Who are these people?

Who are these people? They look slightly familiar. She cannot be the same women that I look at in the mirror, and him....is that the man I see across the table every day? What happened to us? I guess it is just the 43 years that passed over us.

Today has been filled with memories of the past 43 years, and all of the joys, as well as the pain, and sorrows. Every life holds some of each. Another anniversary....and how did we celebrate it? It started off with a "banana smoothie" for me....sounds good huh? Another name for this concoction is "contrast fluid", in preparation for a CT scan to check on an aneurysm, and hopefully to pinpoint the abdominal pain I have been experiencing for the past two weeks. At least the girl who did my IV was very good!

When we finished up with my tests, we headed out to go to lunch, but I began to feel sick, so we went home to let me get that nice stuff out of my system. There is a silver lining though....Ralph found those bottles that held the banana smoothies to be of "high quality" and just right to put away for some useful purpose. ( I could name the people who are laughing right now). When I was certain that I would be alright, we went to ChinWah for lunch. That was a good decision, bringing back some good memories of our wedding breakfast at the "Hawaiian". It is no longer in existance. Too bad. The atmosphere was so nice there. You felt like you were in a grass hut on a beautiful island during a rain storm. We loved that place, and went back there often for many years until they closed.

Over our lunch, we discussed various memories of our wedding day, and the early weeks of our marriage. We have not laughed so hard in a long time. It felt good. Here we go again......what's over the hill or around the bend? Who knows? One thing I do know.....we are both very grateful for our six wonderful children, their spouses, and our ten grandchildren. In our eyes, they are the best in the world. Whatever lies ahead, we are up for it. Bring it on!

National Scrapbook Day

This is a photo of Heidi and I, working on our books on scrapbook day! It is held in this beautiful little farmhouse. There is a photo of it on the wall above my head. If you left click on this photo you can zoom in to see our cute pages!

This year Scrapbook day was celebrated in Boise a week earlier than the norm. I have not been able to go these past couple of years so it was a real treat to go this year. I flew out Thursday morning, and Heidi picked me up at the airport, and we Headed out to lunch at "Mongolian Grill". I have never been there before and I enjoyed it a lot! Next stop was to our all time favorite scrapbook store, "Archiver’s". Kylie and Ashley were at School and Lizzie was at Pre-school, so we had a couple of hours to snoop through the awesome collection of stuff, and select a few papers and some quotes, that would work with the pages we planned to work on. We got home just in time to greet Lizzie when she came home.
I really enjoyed the girls this trip. I wasn’t feeling real well, so I rested in the recliner quite a bit. The girls liked the fact that I was a captive audience and I heard all about school, church, all their fabulous teachers, their friends, I saw their art talents in action, and really loved getting to know them on a more personal level.
Kylie really has a talent for storytelling, and art. I think she will write books someday, and illustrate them herself! She made up a cartoon strip with 18 little sections telling the story of a little family of birds who were terrorized by a bald eagle, and how they used their creative talents to defend themselves. The story line was great and the illustrations are so darn cute! Kylie is composing a piece for piano and it really sounds nice as far as she has come with it.
Ashley kept me entertained with her never ending stories about everything that is happening in her world. She played piano for me and she is progressing nicely, especially for the short time she has played. She is already playing chords and doing a great job. She is such a loving child, and I enjoyed having her cuddle up next to me. Ashley is such a great reader, and she’s got a non stop imagination! I enjoyed a video recording of her acting and singing in a school production about the sea. She is so animated and dramatic, the perfect little actress.
Lizzie amused me with her sweet little conversations. She talked to me more this trip than in her whole life. She was fun to watch as she made up little stories about her toys. Full of imagination and sweetness, she is a delight to be around.
Saturday, Heidi and I spent all day chatting and laughing and working on our books. We took a couple of hours in the afternoon to attend a bridal shower for a sweet girl in Heidi's ward. Other than that break, and a little while for lunch at Subway, we scrapped from 9:00 AM to 9:30 PM.
I worked on my mother’s life story. This time the pages I worked on were about her pets, and the show dogs (American Cocker Spaniels) that our family raised when I was a child. I did pages about mom’s siblings. 3 brothers and two sisters. I added to the pages about the 20 years they lived in St George, Utah. This was an enjoyable activity and brought back so many wonderful memories for me.

Sunday, After Sacrament Meeting in their ward, Heidi drove me to the airport and I flew home. Gracie and Oscar were so happy to see me. I was pretty happy to see them and receive their sweet love too! Gracie almost ate Ralph and I both up when we got her from the Puppy Lounge! Thanks to Ralph and Ryan who took care of Oscar while I was away.

My kitchen and other news

Last Wednesday Jeff and Heather were here again, working

on the kitchen. I LOVE the red cupboards. The walls

are all finished and looking great. Thank you for all of your

hard work . I appreciate it very much! I will take a lot of photos when everything is finished, and all of my things are hung up and back to normal. We ordered the countertops today and they will be installed in a couple of weeks. I cannot wait to see the final result.

This morning, our little angel, Rory, was here with her mommy for a few minutes. Grandpa decided to show her the plate twirling trick that used to drive his own mother up the wall. All of our children were taught how to spin plates at a tender young age. Some plates did not have a long lifespan, but these are pretty durable. You can see that Rory is delighted with the plate trick. See the little doll house lamp that Rory has in her hand? Just a few minutes before this photo was taken, she was standing at the bathroom door watching Grandpa shave. She had that little lamp up on her chin and was going through all the shaving motions that she saw grandpa doing. It was soooo CUTE, but I didn't grab the camera in time. She will be all practiced up by the time she gets those "old age" chin hairs on her face!!! BTW....did you notice how nice the red cupboards look in this photo. I keep going in the kitchen just to stare at them!

First Presidency Easter Message

"In recognition of the Easter season, the First Presidency of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints issued the following Easter message today:

"At this Easter season of hope and renewal we testify of the glorious reality of the atonement and resurrection of the Lord Jesus Christ. The empty tomb brought comforting assurance and provided the answer to the question of Job, 'If a man die, shall he live again?' (Job 14:14). Because of the Savior's resurrection we will overcome death and become the beneficiaries of His mercy and grace. In a world of trouble and uncertainty, His peace fills our hearts and eases our minds. Jesus is in very deed 'the way, the truth, and the life' (John 14:6).

"We give our sure witness that Jesus is the Christ. Though He was crucified, He rose triumphant from the tomb to our everlasting blessing and benefit. To each member of the human family He stands as our Advocate, our Savior, and our Friend."

My Kitchen, and some funnies

Jeff and Heather made more progress in my kitchen today. It's a good thing. I realize it would be very hard for me to do it alone. I stayed up until 2:00 AM this morning getting the spackling and sanding finished. Well, almost finished. I had to go over some places again and they sanded them today. Nearly everything is painted in the KILZ coat now and next week the work continues.

This evening, when Jeff and Heather went to their Bible study, the kids stayed with me. The dogs were so happy. They accidentally got fed some spaghetti when Lance decided to share with them. Last week when they were here, I took a profile picture of Lance for a sillouette that I am making of each of my grandchildren. Now you have the background for a funny that happened tonight.........

Lance put Gracie's coat on his head and fastened it all by himself,

then he marched around saying "Ho Ho" while I ran for the camera

I was getting in position to get this photo from the side, because

it looks so funny! Cessna remembered the Silouette photo from

last week and she said, "Oh I know what you are doing Grandma...

You are trying to do a black PIROUETTE!"

Since I have to picture everything in my head, I saw myself in a

little black silky dress doing a pirouette......I laughed until

I thought I would break something. If laughter is really

the best medicine, then I must be in the best of health. Thanks Cessy!

The Gift that Keeps on Giving....

I mentioned in an earlier post that our children gave us a cute little booklet with their Christmas wishes, and some ideas about what they would do for us this year. Brian had us for January and February. He worked on computers for us and got things running better. Right after Christmas, he made all the arrangements and he and I flew to Idaho to visit Heidi and her family. That was fun to see what they received for Christmas, and just visit for a day. Last month, and into this month Brian straightened out our home phone line, which required re-wiring and he also dealt with Quest over the phone several times for us, because they accidentally shut off our internet when they stopped the phone. It really took a lot of stress off of Ralph and I both to have him do this work for us.

Well, it is March, and Jeff and Heather have us for this month. Yesterday they came and spent the day here working in the kitchen. They worked so hard. Heather was up on the ladder taking down the wall paper border that Ken put up about 15 years ago. She washed walls, and got the sticky gunk off the top edge above the cupboards over the cooking area. As I watched her, I thought about the pain I would have had in my back, neck and shoulders if I had been the one doing that. ( I also thought about my mom who was climbing up on her roof to fix things at my age, but that is another story for another day! ) Now for Jeff...........he had the horrible job of tearing off the coved linoleum! You know, that part that goes up the wall about 5 or 6 inches. Well, that was a nightmare. It was glued and tacked onto the wall and a real bear to rip off. Jeff has battle wounds on his hands to prove it. Thanks Jeff! He also painted the ceiling with the KILZ paint that has to go over the oil based paint before the latex can go on. It was a mess, and they cleaned it all up for me before they left.

I will get started now on the spackling and sanding so they can come back to paint. I am very excited to see the kitchen come together and look nice again. Thanks again to Jeff and Heather for all the help yesterday.

Heather is up on a ladder on the stairs. The very thought scares me!

Can you smell the fresh paint? It is the BEST smell in the world!

Train Buddy Grandpa

Heidi, Ken, and family, were here in town for a few days while their children were out of school on Spring Break. One of the highlights of that trip was their visit to our house where they played for an afternoon and evening with their Grandpa. They were so delighted with the big train layout that Ralph had so meticulously set up for them. Probably the most fun of all was playing after dark with only the lights from the little buildings and lamps, and the trains. They all had such a great time. I prepared a dinner for them, and made cookies, and they also enjoyed playing with the dogs.....but most of the time was spent enjoying grandpa and the trains.

Grandpa and Kylie

Ashley loving on Grandpa

Lizzie and Grandpa


The four engineers



The most fun of all in the dark.........
notice Grandpa, Ashley and Lizzie in the corner