Elephant Hugs
This is the oldest elephant, a very large male..
A Kiss for Sue 
This is their room. 
Sue and Sandra
Sandra getting a Kiss
Sandra said: The small ele with the food in her trunk
Each elephant has its own Mahout - handler.
Some of Sandra's Photos of their Trip to ThailandThis photo is of the 4 month old baby with his mom
There are two that age with their mothers.
This was a fun and busy day. Sandra called yesterday and said she and her mother-in-law Sue were back from Thailand visiting an elephant sanctuary there - gone nearly a month - and would like to come and see the house. So I invited them to come to dinner, or lunch, and we decided on lunch. Talked to Bonnie after that and invited her and Craig too.
I didn't tell you yet, but Beverly sent me home from Vegas with SEVEN DOZEN authentic tamales - frozen in a cooler - and I was sure they would be good. Brent's company has a some Mexican laborers, and one of the wives sells her homemade tamales. A lady at work keeps buying them and giving them to everyone and I guess Beverly's family is about tamale'd out. They get too many. I love real tamales, so thought they would be good for our lunch. I also made taco salad to go with them, and my neighbor Phyllis' "Yummy Cake" for desert. I made my own taco shell bowls. That and the food prep took quite a while, but we were ready for lunch about 1 p.m.
I really enjoyed the company and visiting. Sandra and Sue brought her laptop with about 450 photos of the trip to the elephants, which we all watched after lunch. They told us all about their adventures and the long plane flights to get there and back. Sue brought me a small "painted jar with a lid" with a tiny orchid carved out of colored soap - very unique and delicate. Thank you Sue! And Sandra brought the Christmas or housewarming gift she had had for some time - an atomic clock with indoor/outdoor temperature and weather on it (which I've taken to my room) - Thank you Sandra. I always wonder what the temperature is in the morning, so now I'll know.
A funny thing was that we had the same kind of clock I bought when we moved in and I didn't know it was indoor/outdoor. The kids set almost everything up, and I think Curtis set the clock, but they put the outdoor sensor on the mantle and I never knew what it went to. When I said it must have gotten thrown out with the package, Craig said that the outdoor temperature wouldn't be registering if the sensor wasn't somewhere in the house. After doing some deep thinking I realized that "thing" on the mantle was for the clock. Then Craig installed it out on the front porch and voila (or walah if you prefer), we had the indoor outdoor temperature in just a few minutes.
It was a great afternoon. By the time I got everything put away and the dishwasher filled, it was almost dinner time, but both Joe and I agreed we didn't want dinner so just had another piece of cake, mine with a glass of milk, and called it good. I went to bed about six for a nap for a couple of hours, then got up and started to catch up the back blogs. I know doing this after the fact I'm not remembering some things we've done, but guess that's the way it is.
Nanny called this morning, and also Debbie, I had to tell them I couldn't visit because of preparing the lunch, so will call them back soon. Nancy sounded good and happy there in the desert. Debbie is still having the bad cough and said she didn't think the medicine helped much.
A funny thing I have to tell on Beverly - She called later in the evening and this weekend they had flown to Logan UT for Brent's brother's wedding at the Logan temple. She had just gotten back and was answering her phone messages and came across one that said "Hi. This is Mom, Are you still sleeping?" She thought I had called her, and why didn't I remember that they had gone to the wedding? I was befuddled because I didn't remember calling her, and I did remember that they were gone for the weekend anyway. But she convinced me it was my message, and I'm thinking oh mi gosh - how horrible - my memory is way worse than I thought. Well, then she played it back to me over the phone and I had to agree it did sound like me, but I still insisted NO I hadn't done that. Welllllll ...... She began to remember that she had called Clayton from Utah and that was her own message! Now I don't feel so bad about my bad memory. I think we'll laugh about that for a long time.
I still have lots of tamales if you want to come over and try some. They remind me that when I was a little kid in L.A. a Mexican lady lived across the street from us. She was really nice and baby sat me once in a while and ironed for my mother too. She made the most wonderful tamales. Mother would buy them from her and I've loved them ever since. I can remember from time to time asking Mother if we please couldn't get more tamales. I have good memories of Maria taking care of me. I was about five or so. She had a big house full of nice furniture and lots of knick knacks and dishes in glass windowed hutches. But she lived down in the dark basement with a bunch of cats. She bought horsemeat to feed the cats and grilled it for them over a gas burner. One time I was there she offered me some grilled horse meat and said she also ate it. That was the most delicious meat I've ever eaten, and much later I was glad for that experience, since I never would have tasted horse meat otherwise, and on the principal of the thing wouldn't think of eating it now. But because of that I know why people in other countries enjoy it.
