Race for the Cure

General Conference Sunday, October 2, 2011, I was able to “Walk” in the Race for the Cure. I have been able to Run-Walk the Race for the Cure since 1996 – so – this is my 16th year. My first race was when we lived in Bettendorf, Iowa where I Ran-Walked the Race on Arsenal Island in Davenport, Iowa. My finish time was 36 minutes for the 5K Race. This year my time was about that for the two miles that I walked – I am babying my torn meniscus.

My inspiration is my sister, Suzan Morrell, who fought Breast Cancer that year so I am glad to Celebrate her life. Another Celebration in the Race is for one of my former Seminary students, Jaycee Taylor.

I also remember others that have any type of Cancer. I look forward each year to this worthwhile event!

School Daze, School Daze…!

I love this time of the year when everyone goes off to school. Education is such an important part of our lives. I love the learning process, the acquiring of new and different knowledge. In fact, my whole life I have loved learning and school. As you know, I finally finished my Psychology Degree at University of Nevada, Reno on December 4,2010. At that time, I also finished an Art – Ceramics Minor at University of Nevada, Reno and earlier in the spring 2010 I finished an Art – Ceramics Associates at Truckee Meadows Community College where I have taught Computer Classes to Senior Citizens for the past ten years. In 1988, I finished and Associates Degree in General Studies at Mt. Hood Community College in Gresham, Oregon. Earlier, much earlier, I finished grades one through twelve.

One of the great things that happened at the Grimmett Reunion this July is I received a very neat picture of the Moreland School House which has since been torn down. It is the school house that I went to when I was in the First Grade. This school was the Moreland High School but the first and second grades went here. Our room was downstairs and right in the front on the left. We could get to the classroom two ways: going down the stairs outside the building or going up the front stairs and then down a set of stairs just inside the door. How excited I was for that first day of school. Mrs. Anderson, my teacher, was a grandmotherly type lady so I felt right at home. We did like recess and especially the swing which was tied to the very tall trees at the back of the school. You could swing so high that you just thought that you would go over the top bar.

The Second Grade..... We moved over to Riverside Grade school where I stayed for through sixth grade. Mrs. Parrish, our Second Grade teacher was a young tall beautiful auburn hair lady. We all thought that she was or should be a movie star. One thing she liked to do is check to see if we all had a clean handkerchief, I’m not sure if I forgot mine or I just did not have one, so Della Erickson, the girl across the aisle, let me use hers. In those days girls did not wear Levi’s, but every day we wore dresses. In the winter, and even late into the spring, we, girls, liked to wear the leggings to our snowsuits under our dresses so that we could wrestle around on the playground and play on the tricky bars. One of the fun things that we did during recess was play kiss tag out under the big tall trees at the end of the school yard.

In Third Grade... We had the scariest and grouchiest teacher named Mrs. Jolley. She wasn’t as pretty as Mrs. Parrish or even as tall and she certainly was not to be mistaken for a movie star. One day she left the classroom, and of course, we all started to talk and act up and thought we were pretty safe as we had posted a guard. Pretty soon we heard the guard say here she comes, and we all scrambled to our seats. Mrs. Jolley came and said, “Here’s she come!” Although a grouchy person, she was a good teacher and I learned a lot from her teaching.

< In Fourth Grade... Our teacher was named Mrs. Harris. She was a very nice lady and as pretty as Mrs. Parrish but older and a mother to children. Right after lunch she would read to us to settle us down. In particular, I remember her reading to us from Black Beauty. Mrs. Harris was going to have a baby and during the summer time when the baby was due, we learned that she had died in childbirth. Our hearts were broken, our beautiful teacher had gone to heaven, leaving her family and the new born baby.

Tune in later for more on school daze….!

This is September 5, 2011... This Blog needs some new posts...!

Guess who? What Year of Grade School?

Two weeks vacation - Family & Grandkids!

The past twelve or so days have been just the greatest of fun...! We headed down to the LA Jackson's - Clark-Me Soon-Jessica-Brandon's home in La Canada... Clark and Brandon headed to Washington DC... A couple days later Me Soon headed to Korea...


Grandpa and I stayed home with Jessica.




Here is Jessica:









These beautiful Roses are Flowers Me Soon brought Grandma J. for achieving an Associates in Art Ceramics at Truckee Meadows Community College. The roses are displayed in her Art Deco Vase.















We had a fun time at the Scullin's - Patrick-Kandra-Harrison-Hunter - Memorial day celebrating the Veteran's, Eagle Scouts (Clark was pleasantly surprised to be included as an honored Eagle Scout) and Scouts - Baseball - Picnic - Barbecue








Here Grandpa and the boys - Brandon, Harrison & Hunter have just raked the pine needles.







Harrison & Hunter heading out to school.







Our next stop was the Chugg's in Las Vegas where we visited with Jared-Geneva-Carter-Hanna-Jake-Josh-Cole.



We had fun at Carter and Hanna's school performance of patriotic songs.




And ever so much fun watching the young boys at play... It was fun swimming with all of them. Is baby Cole suppose to be sleeping or is he just waking up...!


















Hanna's play Beauty and the Beast in which she played Belle. She is in her black tights getting ready to go to the play...














Here's Hanna and two ole' dotting grandparents....


Finally on June 4, 2010, we headed home and had a wonderful drive across that barren Nevada desert because of the beautiful fluffy clouds the whole way home!










And Home...with more clouds.

Our Home has a Facelift!

Spring has been trying very hard to come to Reno... To herald spring, we decided to paint our home... What color should we use...! The consensus is, let me see, brown... Brown inside and outside... We are now officially the Brown Home...

It looks just the greatest!

TMCC Graduation - 2010 - Associate of Art/Ceramics

Family and Friends.... Wanted to share with you my day...! Today I received by Associate of Art in Ceramics @ Truckee Meadows Community College.

This is also the college that I teach Silver College to "My Seniors". It was a great day.... Cold 54 degrees with a 40 or more wind chill factor. It was held outside on The Commons and the wind seemed to dye down a bit for the ceremony but whipped up to a brisk clip afterward. Lots of Caps flying around and no one seemed to mind the tousled hair!

The 2 young people shown were the speakers... Both were alumni... Interesting...!


Needless to say, at my age there will only be a few pictures... And for some reason they will not be as youthful as my granddaughter, Alyssa's high school graduation pictures.




Here goes... I had this very handsome photographer...


















After Graduation, Dad and I went to Red Lobster for Lunch. We had the most amazing Lobster Pizza... Yes, I said Lobster and Pizza.... Then we came home to get warmed up...!



Education is so important to young people... And is especially fun for us not so young!

May 2010 - School Is Out!

School is out! TMCC Silver College Senior Classes finished up last Thursday.... UNR Classes finished up the prior Thursday with just barely surviving the finals. One week reprieve... then start my online Web-based class... Ouch...Are Grannies to old for this school thing...!

Wanted to share some of my latest pottery....
Pottery Serving Dish - TMCC December 2009





UNR Project I - Project I Decorated

UNR Ceramics is more into Art... or so they say.... This project was to make a plaster mold, pour five items from the mold and decorate the items with different decorative medians. I choose a vase shaped as a woman's torso so that the vases could represent different aspects of womanhood.

Steps to the finished Vases... listed with about 20 more steps...!

1. From clay mold the shape the vase solid.


2. Burnish the vase until totally some - Mark vase at halfway


3. Build up around the Vase to the halfway mark with trash clay


4. Smooth rectangle shape and put into a large vice type form


5. Pour mixed plaster up to the prior marked line...halfway up - dry


6. Take Boards off - Turn over - Coat poured mold with Murphy Oil Soap


7. Put form around - Pour Plaster on top of half just make - dry 2 or 3 days


8. To cast: Pour Casting Slip into the Mold until Full


9. Leave until Walls of Item are Desired Thickness


10. Pour out Remain Liquid.

The rest of the finishing process is just like you would any other Ceramics project: Dry until leather hard, apply design, Bisque fire, Glaze, High Fire. These Vases were a challenge for me as I have never worked with Low Fire glazes. They are difficult to work with but I was pleased with the finished items.

Decoration methods used were:

• Purple Vase: purple under-glaze, carved design and mixed lavender low fire glaze White Carved Vine Vase: White glaze with Coral in Vine Carvings - also like this one


• Coral Slip Vase: Slip applied with a brushed look - Coral low fire glaze - my favorite


• White Flower Vase: Flowers stamped from my homemade stamp - Gold under-glaze


• Black Sgraffito Vase: Carved with Black low fire glaze - Dad's favorite

This is more information than you wanted, but it was a neat learning process for me requiring an immense amount of time and energy.

UNR Project II - Sgraffito Teapot Project

This project was to find an artist from a list of artist the teacher gave to us, study his work and design a piece from something that inspired you for the artist. David Regan was the artist I chose. His work is very creative and he started out throwing teapots and then move on to hand building intricate little pieces and designing them with sgraffito.This is one of his pieces that I like very much - it reminded of those days before dishwashers.



On the right is what I came up with. I designed three teapots using sgraffito design. It was also a learning project but fun...! The teapot on the right has a little bear on the lid and was designed after Indian art. The teapot's design in the in the middle was taken from a sweater that our chorister was wearing in sacrament meeting. I used brown under glaze and clear low fire glaze on the teapots.

UNR Project III - Project of Own Idea Design

The Final project consisted of three large tubular vases. The middle vase has a pine cone cut design and line carvings with a hand built flower with jagged edges. The body of the vase was stained with iron oxide and the flower has high fire glaze on it.The other two vases are raku fired. The one on the left has a design pressed into it with a rough ball that grows on trees and extended flower design. The front of the vase is designed with an ripped overlap and large indention. Copper glaze was used with black not glazed areas. The vase on the right, my favorite and favorite of teacher and fellow student, has a black copper glaze on it with the vine left with no glaze so it will be black. The vine was achieved by rolling, molding and slip applying piece by piece. The front has a double vested look with indented buttons.


All in all, I believe my semester was a success... A new teacher always gives cause for concern but she must have liked something as I earned an "A" in the course.