, May 5, 2016 due to complications subsequent to a hip fracture suffered in a fall at her home, March 25th.
Nona fought the good fight for several weeks until she could fight no more and desired to return home to be with her loved ones who have gone before her. Her family is deeply grateful to the staff of Utah Valley Hospital and Aspen Ridge Rehabilitation for their tender care of this dear, feisty woman.
Nona was born April 18, 1927 in Independence, Jackson County, Missouri to Clark Elwood Sharp and Juanita Williams. Her parents and 4 older siblings: Norma Ruhl, Hazel Boyce, Clark Elwood Sharp II and Marvel Crookston have all predeceased her.
Nona was married to Edward N Liebhardt of Provo, UT on September 18, 1947 and later sealed to him in the Salt Lake Temple March 17, 1948. Edward passed away September 17, 1987.
Nona retired in 1987 when her husband Edward retired from his position at NASA Johnson Space Center, working for Lockheed. They moved to Orem, UT where Edward died shortly thereafter.
Nona attended BYU, where she met her husband, Edward, and earned a Bachelor’s degree in Library Science from the University of Nebraska at Omaha, and received her Master of Library Science degree from the University of Huntsville, Texas.
Her husband was a Chief Master Sergeant in the US Air Force and the family resided in several places in the course of his career. After her husband’s retirement from active duty, the family resided in Provo, UT; Yuba City, CA where she worked as a Jr. HS librarian; and after receiving her Master’s degree, League City, TX, where she worked as the Audio Visual Librarian at Clear Creek HS.
Nona leaves behind Edward N Liebhardt II (Meagen) and grandchildren Matthew R. Liebhardt, Albuquerque, NM; Aidan M. Pickens and Emma G. Pickens of Fairmont, WV; Kerry Lynn Fitch (Michael) of Chantilly, VA and Matthew S. Liebhardt of Orem, UT. She is predeceased by two grandchildren, Daniel S. Liebhardt and Eden F. Pickens.
After being widowed for ten years, Nona married fellow ward member Ken Cross on December 6, 1997. She was widowed once again when Ken passed away September 2, 2010. She is survived by three of his four children.
Nona was a small woman with a mighty will to succeed in life despite a life-long struggle with hearing loss. She is greatly loved and admired and will be greatly missed by numerous people: childhood friends with whom she maintained a strong bond of friendship for 85 years, many nieces and nephews and their children for whom she often acted as mother and grandmother after the deaths of her sisters, and her many friends in the Lakeview 6th Ward of the LDS church in Orem.
Funeral services will be held at 11:00 a.m., Wednesday, May 11, 2016 at the Lakeview 6th Ward Chapel, 2168 South 140 West, Orem, Utah. Friends may call at the Berg Mortuary of Provo, 185 East Center Street, Tuesday from 6-8:00 p.m. and at the church Wednesday from 9:30-10:45 a.m. prior to services. Interment, Provo City Cemetery. Condolences may be expressed to the family at 

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Mike sure had a spiritual feast at his Aunt Nona's funeral.  He has three cousins, Ed, Kerri Lynn, and Matthew.  Ed was career military and visited us once in Hawaii. He is just a couple of years older than Mike and lives back east. [Mike's 63 in case you were wondering...yikes. How did that happen??] He (Cousin Ed) was called Nappy most of his life by family, as in short for Napoleon. His father was Mike's Uncle Ed[ward], so I guess he was short and needed a nick name. ha. (Uncle Ed[ward], like his brother John [Mike's Dad] was very short.)  

Mike's cousin Ed has an adopted son, Matthew who is a young adult now who also was in the Military and Mike really enjoyed visiting with the two of them, father and son, for the time Mike and his Mom were up north Tuesday May 10th through Wednesday the 11th. Cousin Ed has been to Romania and found a (false) Karl Liebhardt there. The Karl Liebhardt Ed found was actually NOT Karl Liebhardt, but had taken Karl's name in honor of Karl who had been in political prison with him many long years ago. So we don't know what happened to the real one or anything about him. Died in prison, I suppose.

Cousin Ed and wife #1 had only that one adopted child and one child who died as an infant, then they divorced. Wife 1 was a church member, I believe. Ed's wife #2 died of lung cancer and never joined the church. He was single for many years. Ed re-married a 40-something year old about 1 1/2 years ago, she and her 13 year old son took the missionary lessons and decided to be baptized after the funeral on Wednesday! They had to jump through hoops with missionaries, interviews, bishops here and back east in Virginia or where ever they live, but they did it. So Mike and his mom didn't come home right after the funeral and luncheon--they stayed for the 6 pm baptism.

Summer Games

Not the Utah Summer Games, but sort of. 

Summer 2016 was a fun summer.  Besides traveling to Europe with Mike, we were all able to spend so much time with family!! When we got back from Europe, Tandy and Children were here for a bit before heading to California to finish up their home-selling and car-picking-up and visiting duties in their transition from Guam to San Antonio. So much stuff to do!  But some of the time was spent here with us and we're so glad!

 Some of the time was spent doing food preservation and storage. Or just plain ol' eating. Like how many cherries did we pick from neighbors' trees and eat?  Many.  We gave away many. We canned a few. We dried a few.  Mostly we ate a LOT.  They were so good.

Then we tended for Katie and Casey. They went to Mexico for Casey's brother's wedding in Cabo San Lucas. They were all together with all his siblings and mom.  We tended the twins and the older boys went with them.  We had Hailey and Quintin with us for just over a week. I took the week off of work to do this. It was so much fun. A lot of work... I'm glad Eric was around to lend a hand, too. And Mike, of course.  He's good with babies, but he was busy with work stuff. I'm not as young as I used to be, so baby tending is a bit more of a challenge for me. But we all survived and I really enjoyed getting to know these little cuties a bit more.

 There were times in the summer when Nick and Kayley came down before Kaylee had their baby. Gail and Seth were between homes, too, so they visited. They were in the process of moving from Rock Springs to Elko , Nevada.  They came when Casey and Katie returned from Mexico.

 Eric shaved off his beard. He'd had it for months.

 Katie brought Kaylee a lot of boy hand-me-down clothes.

And one day this summer, I locked myself out of the house. It was a lovely day. Very relaxing and comfortable in the hammock in our back yard.

Little Logan Liebhardt

Hi, Little Logan!  So nice to meet you!  We did meet, the day he came home from the hospital at the beginning of October.  I came to their home to spend the week while Nick was in Chicago for a work assignment. He was presenting at a conference.

I got lots of baby snuggle time in. I tried taking photos. I'll leave that to the pros. 

I had lots of time to entertain Rachel, too. Or, rather, she entertained me!   She loves playing with her toys and her dollies. We had walks with her dollies in strollers in the basement regularly.

And Rachel might be part cat. She loves playing in boxes, too. ;-)

Kaylee spent some time going through many boxes of hand-me-down boy clothing from friends and family.  Rachel is wearing a lovely knit red sweater vest. Only she's wearing them as shorts. ha.

Smile Big!

Quick! Hide!

Find Rachel!

We went on a field trip to the library for a story time, but the space was filled. We read stories instead.

I made a "baby wrap" for Rachel to "wear" her baby doll.

I went to get ready for bed one night and found this teddy all tucked into my bed. Rachel left him there for me so I wouldn't get lonely.

These two (above) crack me up. Nick was going to work on a roof for a neighbor/ward member and he looks like "Farmer Nick."  Rachel was just wearing her boots and a diaper.

Cute little babies!!