34 Years Ago!!

 It has been 34 years since Annie and I left our beloved home on Cumberland Road and ventured off to a new life.  I'm now working as a temple ordinance worker in the Jordan River Temple.  One morning I notice a lady with red hair sitting up a couple rows ahead of me and realized it was Susan Kormylo from our old 8th ward!  I couldn't believe it.  Of course I went up and talked to her quickly before heading to our assignments.  When I got home I told Annie and she was very excited and wanted to get together so Susan arranged a luncheon at her home last Saturday and what fun we had.  We all decided that we needed to get together every six months and renew memories and all the amazing experiences we had so many years ago.

From left to right:  Gerry (her last name is lost for a senior moment), Diane Thompson, Wendy Taylor, me Susan Kormylo and Lynda Ann.

Diane had an amazing influence on Annie experience at camp and building her love for girls camp.  I remember serving with Diane and what a great camp director she was to all the girls in the ward.  Susan Kormylo and Lynda Ann have an amazing adoption connection that if you are interested, you could ask Lynda Ann to explain it to you.  

We had a fun filled and very talkative two hours before we all had to leave.  Already looking forward to another reunion in the summer months and hopefully with more of the girls Annie's age.  I have to say the the Valley View 8th Ward was an amazing ward and the neighborhood even more amazing.  I love Holiday and would move back there in a minute!

Celebrating 81 years!

 Neal had his 81st birthday last week.  I invited the kids over for sandwiches, cake and ice cream.  Neal was happy to have his kids drop by.

Happy 81 years to an amazing guy.  We all love you!

Some times . . . .

 Some times you come across a saying that just hits you right in the center of your heart.  Adoption is very near and dear to my heart as is prayer.  It was many days and nights of prayers to a loving Heavenly Father pleading for a little baby girl to come to my arms and fill my heart.  I knew the only way was through adoption and the ability to adopt was getting more and more scarce.  But prayers are answered!  When I saw these two sayings I had to post them because they are both such a part of my existence and belief.

Abortion to ADOPTION.  Can't begin to tell you how deeply that touch my heart!!

Quick Trip

Annie called me Thursday evening of Thanksgiving and asked if I would be willing to drive with her to Mesquite to take some Christmas presents to Abby and Antonio who were spending a couple days at a home in Mesquite.  I told her to give me time to pack a bag and come pick me up!  We left Friday afternoon about 1 and arrive in St. George about 5:00 where we met up with Abby, Antonio and Antonios's sister, husband and two darling little girls.  We had dinner and then drove on to Mesquite where we spent the night.  Annie had brought home made sugar cookies, frosting and sprinkles for the little girls to decorate.  They had a fun time and mostly ate the sprinkles.  

Decorating cookeis with some assistance from Abby and Annie.

We spent the night and then headed back home about 9:00 the next morning.  It was a quick turn around but certainly a fun time.  I love the hours I get to spend with Lynda Ann talking about anything and everything that comes to our minds.  We never seem to experience a lull in traveling conversations.  Love that daughter of mine.  So fun to see Abby and Antonio.  They are a darling couple.  The good news from them is that they are now moved into their own apartment after living with Antonio's sister for the past year.  

Thanksgiving Gathering

 This year for Thanksgiving we had a smaller group than usual.  Maren and her family minus Jaden, Maddie and Mindy, the Gertsons minus Abby, Antonio and Emmi.  Everyone came about 6:00 p.m. and stayed and play games.  The only things we didn't do this year was go bowling.  It just didn't work out for anyone to do that this year.  Hopefully next year we will be back at Fat Cats for a Thanksgiving Bowling time.

Sure didn't take any pictures this year.  Glad Mindy got this one of the three of them.  

Brinkley and Sprout

 These two are such good buddies and when they get together the run and play and play some more.  They literally ware themselves out and have to lay down and take a rest.  

Some more fun pictures of them and also Sprout is sporting a new BYU collar.  The blue looks perfect on him and the Y just adds a touch of class!!

Sprout sleeping with his nose in my slipper.  Some kind of a comfort thing for him, I'm guessing.

Up on my lap wanting to watch the action at the table.  And sporting his new collar and leash!

Resting on my chair.

Getting ready for a walk.  He loves going for a walk every morning.  We walk about 2 or 3 miles depending on the day and weather.

Sure love this puppy!!  Pretty good picture of the two actually holding still long enough to snap a picture of them.  Besties for life!!

Old Friends

 Neal and I caught up with some old bridge buddies from long ago.  We met at the Village Inn and had breakfast topped with a piece of pie.  We sat around and talked for a couple hours and decided we should leave before they kicked us out.  From there we all went to Modern Display just to wander around and see what they had, or maybe what they didn't have!!!  

Left to right:  Jim Fry, Midge Fry, me, Sherry Thompson, Merrill Thompson and Neal.  We are hoping to get together again soon.  

A Beautiful Christmas Project

 I was so touched by this Christmas project that Lynda Ann is working on.  She created a Christmas card with her personal message and sending one out to the Navy moms through out the United States.  What a huge service project to undertake but so meaningful.  Annie said there is at least one or two moms in every state.  These are moms who are on a special face book post that is for just mothers who have a kid in the Navy.  Lynda said there is a lot of communication from all the moms.  Sometimes it is for help, other times it is for support and advice, etc.  Wonderful way to get acquainted without actually meeting face to face.  

Lunch with Mindy

 It has been a long time since Mindy and I went to lunch.  We finally came up with a day to meet.  We met at the Art Garden on 9th East and Vine.  We had a delicious lunch and visited for nearly 2 hours.  After lunch we went into their Curio Shop next store and browsed around in there for a good long time.  Didn't buy anything just enjoyed looking and wandering.  We finally had to head to our home.  It was so fun to be with her and catch up on the kids and our own lives.  We even talked about Jeffrey and how much he is missed.  Shed a few tears off and on as we chatted about life.  

I've been so blessed to have amazing daughter-in-laws and son-in-laws.  Not a lot of mom's can say that.  I freely admit that my children picked the best and I reap the blessings from their excellent choices!  Love them all.  This is a picture of a wombat that we found in the curio shop.  Mindy loves them.  He almost looks real.  Darling picture of Mindy!

Projects

 Every now and again Sally Curtis and I exchange projects that we need each other's help on.  The project she handed to me a couple of weeks ago was not a fun one.  She had started a counted cross stitch of Noah's Ark.  It is done on linen and when you work on linen you have to be ever so careful that you don't miscount the threads.  If you do it throws the whole thing off.  Well, that is exactly what she did and I think she must have become discouraged and just never finished it.  Unpicking counted cross is tedious and miserable!  So she asked me if I could possible figure out where she went wrong and fix it.  I won't go into detail but I will say that I was able to correct her mistakes and finish the project for her.  It isn't something I would ever pick out to do myself so believe me when I say that it was a "project" for me to finish it.  

I was beyond happy to take the last stitch in it and happily give it back to her.  I will say that she in turn helped me finish a baby quilt and also, without my knowledge, when the extra mile and made a teddy bear to go with the quilt.  Cast your bread upon the water and it comes back two fold!  Something like that.  

The back of the quilt is a soft warm fuzzy material.  Sally has a quilting machine so the even quilted around the blocks.

This is the front side of the quilt.  These are embroidered nursery rhymes that Susan did years ago and just found them recently while doing some cleaning.  I ask her for them and had Sally help me figure out how to put them all together into a quilt.

This is the bear that she made to go with the baby quilt.  The arms and legs move.  Sally is amazing and certainly went the extra mile making the bear to go along with the quilt.  The hours put into Noah's Ark stitchery and the quilt and teddy bear probably cancel each other out.  Nice to have good friends.  This quilt and teddy bear will be a surprise for Susan at Christmas.  

Fun Times

 The holidays are always fun.  It is interesting that we go from Halloween (which I don't particularly care for) right into Thanksgiving and then right into Christmas.  I still remember that Lynda Ann had a choice to have Hayley on October 31st or November 1st.  She was adamant about not have a baby on Halloween so she chose November 1st.  Apparently her doctor was going out of town and those were the two dates he gave her.  She wisely chose November 1st.  I bring this up because the Gertsons invited Neal and I to join them at Chili's to celebrate Hayley's birthday.  It was a fun evening and fun to celebrate with Hayley.  

November 1st is also a date that I usually start putting up Christmas decorations along the Thanksgiving ones.  Neal and I had Brock and Boston get our Christmas containers down from the loft when they were here getting the lights on the outside tree.  Fun to go through the buckets and pull out different Christmas decorations that bring back so many memories every year.  Some memories bring tears of sadness for a brief moment and then a smile.  Putting up the Jim Shore nativity (which belonged to Lila Mae) made me long to be with her.  How I miss her.  

The next project was the Christmas Tree.  Neal and I have a tree now that is manageable and much easier for two older people to decorate without having to climb a ladder!  As I was pulling out the decorations I came across this neatly packed Christmas ornament that Abby gave me in 2008.  So fun to still have it and be able to hang in on the tree.  I'm not sure why Mallory's name was scribbled off and Abby's name put on there.  Maybe someone can remember the story behind that.

We decided to put our tree by the big North windows this year.  I didn't have the tree skirt around the bottom because I couldn't find it.  Since then the lost skirt has been found.

We are pretty much all decked out for Christmas and will just be awaiting the celebration of Thanksgiving and Christmas.  

Grandchildren!

Neal desperately needed help this Fall getting the Christmas lights up in the outside tree and getting all of his flower pots stored in the garage along with getting the patio furniture bundled up for the winter.  We asked if Brock and Boston could come and help out and boy did they ever help.  What great grandsons and so very helpful.  They work well together.  Kind of fun to watch Brock kind of guiding Boston along with the different projects.  Never a cross word between them and they did so much to help Neal.  Thanks to both the boys for being willing to come and work a few hours on two different days.  The first project was getting the lights strung in the tree by the front porch.  

I sent these pictures to Greg and his response was, "Proof that these boys actually can work!"  I had to laugh at that.  They were a great help!

The second project a week later was getting all the pots off the patio and into the garage.

Thanks to these two great grandchildren we were able to get everything put away, the table and chairs covered, the garage cleaned out and everything ready for the winter months that are sure to come any time now.  It was hard for Neal not to lift but these two boys made it so much easier for him to stand by and give some guidance without doing any lifting that would damage his new shoulder.  Can't thank these boys enough.  Love you both so very much!!!