a little history--Operation: Haylift

This past week the downtown Fallon Theatre (aka the old movie theatre) showed a movie called Operation: Haylift. It's not a documentary, but a fictionalized account of the happenings of the winter of 1948-49. There were several back-to-back blizzards in quick succession that winter, which made it impossible for the ranchers to get feed to their cattle and sheep. In order to help save the livestock, the Air Force dropped bales of hay to the stranded animals. They say Nevada lost 22,000 head of cattle. The sheep fared better. Many other states were affected, too, but the movie was set in Elko, Nevada.

There were a few in the audience who had either helped load the hay or push the hay out of the planes themselves, or they had relatives that had something to do with the real Operation: Haylift. Glen's dad and his Uncle Jim were too young to participate in the effort, but they remember going out to the Fallon Naval base here to watch the planes being loaded with hay.  

This is what Wikipedia has to say about the movie:

Operation Haylift is a 1950 American aviation film by William Berke starring Bill Williams, Ann Rutherford, and Tom Brown. The film documents the United States Air Force mission in 1948–49 to save thousands of cattle caught in the snowdrifts of a sudden winter storm in northern Nevada. "Operation Haylift" involved scores of cargo aircraft delivering hay to the stranded animals.


Anyway, it was a fun evening to go and watch the movie, though I do admit living in Nevada and having some connection to the story made it more interesting. I'm just glad that I've never had to experience blizzards like that.

Alex's talk, crazy weather, quilting, and my favorite love song

Alex was the High Councilman's companion speaker today at church. He was asked to speak on the blessings of personal prayer and scripture study. He did a fabulous job. Didn't seem nervous. Had a lot of good points to make. Didn't read his talk, but just spoke using his thoughts, scripture references, and quotes. Very nicely done, Alex. You make your mama proud.

It's been quite the week weather-wise. Biting cold wind. Rain. Snow. Hail/mini-snowballs on 2 different days (Alex pointed out they looked just like dippin' dots).

Thursday's "hail"

Saturday's "hail"

the light from the setting sun shows off the little mini-snowball hail pellets

Our local museum has had a block-of-the-month quilting class for the last few years. At the end of the year, you have a quilt top (if you've been doing your homework). I've sewn a few of the blocks here and there (and they are still sitting in my sewing box waiting to be turned into pillows or wall hangings), but my plan was never to sew all the blocks and make a quilt.

This year instead of a block every month, they are doing a row every month. I have decided to do the whole quilt. The colors aren't showing up well here. This row has gorgeous turquoise and teal colors in it. The overall color theme will be southwestern. I've been wanting to sew again for the past few years, so I'm excited to be able to do this. We have class again this week. Can't wait.

With Valentine's Day this week, I thought I wanted to share one of my favorite love songs. It's called "And I'm Here." The song is from one of my favorite Korean dramas, Goblin, but it's sung in English, so do not fear.

And I’m here
Just, just like I used to be
We were here in old days with you, with me
All my fears have gone
When you whisper to me
No matter how near or far apart, apart

When you feel so lonely
(Have you completely erased me)
I’ll be here to shelter you
(From your memories from yours)
When you feel so lonely
(While I still feel your breeze)
I’ll be here, here for you
(Holding your hands again)
(Holding your hands)

If I could fly above the clouds like all the birds
If I could hold you for a while to let you feel my pulse
Still here, all alone

My whole life and all my heart
You're my whole life and all my heart

And I’m here home, home
With you
With me

Eagle Scout, mock disaster drill, and BLE

Woke up to this this morning...only our 3rd snowfall of the season:

Bragging time. First off, Alex looked at his high school transcript this week and his community college classes have been added...the surprising thing was that his class standing is still 1 out of 242! He thought that since he didn't take any Honors or Advanced Placement classes last semester, his ranking would drop in comparison to his classmates. Maybe in May it will change because the other students will have been taking classes and Alex hasn't, but for now, he's still #1.

Alex had his Eagle board of review this week. On February 5th, he officially became an Eagle Scout! However, it will take 4-6 weeks to get the paperwork back, so his Eagle Court of Honor won't be happening yet. Congratulations, Alex! Counting Glen, we now have 5 Eagle Scouts in our family.

February 5th was also the Chinese New Year. The Year of the Pig/Boar is now upon us...and can I just say how weird I thought it was that our only 2 grocery stores, Walmart and Safeway, don't have fortune cookies? They weren't sold out...they just don't carry them (though I have gotten them in Walmart in the past). :( I was disappointed. (I did think about trying to get some at a Chinese restaurant, but I didn't bother to go out of my way to see if I could buy some from them).

BTW, Hannah is our only family member that was born in a year of the Pig. Kaellen and I were both  born in a year of the Ox. Glen is a Rabbit. Andrew is our only Horse. Joy was born in the year of the Rooster. Heather, Henry, and Eric were all born in the year of the Sheep/Ram. Ryan and Angeles were born in a year of the Dog. And Alex is the one I would want to be--he is our only one born in a year of the Dragon (however, Glen and I were married in a year of the Dragon, so I guess that's okay).

Glen and his students were able to participate in another mock disaster drill at the Navy base this week. They've been helping for years playing victims to whatever scenario the Navy is running, but last December there was a drill that the Navy didn't ask for Glen's help because they didn't want to bother the students during finals.

The Navy evaluators, who come out from San Diego, asked where the drama students were who usually helped. Apparently the Navy personnel don't get into their rolls as victims, so it lowered the effectiveness of the drill, and the base was asked to redo the drill. This time they invited Glen and his students to participate.  Yay for Glen and his students. So, on Thursday they got to play victims again. And I got to play Glen as I subbed for him.

And today marks 8 months since I first started using the Bright Line Eating guidelines. I had lost 14 pounds before that, but since I started BLE, I'm down another 32 pounds. I lost 13 pounds the first month and then averaged 2 pounds a month for the next 3 months. Then October was a really good month and I lost 8...but with the holidays, I held even. I'm back on track and have lost 5 pounds this month past month. I'm so thrilled. I haven't weighed this little in 28 years. I only have 3 more pounds to go till I'm out of the overweight category and in to the normal category. It's very motivating.

The basics of Bright Line Eating (which I don't always adhere to as shown by my weight loss slowing down so much) are:

don't eat sugar or sugar substitutes
don't eat flours
eat only 3 meals a day--no snacks
and eat the prescribed quantities of food for each meal which are given in the guidelines (specific measurements of protein, fruits, vegetables, and fat for each meal)

I'm never hungry, so the amounts are sufficient, but I'm tempted to eat things I shouldn't, even when I'm not hungry. I need to do better on not caving to temptations.

I love having only one chin. :)

generous friends

It was a good week. Most weeks are, though they don't always have a lot to blog about.

So, I have a friend who has been using the Konmari method of decluttering. She has given me over 115 stamp sets and some stamping supplies. WOW. It was better than Christmas.  Thanks so much, Kara. I really appreciate it.

Now I just have to be recommitted to making and sending more cards

Her generous gift then led to 2 days of cleaning and organizing my crafting area. It doesn't do you much good to own something if you then can't access it.

And there isn't much news. We continue to plod along. Life is good. God is good. Have a great week everyone.