Sterling's Gypsie Rose

 What a fabulous production from a small little town.  Izzy did so very well.  I stayed and watched the whole thing the first night, but skipped it the second viewing.  She was truly a star.

Happy Mother's Day, Happy Father's Day

 Candice and J brought us gifts and we sat down and opened them.  

I started by opening a necklace with photos in it.  It was kind of a weird picture of them, as they had something on their lap but it was so small I couldn't tell what it was.

When Grandpa opened his, it took him a moment to figure out and then we both let out screams of joy.  J thought we were weird, but we are so excited to add another little to the family.  

I Need a Little Lucy

One of the best parts of going to see Bria is that she brings out her mending for me every time I go to visit.  I love to be used.  I love to be needed.

One my last trip there, she saw that I had made a few things for Sofie and Pax and asked me if I could please make her a little Lucy.  We looked at patterns and this is the one she decided upon.  I didn't order the pattern because it wasn't just right, but used it as an example.  

I was very pleased with the way it turned out, and so was Bria. She loves her Lucy

 

Talent Show at School - the start of something big

 

Izzy asked the teacher if she could do a solo at the school talent show.  They allowed her to do it, and there were a couple of local scouts in the audience that immediately came up to her wanting her to be a part of the community theater this summer.  She just ate that up.  She has a great little voice.

Jr. Prom

 

I gathered a bunch of dresses from Madelyn to adapt for her Jr. Prom and other dress up dances.  I ended up with about six that we adjusted to be a little more modest.

Doesn't she look gorgeous in her dress.  This one was a duplicate so she can actually keep that one. 

This littles are not so little any more.

Watching the Grands Succeed

I got to join the family and watch a little spring sports and then go to watch the school choir concert.  

How fun it is to be welcomed into their home and their lives and get to see the kids as they successfully navigate their young lives.  

It is pretty rewarding to watch your adult children parent.  They are doing such a great job.  This little family, I spend the most time with, because I am always invited and welcomed, and they are also close enough it's a day's trip.  

I must confess my life is not what I wanted or hoped for, but this part is exactly perfect.  Thank you for including me in your activity and lives.

 

Ben at Box Elder Lacross

We get to spend a couple times each week watching Ben, #90, play Lacross.  That is the only thing good that came from Covid 19.  Our trips have dwindled in the van, but I'm still hopeful.  Until then, we watch from the big screen.
 

Miss Tacy almost didn't make it

 

Kelly came home to find a home health nurse at the door saying Tacy wasn't answering.  They found her on the floor, passed out from lack of nutrition.  He grabbed a rolling stool from the garage and quickly rolled her to the car and then got her to the hospital.

She was pretty hit and miss for a long time.  The worst was when she would come to and think she was in the hospital because she had relapsed again on drugs, when she was being perfect.  Becky made sure, and I think even hung a note on the wall, saying "You didn't do anything wrong!"  

We found great hope after a while, but they didn't fix her completely.  They switched things up and she was able to get some nutrition finally but she is still struggling.  However, sometime along the path, she came back to the Church and seems so much happier and a delight to be around.  We still pray for healing.

 

 

 

Mom, you make me tired!

With patience wearing thin from the pain in my knee, I went downstairs to rest on the couch.  Mom followed me down and asked if I wanted to exercise with her.  Well, heck no, Mom, I don't want to exercise.  So she did it alone and put me to total shame.  She danced around for a while and then dropped down and did her bicycle exercise.  Not too shabby for a 63 year old on the couch and a 93 year old up and exercising. 
 

Cleaning the Headstones in Enterprise Cemetery

 It turned out to be a much harder job than I thought it would be and it took me two days working the full day to get it where I stopped.  

The funny thing is that I showed up just at dark, and parked the van on the outside of the cemetery.  I had planned on going inside and parking the van on the road behind the trees, but they had trimmed them so they no longer hid you from people driving by.  

By the second night, I no longer cared about what people thought and I just left the van where it had been all day long, right next to Dad's grave.  I figured by the time I was done that it would take cleaning an hour every month for a few months.  But mom just hired it done instead.

Rock Hounding with Grandpa

 

Happy Birthday

With lots of the kids traveling this year, I opted to give everyone their birthday gift early, on a non birthday.  I had fun thinking about each grandchild as I made them. I hope they will be useful.

 

Christmas Card photos

 

Way past time to get the Christmas cards out, so as we headed over to Filmore for a sibling lunch, we stopped near a field and took selfies.  I had them ordered and on the way before heading home that night.  Merry Christmas.

 The siblings have adjusted to our needs, and we found a spot in Fillmore where we could meet halfway and hopefully it wouldn't be too loud for Dean.  We decided that Delta probably has spots that would be better.  It's so nice to have everyone travel so we can get together every few months.

Christmas Gifts for the kiddos

 Christmas nativities should be made for the children to play with.  These are.  I made them out of purple foam and plaster paris, coated with stain and mod podged for a firm, nice finish.

 

Most of the pillows for Kim's family

St. George Temple Rededication

 

I am starting to understand my new life.  I wanted to go through the temple during the open house and so I made a trip to visit mom and see it.  She had previously gone through with someone else, so I just went through by myself.

This part of my life is pretty tough but I have learned if there is something I want to do I better just do it.  I have never needed someone to hold my hand, but I haven't dared always leave Dean alone either.  He has switched his medicine and  the new stuff seams to be much better for him. None of it works as well as when we first started with it, but they side effects have gotten much better with the switch.

The temple was beautiful. I went through it when I was a young teenager and it was remodeled and rededicated.  I was able to be in the Priesthood room for the dedication.  This time I just took a quick walk through.  I understand you can see the Priesthood room from one of the walk ways but that wasn't on the tour.

Special Day for a Special Girl

 Ellie asked both of her grandmother's to give talks and I was assigned the Holy Ghost talk.  I had the three bears ready to go, so I incorporated them into the talk for just a second, and made a Liahona for my new talk.  Pictured below is the progress right before I sprayed it gold.

When I was in the Spanish Branch I had made another one.  We put a GPS inside of it and took the kids on a walk through the dessert or ball park right next to the church.  The GPS told us which way to go while giving us warnings.  Awesome!

She is such a good girl. 

Labelling the Items Above our Seats

I'm pretty happy with the organizer that goes above our heads in the front of the van.  But it needs to be easier to find things so I labeled each of the pockets with the items that belong in them.

Each van has a similar one but they are slightly different, and I often send the kids out alone to get something for me but its to hard to remember which van has what where. So both vans have basically been set up about the same and all pockets have been labelled.  It's a pretty nice set up.