Easter Celebration at Gam and Pa’s

Everyone congregated at our home around 2 p.m.  Lyndsy offered to bring some chips and salsa and we soon realized she didn’t bring nearly enough!  It was gone before dinner ever made it to the table.  Lyndsy does make a delicious salsa as was evident by the emptied bowl in a matter of about 20 minutes!  Lynda Ann arrived with plastic wear wrapped in orange napkins making them look like carrots.  She also brought the traditional bread dough bunny that we filled the tummy with dip and surrounded him with vegetables.  I put the rabbit on our huge Thanksgiving platter and Maren wondered if we should be combining holidays!  We all laughed at that and hoped that most of the family wouldn’t notice we had done just that.  We had sliced ham and sliced turkey for sandwiches along with veggies, fruit, potato salad, baked beans, and various other condiments.  Jeff and Mindy came in with a bouquet of Lilies that were absolutely beautiful.  Let the dinner begin:

     

 

CTR Ring – I finally got one.

I’ve wanted a CTR ring ever since I can remember.  Funny that it has taken me this long to buy one.  They are expensive (the kind I wanted).  Maybe that has kept me from actually getting one sooner.  But, I think that it was the idea that I couldn’t just go into Deseret Book and buy one.  I had to call the manufacturer and order it and had to know my ring size!  That was the kicker.  But, finally, I had all my ducks lined up in a row and was able to order it and have it arrive on my front porch.  I love it!

My grandchildren never cease to make me proud!

Mindy invited me to attend Maddie’s play at her school.  I’m very thankful it was on a Friday night.  I’m just not home on Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday evenings.  When you have stewardship over 7 ward Relief Society Presidencies, there is always something that is imperative that you attend.  Anyway, I was delighted to be able to see Maddie perform as one of the ‘stars’ in this one act play.  She had pages to memorize and didn’t miss a beat.  What a wonderful job, Maddie.  Pa was sorry he couldn’t attend.  My camera battery went dead on me so I didn’t get a picture of Maddie getting a bouquet of gorgeous white roses from her mom and dad.  Yes, there were tears of happiness.

 

This picture of the angel had to be taken.  The girl is one of Maddie’s best friends and Maddie has her on her shoulders.  Maddie is underneath the sheet.  If you look closely you can see her nose poking through and one eye hole she is looking out of.  It was very funny and very, very clever.

         

This is a picture of Grayson showing me that he lost one of his eye teeth.  The space on the left looking at the picture.  He was quite proud of it!

Brother Dee Hadley

My home ward relief society had a wonderful meeting last night with Brother Dee Hadley. Dee Hadley is a marriage and family therapist and former U of U Institute teacher. (I won't hold that against him!) He spoke on "Building Lasting Relationships". He was fun and funny and gave us some great wisdom about how to deal with and build relationships with those around us. He taught us that: Relationships take sacrifice and work, the Lord meant it to be that way because that is how we grow. What are your expectations? Maybe you expect too much. When you adjust your expectation you will find more happiness in your relationship. Speak kindly to and about the one you love. Look for the good and focus on that instead of dwelling on the negative.

At the end of his talk he gave us some goals to work on: Do something this week to lift your loved ones burden. From now until Easter, do not say anything negative to your loved one. See only the good and focus on that. It was a good talk, very interesting. He also made the comment that he has counseled general authorities and their wives. None of us are exempt from 'learning' trials in our lives. That is part of our growing experience.

Directors?

  It has come to our attention that we have a couple of presidencies in our stake that are struggling with unity, communication and delegation.  The three major aspects of a good presidency.  I don’t see how a group could effectively function without those three dynamics.  Even missing one would challenge a group.  So we decided, as a presidency, that we wanted to film a mock ward relief society presidency meeting.  Hopefully one that would cover each dynamic but also show the love that can develop when a presidency works together.  I learned that there is more than one way to cross a room, but when working in a group leadership calling you must determine how you will reach the other side of the room together.  Our stake leadership meeting is coming up in May. 

I’m so excited about this project and feel like it was inspired.  We had a script prepared and asked four sisters from our stake to participate.  We had prepared a script with some bullet points they could touch on.  Most of it was improvisation.  We had a professional photographer come and film the event.  He will splice and edit as needed.  We will get to see the finished product in a couple of weeks.  I shall report back.  It was a fun and interesting project.  Kind of fun being the directors of a mini film! 

Getting ready for Saturday’s Easter Egg hunt.

It becomes quite a project to get all the plastic eggs bought, labeled with each child’s name, stuffed with Easter candy, and then the day of the hunt getting the eggs distributed around the yard.  We try to put them in not so obvious places but obvious enough that none get missed during the hunt.  I have learned over the years that it is vital that every grandchild get exactly the same amount.  They don’t separate, count and compare but somehow they all know if someone has one or two more than another. 

It took me nearly two hours to label and stuff 200+ eggs and I still have 39 more eggs to fill.  I ran out of candy!  And, of course, you notice Bella is right there in the middle of the project!  She was patiently waiting for a piece of candy to accidently drop out of my hand onto the bed.  Her wait was for naught.  It just didn’t happen.

Two little ducks swimming in the water. . .

Two little ducks doing what they oughter . . . . . Can’t remember the rest of the verses.  It’s just an old song from way back in my childhood.  I went out this morning, headed for work and glanced over at the swimming pool and there were two wild ducks swimming on the top of the pool cover.  Oooo, the poor pool maintenance guy who is going to have to clean that out.  Ugh. 

I had a couple of fun surprises for this Monday.  Lynda Ann called and said she was coming into Salt Lake with a friend and would meet me at Costco on my lunch half hour.  I had some Ester stuff to give her that she is going to create an Easter surprise for our get-together this Saturday.  (I love how creative Lynda Ann is and how she is always looking for fun things to do for holidays.)  As I was walking up to the entrance of Costco out came Lynda Ann holding Boston!  She said that Maren was just inside.  How fun to see Maren and the two little boys.  Maren looked great for just having surgery on her mouth last Tuesday.  Apparently she had to have a skin graft taken from the roof of her mouth and implanted on her gum line so that she has enough skin and gum line to hold her new front tooth that hopefully will be implanted in the next three months.  She is hoping they will be able to do it some time in July.  Maren was on an errand to do something with Turbo tax at Costco and was then on her way to take Greg some lunch.  Lynda Ann was just after bread and then off with her friend to Roberts and then home.  I was thinking it would be fun to have a bite to eat with them but both seemed to be in a hurry and by the time we finished talking I had to get back to work.  We’ll have to take a rain check on lunch. 

My next surprise was a text from Jamie telling me that Jordyn Lyn’s paper dolls had arrived and that she like them.  I felt bad they were late.  I need to start thinking about birthdays a little sooner than the week before, especially with my out of town children.  I shall try and be more prompt! 

Old Movies

I absolutely love old movies.  I think the biggest reason is that they bring back some wonderful memories of time spent with my mother.  You have to remember that during my childhood we were just beginning to get colored television and fancy stereo equipment.  We didn’t have the luxury of having a variety of movies at home that we could choose from nor did we have video stores where you could rent a movie.  Television had four channels.  2, 4, 5, and 7.  Sometimes on Friday nights or Sundays there would be a special where they would show a movie that had been out in the theaters.  It was exciting to be able to see a movie again that you had so enjoyed in the theaters years before.  I remember when the movie “Mister Roberts” aired on TV.  My mother and I watched it together.  I loved those times when I would sit by her on the couch with a bowl of popcorn watching an old black and white.  These men in this movie were the Mel Gibson, Harrison Ford, Brad Pitt, etc. of her time.

I have such wonderful, warm memories of my childhood and hope that I have created the same kind of ‘warm’ memories for all my children.  It is the memories that keep our loved ones who have gone beyond the veil alive and clear in our minds and make the ‘missing them’ a little less painful. 

A Phalaenopsis

Neal is fascinated with exotic plants.  He keeps bringing home plants that I’ve never heard of much less have a clue how to take care of them.  I keep telling him that we have enough plants around the house and we have no more room but he doesn’t listen and every time he goes to Cactus and Tropicals he brings home yet another plant.  This time it is a Phalaenopsis.  Now you may wonder, as did I, what a Phalaenopsis is.  Well, I’ll tell you.  It is more commonly referred to as Moth Orchids and is considered one of the most popular orchids to grow and bloom in the home.  Phals have long lasting flowers which can often bloom more than once per year.  There you have it.  Now you know as much about this plant as I do.  Wish me luck!

Jordyn Lyn’s 9th birthday

It is times like this, that it is so hard to have grandchildren who are not close by.  I love reading about Jordyn Lyn’s birthday celebration but so wish that we could have been a little part of it.  From Jamie’s blog, it sounds like Jordyn had a wonderful day with her dad, grandparents and family.  Wish we could have been there.  I found these darling paper dolls and sent them to Jordyn.  I hope she got them on time and especially hope that she likes them.  They were made especially for her.

Bella’s favorite place to be!

This picture is a perfect picture of where Bella sits when I’ve settled in for the evening and doing my hand stitching.  She looks up at me occasionally as if to say, “Are we going to play now?”  I love this dog.  She has such a cute personality.  Lynda Ann says that she has an edge to her and that is true.  She isn’t the perfect dog who you can trust absolutely,  but I love her just the same. 

I’m blogging or journaling this just for Tucker because he always says I win because I cheat!

After Mindy, Jeff and the kids left for home, Lyndsy and James stayed to play Mahjong.  This is a picture of the score I got and I didn’t even Mahjong that round.  I got winds and dragons and four of the same flowers.  Boy, did the score ever add up.  Very exciting.  I’m not sure anyone in our family has ever scored that high.  It may hold the record for a long time to come. Just think how high it would have been if I’d Mahjonged.  Phew!  And, NO, I didn’t cheat!  Pretty impressive, even if I do say so myself! 

 

General Conference Day

This is a picture of what we woke up to this morning and it was typical of the weather for the rest of the day!

Mindy had called on Friday asking if they could come for dinner on Sunday and Lyndsy and James wanted to come too.  So we had a nice dinner between conference sessions.  After dinner Lyndsy gave Mindy and Jeff partial massages.  She is so incredibly good at what she does.  I wish Jeff could get into her every week or so.  I think it would do wonders for his headaches and his health.  The cute thing was that when Lyndsy was giving Jeff a massage, Grayson stepped in behind Lyndsy and started giving her a massage and then River popped in behind Grayson and started massaging him. 

    

I would add here that a certain someone with a Utah gray and red hat had a shirt on that had a saying that said “Pro . . .”  can’t repeat the rest and I’m not allowed to put it on my blog.  It was very funny.  If you want to know what it said, give your brother a call!

Lyndsy’s treat!

Lyndsy called me from work and said that James would like to go with Neal to the General Priesthood Session and would I like to go with her to get a bite to eat – her treat.  How could I pass that offer?  So she came by and picked me and River up and we went to Paradise Bakery for a bite to eat and then back home to await the men from the Priesthood meeting.  Lyndsy and I played Nertz.  When we weren’t keeping score she was out playing me but as soon as we started keeping score and the stakes were up, I basically went away the champion for the evening.  The first picture is her giving acknowledging that I won.  The second and third just a couple of cute family shots.

 

April 1st and April Fool’s Day

What a dumb day.  Nothing of any significance happened to me except that all the clocks at work were set ahead 20 minutes so people coming in had a double take thinking they were late when they knew they had left home at the same time as usual.  That was kind of funny.  I got a call and a text from Mindy and Jamie asking me if Derek really did get married or if he was April Fooling around.  I told them I was close to positive that Derek did not get married.  He is one who is known for pulling an April Fools joke.  Nice try Derek!

Because of the first day of the month I need to post the progress on the sampler I’ve been working on since January.  I’m beginning to see the light at the end of the tunnel!

 

Just finished listening to the morning session of Saturday’s General Conference.  It, as always, was excellent.  I am so grateful to a mother who joined the church and stayed true to her beliefs throughout her life.  She sacrificed so much for me and I shall be eternally grateful for her testimony and example.  Thank you mother!