The Mystery of the Shortbread Cookie Caper Solved

The Mention of Bob's Shortbread Cookie Desire is Answered

          Just hours after I posted my April 27th blog entitled "A Swarm of Service," a mysterious thing happened. It was quite dark out, I was listening to the TV in my room when I heard Bob calling out to me. He said, "Did you hear the doorbell ring?" No, I replied, and got up to go look. I turned on the porch light and there sat a large, red lidded Rubbermaid storage container filled with shortbread cookies sitting upon the mail from our mailbox. But there was no sign of a car or anyone around.

          I delivered the cookies to Bob and WOW were they GOOD. Buttery, perfectly crunchy and not too soft, and large! Each cookie measured about 3 inches across. They were Empress cookies. The best we'd ever eaten. Thus began the search for the Cookie Queen who' bestowed a gift after Bob's request for shortbread cookies.
          It was perfect timing because as he began to spend more time in bed and wake during the night, he could munch a cookie without waking me when he got hungry.

          Of course, I was trying to lose weight, so I was glad they were beyond my sight and reach most of the time  (I actually only ate one from this batch). But alas, he ran out of them. He begged me to find out who had made these fabulous cookies. He made me call Relief Society to help hunt for the Queen of Shortbread Cookies! Everyone that was asked said it wasn't them. It had to be someone who'd read my blog. Although I'd posted a link to that blog on my Facebook page, and posted a link on the Sisters of Picture Rocks Facebook Page (comprised of 57 women in my ward who share non-religious networking tips, ideas, etc.with each other) I never mentioned Bob's Shortbread Cookie desire. Someone had clicked on the Facebook link, saw a need and decided to perform an act of service.

THE COOKIE MONSTER

          I never knew I was married to the Cookie Monster! When I was talking to the 2nd Counselor in Relief Society, Ann Bodmer, Bob got on the phone and said, this is serious!!! It's a matter of life and death!!!!! We all laughed but I knew he was a bit serious about it. When Ann called Liz Gary to see if it was her, she posted a request on TSOPR Facebook page to find out who'd made them because now the fame of these absolutely delicious cookies was spreading far and wide. Everyone wanted the recipe. At 2:30pm the next afternoon, two plastic bags of "warm" right-out-the-oven, shortbread cookies arrived again at our door.
          After this delivery the cookies were almost gone in a day. Bob had become a Cookie Monster.

THE SEARCH FOR THE COOKIE QUEEN BEGINS IN EARNEST 

          This time I was nearer the front door when the doorbell rang, but when I got there, the cookies and the mail were there and no one else. I stepped out on the porch peered around the saguaro and then heard a car (hidden by a big ironwood tree at the edge of the driveway) pull out onto the road going West and caught a quick glimpse of a maroon van!!! I only knew two people who had vans. I called the first one...she told me her van was green. THAT ONLY LEFT ONE! The Worl Family. They used to give me rides to church when Bob had early morning ward council meetings. But it had been over a year ago, and they'd added twin boys to their family. But every time Mattie, now age 9, and Caleb, now age 5, would see me at church they'd call out to me and give me big smiles...we'd bonded. So I called Tatiana, their mother, and indeed it was the three of them that baked the cookies and delivered them. It was the kids idea to bring our mail up to the door! Mystery solved.

There is More to the Story

          Tatiana shared with me that they'd never meant it to be secret, but the first time no one answered the bell or knocking on the door so they left. The second time was purposeful; they parked behind our house and made a quick get away! She told me how special it was that the kids were so excited about helping bake and deliver the cookies. When she saw the post, she had to go looking all over for the great shortbread recipe she remembered using in the past and at last found it in a book called "Christmas Cookies."
          She really felt a prompting to do this little act of kindness for Bob. She shared a special story with me about her grandfather who was failing in health having had a series of strokes. His favorite thing to do was to go walking with his dog, but he'd done less and less of this after each health setback. She felt prompted to go over to his home in a mobile home park one Friday and ask if he'd like to go for a walk. The response was YES!!!! They walked all around visiting with neighbors and their dogs, etc. They had a wonderful time. The following Sunday he had a massive stroke, and soon died.
          Brianna had a similar experience with her father, Bob. They went out to lunch at Saffron, an Indian food restaurant in Tucson. The food was fabulous, their conversation covered the many topics they both love and she'd left the kids with G.G. so that they could focus on each other. That is a cherished memory for both of them. Bob is not able to go out like this anymore. He is basically home bound now.
          The lesson learned is NEVER put off those promptings to do little acts of kindness. Tatiana, Bob and I have pondered who benefits the most. Certainly the one being served is grateful (she worried whether he'd be offended at the presumption that he needed to have some service rendered  andI assured her he would never, ever mind shortbread cookies! and as a stressed spouse, I am very, very grateful for every act of kindness to my husband in his last days); or we pondered,whether the one doing the serving is chalking up the "brownie points" or "gold stars" in their crown. We've decided that when the Savior said:
"And behold, I tell you these things that ye may learn that when ye are in the service of your fellow beings ye are only in the service of your God." --Mosiah 2:17; Matthew 25:40
          By his example, the Savior was showing us that it is better to give than receive, but in order for there to be opportunities for this service someone has to be in need. There is a time in life to give service and an other time in life to receive service from others. This includes helping teach our children how to serve others.
"But ye will teach them to walk in the ways of truth and soberness; ye will teach them to love one another, and to serve one another." --Mosiah 4:15
          Certainly Tatiana was teaching Mattie and Caleb to love and serve others.
          King Benjamin goes on in verse 16 of Mosiah to tell all of us, "And also, ye yourselves will succor those that stand in need of your succor; ye will administer of your substance unto him that standeth in need; "

Mattie gives Bob a refill of Shortbread Cookies

Tatiana, Caleb and Mattie make a late night delivery

Tatiana shares the recipe here for the most delicious, rich, buttery shortbread cookies we've ever tasted:
HINT: you can NOT substitute margarine, etc. in the following recipe. You must use REAL BUTTER!

Basic Shortbread Cookies

1 cup   butter, softened

½ C     sugar

¼ tspn vanilla extract

2 ½ C  unbleached all-purpose flour

⅛ tspn salt

Beat butter at medium speed with an electric mixer until creamy, gradually add sugar, beating well. Stir in vanilla.

Combine flour and salt, gradually add to butter mixture, beating at low speed until blended. Dough will be crumbly.

Roll dough to ½ inch thickness on a lightly floured surface. Cut in small rectangular cookies ( Bob liked them 3” X 3”) or cut with a 2 ½ inch round cutter or shaped Christmas cookie cutter. Place 2 inches apart on an ungreased baking sheet.

Bake at 275° for 50 minutes or until bottoms begin to brown. Cool 2 minutes on baking sheet, remove to a wired rack to cool completely.

--courtesy of “Christmas Cookies”

HAPPY EATING

A Swarm of Service

Beekeeping Surprises

          Every Spring bees swarm and this past few weeks have been no exception here in Southern Arizona. The TV news people are telling us what to do with all those swarming bees. Bill Welch, one of my husband's best friends came to visit this morning. I had discovered yesterday through a mutual friend, Roy Lacey, that both were very interested in bees. Turns out Bill had some 80 hives when he was a young man. He's had lots of practical experience with bees. He told me he had a hive under a grapefruit tree and he would go lay out on the ground near the entrance to the hive and just watch them. "They were really docile. Some of them would return to the hive with various colors of pollen." It was a very special time for this beekeeper. I asked him about swarming and he told me it is simply that the hive was too crowded over the winter and the queen had laid several "eggs" in specially built hexagonal chambers that were fed exclusively with royal jelly and had become "large as a peanut." So the queen bee decided it was time to go find a new home. It was simply like splitting a ward in the church; when a congregation reached around 700 they split it into two wards.
          I asked if it was a terrible thing for home owners to kill all the swarms they found near their home if on a branch of a tree, (obviously not in their home) and he said, "Oh that's not good because without the bees our fruit trees would just flower and never bear fruit. More often than not they are just swarming then sending out scouts to find a new place to live." He went on to say that a real beekeeper would take a cardboard box (He actually did this and it was no big thing) and give a sharp tap to the branch and all the bees would fall into the box. He'd then tape it up, carry it home to a prepared hive box, open it up and tip it toward the entrance and they'd all just march in, happy as can be. Well, I'll bee doggone. With the advent of an Africanized strain of bees, however, since Bill retired he only has two hives (they are still a lot of work);  one is an aggressive hive and one is a docile hive. Now he wears protection all of the time; but before he'd let the bees crawl all over him if they wanted to.

We have Been Covered in Service This Past Week        

          A ward in our LDS church is like a hive when it comes to service. When a worker bee finds a source of pollen he returns to the hive and lets everyone know the directions to that source. In a ward, the members let the leadership know where there is a need for service and the Ward Council meets and discusses what can be done to help. This past week Bob and I have been the focus of prayers, phone calls, offers to bring over dinner and lots of other small acts of kindness. I've decided that at this time in my life where my whole focus is on my eternal companion, Bob, that I will blog these last special days of his life. Bill called this a transition stage. To a non-member they wouldn't understand this terminology, but knowing who we are, where we came from, why we are here and where we go after we die is knowledge that provides Joy and Hope rather than fear, despair, anxiety and all the other sad emotions that occur when a loved on is dying or has died. My blog will hopefully reflect our philosophy, be relatively positive, yet realistically record a truly special person's final days on this earth. We all have regrets, felt we are failures in some area of our life and come to realize, when time runs out, that ooops we don't have any time left to do those things that we've either procrastinated or we'd been too scared to do for some reason. There are regrets of omission and regrets of commission. Maybe, Bob, who is very very private will open up and talk about some of these things. I'm the fortunate one because I get to see the love and esteem others have for him, and the kind, little (and sometimes not so little) acts of kindness they bestow on our family.

I'll Present Bob's Life in Photos and Stories

Sometimes in His Own Words Via His Writings, Too

At the end of this blog is a photo of Bob about 1933 on his Tricycle. No, he doesn't have much interest in cowboys, guns and such now, but he did ride a bicycle on Kwajalein, in the Marshall Islands, when we lived there in the early 1990s. He's actually only owned one red plaid flannel shirt in his adult life that I know about, but Brianna our daughter decided that it was hers now.

Bri wears her father, Bob's, Red Flannel Shirt

She also captured an old T-shirt from the 1994 50th Anniversary Commemoration of the Battle of Kwajalein-Roi-Namur. He had thrown it away and she said, "No Way," and hauled it out of the trash and  took it home with her. She said that since she was pregnant, it would come in handy when she'd just want a large, soft T-shirt to wear and this one was just perfect, holes and stains and all.

Bob's Kwaj Tshirt is just the right soft bluejeans color for Bri since she's expecting. She anticipates wearing this large soft Tshirt a lot in the last months of her pregnancy. By the way, it's a boy and her due date is Bob's birthday!

Memories of our parents lives are special and their clothing, toys, books and other possessions become special touchstones to us.

Bob plays cowboy about age 3 riding his greyhound tricycle

Bee's Wings A Mystery!

The Mystery of How Fat, Heavy, Pollen-laden Bees can Fly Using those Tiny Wings

          Until the advent of high speed cinematography and robotics,  science could not explain how a large bodied bee could fly, much less explain how it could  hover or carry pollen equal to its weight back to the hive. Using slow motion photography, then reproducing the bee wings actions in a large robotic bee wing, scientists have found some pretty miraculous movements that have little to do with traditional aerodynamics. Bees have two pair of wings, the hind pair being the smaller of the two. In 2005 using the above technology, Michael Dickinson and his Caltech colleagues studied honey bee flight and found the bees wing beat frequency flaps approximately 230 times per second. This is faster than a fruit fly (200 times per second) which is 80 times smaller.

 

Honey Bees on a Cactus Flower

           There is another unique feature besides speed to these wings. Caltech's analysis revealed that sufficient lift was generated by "the unconventional combination of short, choppy wing strokes, a rapid rotation of the wing as it flops over and reverses direction." Add this to the very fast wing-beat frequency and you have lift off with great weight bearing capacity.

Short, Choppy Wing Strokes with Rapid Rotation as it Flops Over and 

Reverses Direction Could be Described as 

The Figure Eight Sideways Symbol of Infinity

This BEE's Burden has Infinite Overtones

          I've had a seriously stressful month, starting off with a case of the Norovirus Flu that I probably caught in a nursing home where I was visiting Mary who had knee surgery. For two weeks, four days each week, two + hours a day I spent visiting teaching her...well, I'd say getting to know her better, being a friend and learning about her life. But, locally this flu had outbreaks in nursing homes. I got sick General Conference Sunday with vomiting and severe diarrhea; My husband, Bob, got it the next Friday, and we had lots of decisions about who would GO where!!!
          My Husband then went into a rapid decline. To bring you up to date (because I don't talk much about personal stuff here; but am rethinking that) he was diagnosed with end stage prostate cancer that had metastasized to his spine last November. He went into hospice at home the first of December and now the cancer has spread lesions into his shoulders, and ribs. The bottom line is that his knees are often very weak and he falls; and the pain is pretty severe. The doctor has increased his pain meds so that is under control but each month there is more "breakthrough" pain. At the end of that first week in April a milestone in this decline process was reached. He was catheterized. This is great because he doesn't have to get up every couple hours, thus is less apt to fall. But, he doesn't go out of the house anymore. This means that I have added responsibilities.

BEE's Wings Strengthened to Carry the Load

          My husband and I are having lots of discussions about death and dying. We've shared some very sweet moments and felt the joy of God's love for us. We see his hand every day in many, many ways as our prayers are answered, needs met and dear friends visit us. Here are a few examples of what I mean.    
         A 13 yr old deacon in our ward, Mikey Seno, heard that my husband wanted a laptop so he could read books from the library and play DVDs in his bed or chair, but that we could not afford one. He came up to me before sacrament meeting and handed me his. He said he was not using it right now. WOW. It turns out a new neighbor (remember we live out on a country road and don't have access to comcast, etc.) has a wireless connection and at Bob's bedroom end of the house there is a connection! Now he has to learn how to use this new lap top. What fun! It's a great excuse for my daughter to have one on one time with her dad.
          Yesterday, Dwayne Rosemore came by to install a shelf on the wall over Bob's bed so that we could attach a light for him to read by, this is also handy for the wireless phone, books being read, and a mug of water. I'd been helping Dwayne with finding and entering family names into NewFamilySearch for them to take to the temple. Last week I mentioned our problem of needing a light on that wall by the bed and he said that he'd found two shelves at Dessert Industries but had only used one of them. It is exactly the right length, the right width and was installed with lots of "man talk" to my husband's delight. Dwayne rehung a painting, added 4X4 blocks of wood so the bed would not be pushed too close to the window air conditioner and new shelf.
          Today Roy Lacey, from our ward, came by to talk "politics" and a myriad of other subjects the two of them enjoy and will return library books and magazines for us. For several months he'd been taking my husband to the library and then go for a chocolate shake at In and Out Burger. Can you tell from this that my husband is a bibliophile? Last week Roy and his wife Karin came over with a couple frozen lasagna's from Costco. I think this was just wonderful, because by the end of the day, I just don't have much energy left to cook dinner. Bob has finally said, "Since I'm dying I guess I don't have to watch my weight anymore, do I? His recent delight has been chocolate bunnies then when they disappeared... Hershey's nuggets. Today, he says, my tastes are changing again...I like some shortbread cookies; you know the really good, buttery, sinful ones. Yep, I know the ones. My biggest challenge is not to eat what he's eating. I tell him to keep them on the shelves of his room. I've lost 35 pounds since this saga began last November, and I don't want to gain any of it back.
          So my burden's are made light by loving friends and family. I am so thankful for the gospel and the eternal perspective that it brings to living and dying. Bob and I have been sealed in the Lord's temple for time and all eternity. In the infinite scheme of things, we know where we came from, why we are here, and where we are going when we die. We pray only that God's will and work will be done through us and that we may be found standing on His right hand. The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints is the restored church that Jesus founded in the meridian of time. The gift of the Holy Ghost is a practical guide and comforter to us in our times of trial and sickness; I see this every day. I know that God lives and that he specifically loves Bob and specifically loves me. He hears my prayers and they are answered. This is my testimony.