LHT's Heart Attack

From Shawn:

I had gone home for the weekend to work on my final for a formal logic class. Dad was out camping with the scouts. I was at the house alone when David got there and told me what had happened. We talked for a minute, then I jumped in my car and headed to the Nephi hospital. My recollection matches with David’s, that he had scouts to drop off still and that he was going to find Mom and Julie. When I got to the hospital and started talking to Dad, he wanted a priesthood blessing. Dr. Besendorfer helped give the blessing. Things then got hectic for a time. I seem to remember that (I believe) Mom and Julie then arrived. I cannot remember the trip to Provo, or about the visits after that.


From Myrna:

That matches with Julie's thoughts. I really thought that I was at home in the kitchen when David arrived. I bow to the three of you who remember that Julie and I had gone shopping for food. Love, M

From Shawn:

Maybe you got back home before David found you. All that I remember was that you were not home when David stopped and told me, and that he said he still had scouts to drop off. I cannot remember if he said Dad wanted me at the Hospital, or if I felt that was where I should go, rather than help him drop off the scouts. I do seem to remember that he said he had already driven from the hospital, and would go and find you and Julie when he was done dropping off scouts. Oh, I do remember that Dad was concerned (after the blessing) about whether or not the troop had won, because they left before everything was done, and the district had changed the format to try to keep his troop from winning for the somethingth year in a row. I remember him also talking about running up the hill, the pain, laying by the van, about the pain getting worse, loading up the van and driving quickly back to Nephi (and deciding after that it probably wasn’t the best thing to have done)—all the same as David has explained. I also remember that they rushed in an older lady while he was talking (I do not remember who, but I seemed to remember that I knew her or knew of her and that she lived in the northeast corner of town), she had been in an automobile accident and the airbag had gone off, and she thought it had not worked because it collapsed, and they were trying to tell her that was how airbags were supposed to work, and she seemed to be somewhat in shock. I think she was brought in right before you and Julie arrived. I do not remember how you got to Provo, or if I made any calls, or if I took anyone to Provo. Did you drive up, or go in the ambulance. Did Julie or David go with me, or with you? I will have to do some thinking to see if I can trigger some more of my memories. The one about the accident victim just came back today.

 Oh, can you tell that I am up early worrying about my job change?

From Myrna:


Julie and David drove up to Utah Valley in Julie's car. I went in the ambulance with Dad. 

Are we all getting a clearer picture? I am. Thank you all. Love, M

Hey, I'm giving you all a month...

From Kirsten Waite 

For Dad's b-day I want to make a scrapbook with memories.... so here's what I need (please, pretty please....)

Please describe a warm fuzzy memory (or conglomeration of ) that comes to mind when I say the word, dad.  (those are the only rules... this can come in form of a story, a poem, a song (if you feel so inspired),  etc.)

Please submit all entries to me by Dec 31 (please, please, pretty please if you have time during Christmas Break).  I don't need pages, unless you have the time and want to submit the pages.

Also, if you have time, send me some pictures (drawn or taken) of yourselves, family and dad.  Otherwise, I'll be forced to snag them from Mom's CDs. :)

I love you all and hope you have a great holiday.  If this is too much, please let me know and I'll aim for Father's day instead!

love and hugs,
Kirsten

From Melanie:


 Okay, if you snag from Mom's CDs, I swear I might have to hunt you down. She doesn't take good pictures of me. I am always in odd facial contortions or self-esteem reducing poses. I will try to find something--anything.

 Melanie

From David:


Mel, How about this one?

From Eric:

Isn't that from the movie, "Superstar". E.

From Myrna:

I cannot open the attachment. I didn't see the photo, so I have no idea. Could someone send it in a different format?

From Melanie:

Yes. Kirsten used to do this to make my children laugh, so we were showing her that we remembered it. Someone caught us....

Childhood Neighbor Gifts Received from Neighbors in Price

Taralles

Taralles are traditional Italian Christmas cookies brightened with fresh orange juice and a creamy slather of vanilla icing.

BY LOUISE SPINELLI 
Napa, California 

Taralles are great fun to make with your family and especially your kids. The kids love to help twist the dough into knots and ice the cookies.

INGREDIENTS

Cookie dough:

1 pound butter, softened

2 cups sugar

12 eggs

1 tablespoon vanilla extract

1 fresh orange (juice and rind)

10 to 12 cups all-purpose flour

10 heaping teaspoons baking powder

 

Icing:
4 cups confectioners’ sugar

3 tablespoons butter, softened

1 teaspoon vanilla extract

2 drops almond extract (optional)

5 tablespoons milk (add more as necessary)

PREPARATION

1. Preheat oven to 350°F. 

2. In a large bowl cream together softened butter, sugar and eggs until smooth. Add vanilla. Grate orange zest from orange; add to mixture. Extract juice from orange; add to mixture. Blend well. 

3. In separate bowl, combine flour and baking powder. Gradually add flour/baking powder to the creamed egg mixture, beating continuously to form smooth dough. Knead dough by hand or with an electric mixer until smooth. Place dough under a glass bowl to keep moist in preparation for forming the cookies.

4. Form each cookie from a small piece of dough about the size of a golf ball. Roll each ball by hand into a 5 to 6-inch rope. Twist the rope into a knot. Place formed taralles on a greased cookie sheet.

5. Bake 8 minutes on second rack from the bottom, until bottom is slightly brown. Move tray to upper oven rack and bake for additional 2 to 3 minutes until top of cookie is lightly browned. Allow taralles to cool before icing.

6. To make the icing, combine sugar, butter, vanilla and almond extract in a mixing bowl. Gradually add milk to make a smooth icing. Mix with a whisk. If necessary add more milk to obtain spreading consistency. Ice each taralle by dipping the cookie into the icing and then smoothing the icing around the cookie with your finger. Yields 190 small cookies or 160 large cookies

DAD

Kirsten wrote: Hey, I'm giving you all a month....

For Dad's b-day I want to make a scrapbook with memories.... so here's what I need (please, pretty please....)

Please describe a warm fuzzy memory (or conglomeration of ) that comes to mind when I say the word, dad.  (those are the only rules... this can come in form of a story, a poem, a song (if you feel so inspired), etc.)

Please submit all entries to me by Dec 31 (please, please, pretty please if you have time during Christmas Break).  I don't need pages, unless you have the time and want to submit the pages.

Also, if you have time, send me some pictures (drawn or taken) of yourselves, family and dad.  Otherwise, I'll be forced to snag them from Mom's CDs. :)

I love you all and hope you have a great holiday.  If this is too much, please let me know and I'll aim for Father's day instead!

love and hugs,
Kirsten


Melanie wrote: Okay, if you snag from Mom's CDs, I swear I might have to hunt you down. She doesn't take good pictures of me. I am always in odd facial contortions or self-esteem reducing poses. I will try to find something--anything.

Melanie


David wrote: Mel, How about this one.



Eric wrote: Isn't that from the movie, "Superstar".

E.

Melanie wrote: Yes. Kirsten used to do this to make my children laugh, so we were showing her that we remembered it. Someone caught us....

Question for Christmas

Myrna wrote: Who wants money and who wants gifts for Chistmas? Love, M

Melanie wrote: BOTH, if you are asking!!! ;-)


Eric wrote: Mom
 Mom, you should know better than to ask that of me. Thanks fore the option.
E

Myrna wrote: Now, why should I know better? I keep forgetting the lessons I should have (but failed) to learn. Love, M


Eric wrote: cAre my teen years a blur, always money. Not a lot, just enough to get something really cool from the Dollar store, hint hint.

E.


Myrna wrote: OK, all you smarty-pants. Following is the real question: Which of you, children and adult members of our family by birth or marriage, would prefer cash or which of you would prefer a present from the wonderful, good, kind and loving people known as Leonard and Myrna Trauntvein, for a Christmas gift from us?

Each family member must decide on one or the other (cash or a present) as a gift from us.


Siovhan wrote: Either is fine with me. I'm always good for cash and, if easier, a present works just as well.


Kirsten wrote: Whichever is easiest.  My kids, literally, like both--opening the gift and the excitement of taking moolah to the store and picking out whatever they want....

kirsten

A Winter Wonderland

Helen wrote: Dearest folks: we have a beautiful winter wonderland- from late morning to evening--the trees are sparkling with heavy snow and everything is beautiful. Myrna, will you please e-mail me back with the addresses for Julie, David and Siohvan, am doing christmas cards. Thank you. I will be calling you folks on Wednesday evening to verify our outting to the Conference Center on Thursday evening. Am really hopeful we will get in. Be careful in all you do. Love to you- Just Me HT.

Hey, Eric, are you upset?

Myrna wrote: I heard about the early morning call from all but you. 

Eric wrote: No one called me. I'm not sick, it is the time to sell dead animals to people who do not know how to cook. I'm  tired of telling them how to cook. Egads man google it! Now they can argue amongst themselves as to why it did not look like the turkey hack they saw on you-tube, it's the one after opening a car door with a tennis ball with a hole drilled in it, and before the car battery hack with four thousand  AAA batteries inside. They look at each other with so much anger over a ruined Holiday that the blood is going to shoot out of there eyes at any moment now. Veins bulging out of their foreheads why didn't we just ask the butcher? They wouldn't have followed my directions anyway, how come, because they don't write them down! Duh! So from me all they get is a poke in the eye with a sharp stick. Besides, I touched their raw meat with my Bare fingers! Na Na Na Na Na Na! I then wipe it on my smock, as I go to shake their hand, to tell them how to cook meat. but alas it is to no avail, they have learned nothing. History is doomed to repeat it's self every Holiday season. Just so everybody knows, a fresh uncooked ham is just a raw pig leg, so in other words it is not a ham at all, just a pig leg without the cure, not the band, but a salt or sugar and sometimes both brine then a good smoking, which is what I think they, the members, have all been doing any way. I have a great sign from my gunsmiths door, "Due to the lack of planning on your part does not necessitate an emergence on my part". One more thing, hen turkeys do not have bigger breast meat than toms, once they are all gutted out and plucked the only way they can tell the difference is the weight, hens are up to fifteen lbs., toms go up from there. Yes, hen turkeys have smaller bones than toms, just like Humming birds have smaller bones than a Condor, size proportionate.

love all of you.

E.

Myrna wrote: Is there a You-Tube (such as http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2ljY0mXuaRE) you are referring us to? Turkey Frier 

Melanie wrote: Yes, I learned from my mother, so I don't ask our meat cutter. He seems so frustrated whenever I see him talking to the older people where I shop. I often chuckle to myself imagining it to be Eric. However, when I did ask them to cut a chicken up into a "fryer" because our store no longer sells "fryer" cut chickens, I was disappointed in the fact that all they did was flay the chicken. I could have done that without the extra dollar it cost for the cut. I now cut my own chickens. 

Love you Eric!

Mel

AnnMarie wrote: Ok, so I am just now getting to my emails on the home computer.  This is the funniest thing I have read all day.  I now have a new phrase for people who ask me asinine questions. (And it happens to me all the time, for example, "Does this mean I'm going to jail?" as they are being handcuffed and led out of the courtroom.).  I will simply reply, "Egads, man, Google it!"
Love,
Ams (A fellow bare-hands raw-meat toucher who never asks a butcher how to cook meat because of a fear of sharp sticks and poked eyeballs.)


Myrna wrote: By-the-way, Eric, yes, they did call you. You didn't answer. See messages. We then thought that AnnMarie would certainly have gotten your one call. Love, M

A Winter Wonderland

Helen wrote: Dearest folks: we have a beautiful winter wonderland- from late morning to evening--the trees are sparkling with heavy snow and everything is beautiful. Myrna, will you please e-mail me back with the addresses for Julie, David and Siohvan, am doing christmas cards. Thank you. I will be calling you folks on Wednesday evening to verify our outting to the Conference Center on Thursday evening. Am really hopeful we will get in. Be careful in all you do. Love to you- Just Me HT.

Myrna wrote: Here are the addresses.


Jim and Julie Jones
11705 East 21000 North
Mt. Pleasant, UT, 84647

David and Arbree Trauntvein
29 Wild Goose Lane
Gunnison, CO, 81230

Siovhan Bolton
4175 Wagner St., #406
Eugene, OR, 97402


Helen wrote: Myrna, thank you much for the addresses. Tim called this a.m. we had a good visit-I always love talking with him and am so grateful the brother he has always been to me and the son to Mom and Dad, and the eternal companion of you, dear Sister, and father and grandfather etc, etc, etc. from Anna and the King of Siam- See you Thursday evening. Pray we will be able to attend the performance. Love you dear Sister. Helen

Caydin

Shawn wrote: Thanks for the pics, he looks great and a lot like his daddy.

Todd wrote: I think he has Trauntvein eyes via the Pitts side of things.

Myrna wrote: He is a cutie isn't he? I am happy that he is doing so well after his shaky start. Well, aren't we all?

Kirsten wrote: He actually looks like he could take on Jake no problem.  I think my boys are going to have "short-man" complexes... hmmmm

Myrna wrote: Now, if Grandpa Pitts were still here with us, he would agree with Todd. He always said: "They all have my eyes."

Kimberly wrote: What a good looking boy. We are so happy for you both David and Arbree.

Kirsten Talks About LHT's Heart Attack

From: Kirsten

I remember that it was my freshman year at BYU, and it was early spring.  Julie called, I think while they were transporting dad with mom to Provo, because I remember getting ready and showing up at the hospital.  The only other thing I remember is waiting in the "waiting" room, and when we went back to visit dad, he still seemed a little out of it and still in pain.  I remember the sandbag on his leg and him wanting IT (the sandbag) off.  I remember him complaining about his chest itching, too, mom.  I also remember that he did not want us to tell Grandma Trauntvein because he didn't want her to worry.  I think Todd picked Melanie up from the airport, right?  and she came straight to the hospital (then again, I'm also the one who remembers doing the Boston Tea Party Ship and walking to the Philadelphia Mint from the ship... explain that one).  I also remember when dad got to come home and Melanie was still here she tried to help dad get used to his "new" low-fat diet (he didn't like the idea and we were all trying to make it more appealing).  I think the "favorite" was the bagel pizza with the fake, fat-free, waxy cheese (boy, those cheeses have come a long way since then!!!).  We all know how much dad loves cheese and how that was a very HARD thing to give up...  I also remember him being set on getting back out there and getting ready to hike Nebo.  He rode his bike to school every morning, took fast, long walks.... etc.  You can't keep a good dog (er... man)  down (bow wow wow wow)--name the movie...

From Myrna:

Thanks, Kirsten. This is helping me. You, David, Eric, Julie, Shawn have all helped restore some of my memories. (By the way, there is no explaining why kids remember things differently, such as the Boston/Philadelphia connection. I wonder about some of the things I remember from my childhood. There were several California visits that made it seem like relatives, such as Uncle Frank, lived just down the street from Aunt Jessie when, in reality, they were a LONG drive apart. No wonder Aunt Menetta used to yell at the "California drivers." After all, she was from Utah.)