A Field of Blessings

Christmas afternoon

2012-02-02T15:31:00.000-08:00

No pictures of Christmas morning, but we were lucky enough that these darlings came over and we had dinner and a very pleasant evening together.

Olives on little fingers are always lots of fun.

The 24th of December lunch and afternoon

2012-02-01T20:36:00.000-08:00

I'm almost caught up. Here we are on the 24th of December. We had a really nice luncheon and afternoon. Dani was babysitting a cute little baby and she felt just right at home and happy like a little joey.

What a cute little family!

These two littles had great time. They had a few challenging months a while back, but now they are so cute playing together and carrying on a little conversation. It's fun to listen to them when they don't know we are listening.

Val made cookies with all the kids. They love helping and she is oh so patient with them all. She is awesome!!!!!!!!!!!

Papa had a nice turn with little Jakob. There's always a long line waiting to hold him because he is so cute and cuddly.

Yum Yum

I had several crafts prepared for the kiddies. They painted, made ornaments, made little Christmas trees and had fun.

Poor JaNee fell and broke her elbow and hand. She has had a hard time recovering. She was finally beginning to feel somewhat better. We have all felt so badly for her. Michael has been a wonderful, supportive and helpful husband. Indy gets to go everywhere with them. Good thing he's well behaved.

This little adorableness was held by everyone. I love that this is his first Christmas and he's here with us.

A little modeling by the princess.

Stockings were hung in the evening.

Our tree and some of the decorations.

Anna brought me this lovely nativity from the Filipines.

Our beautiful princess all ready for Christmas eve. She is the sweetest little girl. I can't help but shower her with kisses every day.

And then there's handsome Reggie. This little guy is getting very busy. Ha! He's into everything, but he's such a little charmer.

December girls and Dinner Party

2012-01-31T12:55:00.000-08:00

My cutie Tatum, our first great granddaughter loves to "play" the piano. Her Mommy was our very first grandchild. She has grown into a lovely young woman. Here she is with sister number 3. J is in Romania now doing a BYU semester abroad. She applied for the program and was one of 10 who were accepted to go. In the mornings they work at the hospital and orphanage and in the afternoons they have classes. What an adventure!

S, sister number 2 is attending UVU. All 3 of these beautiful girls belong to our firstborn Lana. These girls have always been so sweet and so nice. In addition they are so smart and talented. They were really never any trouble at all. They are always fun to be with. How blessed they are to have so many gifts and talents from Heavenly Father and how blessed am I to be their grandmother. At this time I am also lucky to have them all living close to us so we can see them often. Of course, now we won't see J for quite a while.

Before Christmas I had a small dinner party. We had such a pleasant time together.

Anita, in the yellow, is new to the war. Her husband in the photo below is Allen. They moved here from Kentucky where she worked for the government and he was a tool maker. Now Allen does handi- man work and boy is he ever good at it . Nelda and Art are our next door neighbors. They are wonderful and we could not ask for better neighbors. Nelda was an executive secretary in Washington D. C. working for the delegates or congressmen and Art is a retired judge. Harold and Caroline are friends from the ward too. This dear couple has served several missions and are so much fun to be with. I think they all liked the dinner I made and we sure did a lot of laughing and enjoying each other's company. We want to get together again.

Somehow my pictures split the events when I posted and I don't know how to fix it, but anyway S and J both have December birthdays. J is the 14th and S the 25th. We had a little birthday dinner for them before they left for Christmas vacation at home in Maryland.

Three out of 4 generations. Tooooo bad Lana was not here.

Idaho mini vacation

2012-01-29T16:55:00.000-08:00

These first two photos are of Tal dancing in her couins dance clothes at Val's house. I just had to include them because she is oh so cute. It Tal hears music, she has to break out dancing. It is so fun. This little girl has rhythm. :)

We had a little trip planned to Alec's house just for fun but at the last moment Valerie asked if she and M could come along. Val and her family went to Alec and Kelly's for Thanksgiving and while they were there M had a black mole removed from her hip. Alec sent it to pathology and it came back very bad. When the tissue is sent to the lab it is graded on a scale from mild all the way to severe and then melanoma. M's came back as severe. Alec suggested she get it and the area surrounding it removed without waiting too long. So, Val asked if they could come along. Of course we were happy to have them. We would have even made a special trip if we needed to.

We had a very pleasant trip up together. Val is always lots of fun to be with and M is a little doll. She is most always very pleasant and sweet. That first evening we went to the botanical gardens in Boise. They were lit up with million of beautiful lights.

The photos don't even come close to doing them justice.

It was so cold that Kelly and Alec had to fit us up with warm things to wear.

Katie and M had fun together and we all really enjoyed each other's company.

The next morning we got up early and went to La Vie en Rose, a french restaurant. The food was absolutely delicious.

Here's little M recovering. Alec had to remove quite a large section. We were so blessed to find out that he got everything and she is safe and sound. M will have to watch out very carefully from now on to any little mole she may get. She will also have to wear sunscreen. Actually Alec is always telling everyone to wear sunscreen all the time. He removes quite a few skin cancers every week.

Here's my handsome boy all ready for work. We had a wonderful, although all too short trip.

Getting ready for Christmas at Anna's

2012-01-27T21:53:00.000-08:00

Willie and Dominique came over for dinner with little Sawyer.

One of their traditional dinners for the Christmas season is homemade tomales, which are delicious. Amadeo's Dad has a tomale making evening each year and they make a ton of different kinds of tomales which last them for a long, long time.

Doe is expecting again.

After dinner Willie and Doe left and we set up the decorations. Our main decorator was Joneaux and you can see he really enjoyed it a lot.

The stockings were hung and we were able to enjoy opening a few early presents since we sadly wouldn't be together for Christmas

He loves his shark book.

Papa loves reading to all of the cute grandchildren.

We ended the evening by singing some Christmas carols.

Super Santa

2012-01-26T14:58:00.000-08:00

We as a R. S. Presidency decided that we would have a Super Santa activity for the sisters. We chose a women's shelter and decided to make a bag for each of the 20 women who are living there. We had several great committees to do all of the prep work. One committee did all of the decorations. It looked really nice in the cultural hall.

Each participant got a Jar of Joy. These cute little baby food jars are filled with notes and quotes that one can read at any time to get a little lift or inspiration. We got quotes from scriptures, famous people, and just people we know or ourselves.

Another committee made these beautiful, wool bags. They turned out even better than we had hoped. Each bag was lined with a pretty silky fabric and each bag also had several inside pockets.

The R. S. provided some of the items to fill the bags and the sisters in the ward donated many items too. Some of the things we put in the bags were; lotions, candles, manicure set, soaps, warm booties, scarf, chocolates and other candies, sewing kit, gloves, perfume, jam, hair products, nail polish, chap stick, and other things. One sister (who sells Lia Sophia) donated a lovely piece of jewelry for each bag.

We had a table set up where we put together a necklace for each bag. Each necklace had a medallion with something engraved on it such as faith, hope, charity, love, etc.

Other sisters made these cute flower pins that we pinned onto the front of each bag close to the strap. The pin can be used for other outfits or as a headband too.
The bags can be used afterwards also. Who wouldn't love to have a purse like that? I know I would love to have a bag like that.

There was a writing center with nice cards and stationary and lots of the sisters wrote notes to each recipient.

We also had a special speaker who works for the shelter. She gave a wonderful presentation and spoke about what goes on in the centers. She also talked a lot about abuse and addiction.

It was a LOT of work, but we felt really good about it. We felt it was a very fun and successful activity. We hope that we brought a little joy and a ray of sunshine to those who are in a troubled situation right now.

Ready for church and Hana

2012-01-25T08:53:00.000-08:00

This little guy is always ready for everything. Here he is all spruced up for church. Joneaux is such a sweet, pleasant little fellow. He hardly ever cries. What a nice disposition and soooooooooo handsome.

One afternoon we went to lunch at Hana's. It is one of my favorite restaurants. Amadeo knows this and so he surprised me by having us eat there. Papa does not like sushi so he had a delicious bento box.
The miso soup, above, is always a great way to start the meal.

We ate several different kinds of rolls.

I love these shrimp rolled in kelp dried kelp sheets.

I did not love the above shrimp. Anna and Ama tricked me. They ordered one especially for me to watch me eat it. Unfortunately it is a raw shrimp. At Hana's you have to eat the whole thing or pay extra and so they got a good laugh watching me try to swallow it down. I also did not like the umi which is raw sea urchin. Other than that, I really liked everything. It was sooooo delicious.

Yum! Yum!

The Nutcracker, San Diego Zoo, and 333

2012-01-24T09:18:00.000-08:00

While visiting Anna, we got to go and see the Nutcracker performed by the New West Ballet Theatre. I love the Nutcracker and love to go as many Decembers as I can. I remember many a performance and even being a performer in the Nutcracker when I was young.

We went with one of Anna's friends and she also met a few friends there.

Here we are in the lobby. I couldn't get any pictures of the performance because no photos were allowed.

Afterwards we were able to meet up with one of the main ballerinas, Ashley Luckow and her husband who just happen to live in Anna's ward. Andrew played the role of Mr. Drosselmeyer.

We had a very fun evening and we came home to Amadeo relaxing with Zoe "the firstborn" watching 3D TV.

We also got to go to the San Diego Zoo. What a huge wonderful zoo. I remember going there years ago when I was only 11. On my goodness. It is a totally different zoo today, of course.

Joneaux loved all the animals and all the climbing.

This is the view from the sky tram. It was such a pretty view.

Riding the sabre toothed tiger.

Joneaux was worn out after our zoo adventure and I must admit.. so was I.

That evening Anna and Amadeo treated us to a most wonderful dinner at 333 in Oceanside. The food was sooooooooo delicious. We started out with a yummy 3 tier dish filled with seafood goodies; shrimp, clams, oysters, and other things I don't even remember. It was some of the best seafood I ever ate. Then we all had a main course. Of course we had little samples of each others food. After that we were so full that we couldn't eat another bite. What a wonderful day and evening!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

SeaLife and Thanksgiving

2012-01-22T21:16:00.000-08:00

One of our trips was to Southern California to visit Anna, Amadeo, and baby Joneaux. Except, he's not a baby anymore. He turned 2 while we were there. We all had such a wonderful visit. Joneaux is the most adorable little guy. He's cute and nice and affectionate and also so smart. He already knows all of his colors, can count to 16, knows his abc's and can sing lots of songs. He loves to look at books and knows lots of the stories. His favorite right now is a shark. When we were in the little gift shop, he picked out a shark book and of course Grams had to get it for him. :)

He's also very independent and had to go up some stairs onto this bridge and then slide down.

He did that lots and lots of times. He had fun and we had fun watching him.

He spent quite a bit of time building in the little lego part.

For Thanksgiving we went to Amadeo's parents house. They are always so welcoming and hospitable.

The men gathered in the back yard to make two kinds of turkey. Two were deep fried and one was cooked in the oven. Everyone brought several dishes to share and sparkling cider.

We ate and talked and laughed and laughed and ate and talked some more. The kids played and played and laughed and ran around. A great time was had by all.

After eating, the ladies looked at the sale ads while the kids colored, played games, and did Thanksgiving work sheets.

Then some watched T.V. while others played Mexican Train. A few even had a nice little siesta. Later on in the day we gathered in the living room and each person got to share one of the things they were grateful for. It was amazing to hear everyone and even the littlest ones had an opportunity to share. Of course a few tears were shed------------a wonderful ending to a great day.

Hello and Tal's B'day

2012-01-21T18:21:00.000-08:00

Well hello again. Seems like I haven't posted in forever and it has been almost 2 months. We have been sooooo busy. I don't even know how the time has passed so fast. We took 2 little trips, had family and friends over, went out ourselves, went to the temple, helped with the kids, etc.etc.etc.

Anyway, I didn't know where to start catching up, so I decided to start from the most recent and go clear back to Thanksgiving where I left off.

The first 3 pictures are of Natalia on her actual 3rd birthday on January 8th. Her Mommy and Daddy took her to Build-a-Bear and also bought her lots of other presents. She came home so excited and then her Mommy had made a birthday cake for her and Tal had a great time blowing out the trick candles and sampling the cake. It was so cute to watch her with the candles. She would blow really hard and they would finally extinguish only to light right back up again. She soon caught on and had lots of fun blowing the candles out and the watching them light up again.

The picture with the balloons is of her on her birthday party day. Her Mommy and Daddy sure know how to throw a party. There were lots of family and friends there. They had pizza, balloons, and yummy snacks, games, a pinata, and even a cotton candy machine. Jose makes the best cotton candy. Oh my goodness those cotton candy cones were perfectly shaped. He made small ones and huge ones and they were all perfect. I have been to many a school carnival and seen many cotton candy makers and lots of those cones were not very well shaped. Jose's were perfect. Sadly I have no pictures because my camera has stopped working. But, as a surprise, John had ordered a camera for me for Christmas and it finally arrived. Anna did the choosing of the camera and she, of course, picked a great one. Now, I just have to learn how to use it. HaHa.

HAPPY THANKSGIVING

2011-11-23T10:03:00.000-08:00

So many things to be thankful for:
Heavenly Father
Jesus Christ
The gospel of Jesus Christ
The Priesthood
My awesome (the best) husband
My terrific sons and sons-in-law
My wonderful daughters and daughters-in-law
My sweet grandchildren
My darling great-granddaughter
The best parents and grandparents even though they are no longer here with me
Great relatives
A nice home
Great friends
Great bloggy friends
Freedom
A beautiful country
Scriptures and other books
Music
Dance
Good food
Lots of good and interesting activities to keep me busy
Many, many other wonderful things and blessings too numerous to list.

To all of you I wish a wonderful Thanksgiving Day!
HAPPY THANKSGIVING

Papa's Birthday

2011-11-21T14:46:00.000-08:00

Happy Birthday to an awesome guy. Everyone loves John and I'm so blessed to have him for a husband. He is a great guy and is always the same at home as he is in public. He is kind, helpful, honest, nice, hard-working, a great Dad and Papa. He is an awesome leader in our home and at church. I love him now and forever. Lucky me.

Anna's in-laws invited us over for Sunday dinner and Anna baked a birthday pie for him. He was surprised and the pie was delicious.

Amadeo's parents are always so nice and kind to us. His Dad, Ron, has been a Bishop and a Branch President. He is currently a Patriarch and a Sealer at the San Diego Temple. It was fun when Anna and Amadeo were first engaged to find out that both of the Dad's were Patriarchs. Ron and Loretta have always been very welcoming to us. Whenever we are visiting Anna, they invite us over to whatever might be going on. We are happy that Anna has such nice family near her.

Loretta and her youngest daughter Mary.

I have been having fun with baby Joneaux. He is so cute and smart too. He is so easy going and happy all the time.

Mary with J.D., her hubby, and Daniel, their nephew, next to them.

Thanksgiving Trip

2011-11-18T11:11:00.000-08:00

Tonight we go to Michael and JaNee's to spend the night and tomorrow before the crack of dawn we are flying to California to spend a little over a week with Anna, Amadeo, and adorable baby Joneaux. We will be there for Thanksgiving and John plans to run in the turkey trot again this year. He loved doing it last year and has been running ever since. I can't wait to go and see my sweet Anna and her family. I only wish our entire family could be together.

Cute little Joneaux in the bubbles on top having fun at Aunt Lana's house.

100%

2011-11-15T23:02:00.000-08:00

Last Thursday I went to the DMV to get my Utah drivers license. Well, I didn't have all the paperwork I needed so I was back there again today. Oh my gosh they wanted so much stuff: S.S. cards, passports, W-2 forms, 2 proofs of residence etc. I also needed to take the test.

I scored 100. YEAH!

Keeping Busy

2011-11-11T17:40:00.000-08:00

So what's keeping me busy every single day?

Here is a quilted turkey wall hanging that I made just before we left on our mission. I am taking a quilting class now too that only meets just once a month, but I'm sooooooo busy that I don't have too much time to devote to it. I have been keeping up with the square of the month except for this month. It's due tomorrow and I haven't even begun.

This is what keeps me busy.

I love this cuteness. She is the sweetest little girl. We play a lot all day long.

And this little guy is so soft and cuddly. I love to hold him and shower him with kisses.

Sometimes she dresses up like a princess or a fairy and she loves to dance and dance. Whenever the music comes on, she starts rocking out. Toooo cute. I like to give her kisses too and get lots of them in return. :)
Emily is doing her externship at an ob/gyn clinic. We are so proud of her for finishing up her schooling . Way to go Em.

Mini Trip

2011-11-06T10:50:00.000-08:00

Emily and Jose went to California for the week-end for his sister's wedding and I got to tag along to visit my friends in Lancaster. I lived in Lancaster for over 30 years. John and I first moved to the Antelope Valley in 1970 when he got his first teaching job at Edwards Air Force Base. At the time he told me it was to be for only a year. That year stretched out and out and I sometimes felt like Moses' wife living in the dessert for 40 years. Our first two children were born in San Francisco and then we had one in Lancaster, one in Victorville, and another in Lancaster again. We finished off with two from India and one from Peru. Our children grew up in Lancaster and now that they are grown they live all over the U.S.A. We taught our children to be independent and then they had the nerve to take us up on it. :) What's up with that? I want them all to be near me.

We had a good life in Lancaster and I made a lot of really good friends.

I loved the poppies that bloomed every Spring.

I loved seeing the airplanes when they flew overhead. I also got to see the Space Shuttle sometimes as it flew over. That was always an exciting sight.

I had a really fun, nice visit.

Kindergarten art and poems

2011-11-04T10:59:00.000-07:00

One last Halloween shot. Early Sat morning this little group plus Val all went on our neighborhood 5K. I stayed home warm and snuggly. Maybe next year I will be in good enough shape to go with them. Val and J quit early because J's foot hurt so bad, so they came home and Val helped or rather mostly did pumpkin pancakes and apple cider syrup for breakfast. We enjoyed a nice breakfast and morning together and then they had to leave to go to another party.

My little side-kick Grace is the sweetest little girl. Actually she WAS my side kick, but sadly she lives too far away now. I hate (really dislike a lot) that so many of my awesome kids live so far away from me. I miss them a lot. Anyway she showed me this cute calendar that she made when she was little and in Kngder. Now she's big and in 1st grade. :)

Halloween

2011-10-31T17:17:00.000-07:00

Happy Halloween everyone! My little helper J. She helped set up and get things ready.

Andrea and Yoho helped a lot too.

Doesn't everyone like to have olive fingertips?

Val is always a big helper too. Sometimes she just takes over cooking when I need lots of help.

Some people like to play with my camera. I had to delete quite a few photos.

Kenz helped make lots of decorations.

Tiger Lilly was at the dinner.

D made these mummies which lasted about 15 minutes and they were gone.

Indy came dressed for the party too.

I bought a lot of dried ice on Sat. but by party time I had only a tiny, tiny chunk left. It all evaporated.

Spider eggs

We even had spiders in the salad.

Dinner in a pumpkin---oh so good.

Baby Jakob is getting so big. He is making little noises now and little smiles and laughs. I love it. He is so cute.

Graveyard dessert=yummy

Pumpkin Trifle= so, so delicious.

Tinker Belle had a great time too. I told a little flannel board story about The Chocolate Chip Ghost and everyone listened so attentively. The little people also like the crafts.

The night before we went to Val's ward for Halloween dinner.

The littlest dinosaur was quite content and warm.

The dead bride was very ghostly.

The couple from the 50's was rocking.

Of course little Quack came too.

One of Pinkie's girls.

Like Father, like son.

Our little fairy took good care of Tal. She is an awesome babysitter.

I love that Robin Hood was able to attend. The little nerd spent lots of time running around.

Even Shrek came.

Night At The Museum

2011-10-31T07:17:00.000-07:00

The Bean Museum in Provo held a Night At The Museum that some of us went to. It was fun for the little people. They had to follow clues around the museum and got a prize at the end of the treasure hunt. They had some little crafts and then they had a show with some "scary animals".

This little duck had to have some milk for energy to go on the treasure hunt.

Jose wanted pictures of the Liger, a rather unusual animal.

Checking out the signs.

Tinker Belle was a good little artist.

Sierra came too, but she and Ang went off and I never got a photo of her. J was able to come for a little while and then she was off the be Mom for FHE. She is loving BYU and doing great. Next semester she will be going off to Romania for a study abroad and work at an orphanage.

Andrea's Halloween dinner/pumpkin carving

2011-10-28T15:13:00.000-07:00

This pretty fall scene is taken from our back deck. I love all the fall leaves.

Andrea had a little Halloween dinner, pumpkin carving activity. I couldn't go because I was doing interviews for visiting teaching.

Sierra and little Reggie were so cute.

I did get to eat some of the dinner in a pumpkin and it was delicious. Andrea went to a lot of work to make lots of good things to eat and fun things to do such as cookie decorating for the little kids and candy games.

Emma and Jenna are always lots of fun.

Here's our pretty princess.

She and her little cowboy friends got to play and play.

I think they had fun carving pumpkins. Unfortunately some of the invitees couldn't attend.

It was so neat to see the pumpkins lit up when I drove into the driveway late that night.

Pumpkin Patch

2011-10-27T17:28:00.000-07:00

Saturday we meet up at the Pumpkin Patch in Springville to have a little fun. I'm pretty sure everyone had a fun tiime.

There was a little corn maze for the little kid.

There was lots of corn to play in.

I love this picture of Ryan and Val.

There were a few animals to look at. The sow in the background pushed so hard against the fence that she moved it and the Wallaby and Alpaca escaped.

J took me to the big maze and the two of us had a good time.

I watched while she went wild!

S took good care of little Reggie.

Who is this pumpkin head?

S took good care of little Reggie.

Afterwards we went to a cute little park in Spanish Fork and had a picnic while the kids played.

I thought these decorations at a random house were cute.

And, finally, Dani's front porch is so cute too.

The Many Faces of Reggie

2011-10-26T09:17:00.000-07:00

This little guy is so pleasant and fun to have around. He is most always smiley and happy. He loves to play, watch movies, read books, jump around and eat. He really loves to have his Dad throw him up high into the air. Gotta love the little fellow a lot!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Elder Bertrands Visit

2011-10-24T15:10:00.000-07:00

Friday evening I got a phone call from one of my very favorite returned missionaries, Elder Bertrand. Adam lives in Ok and was coming to Utah for 2 days. He wanted to know if he could come and see us. Of course he could come. He invited a few of our missionaries and they all came over for Sunday dinner. I made Taco Soup with all the trimmings, green salad, and I just bought a big cake cause I've been kinda tired.

We took pictures and as usual we had to have a crazy one too. Here they are: Joshua Cabrera, Jeffrey Valenza, Abbey Carson, Gregory Scott, Adam Bertrand, Andrew Schmutz, and John.

Elder Bertrand said, "Sister Arhets, I don't remember you being that short." I am not short I said and they just laughed. My grandkids are always measuring their height agains mine too. It's a big deal to get taller than grandma.

Oh my goodness, we had a great time. It's so much fun to talk when you have experiences in common. We talked about so many things, events, people on the mission, returned missionaries (who's doing what? who's gotten married? babies? what are some of our baptized people doing?) We just had a ball.

Then they asked me if I knew that 2 of the Elders had written a play and actually acted it out with me as one of the main characters. No, I didn't know that. In one of the wards there was a sister, R.S. president actually, who was kind of mean. Really she was quite mean, especially to some of the missionaries. I don't know what was wrong with her or why. Unfortunately she has since gotten divorced and has left her 2 little boys (3 and 5) with her ex. Anyway, these 2 Elders wrote a play that was Harry Potter like. Luckily I was Sister Good and the other sister was Sister Evil. Apparently they had swords and shields, fighting and all sort of things. Good won over evil and all the spectators enjoyed the play. HaHa

We talked about some very funny things and also some very tender times when the gospel was taught and the spirit was so strong. We even shed some tears in remembering these tender moments.

I know that Heavenly Father sent us specifically to that mission at that time to accomplish some of His work with His children. I specifically remember Hayerie and Vasil. They came to France and were found by Elder Bertrand and his companion. They began teaching them by showing them the Book of Mormon in Bulgarian and the Elders pointing to certain scriptures and Vasil reading them out-loud to his wife who is blind. They were learning and progressing, but very slowly. Then just a few weeks later we moved to that area and it was discovered that Hayerie could speak Russian. I began teaching them and as you know if you have read my blog, they got baptized and then went to the temple. Her hopes for surgery to regain her eyesight did not come to pass. But instead of being mad or sad, she said that she realized that she had to come to France not to get light in her eyes, but to get the light of the gospel in her life. This awesome young couple embraced every concept we taught them and immediately put it into their lives. I was remembering how I taught them about tithing and the very next week they came with their 2 euros and every week after that they always brought there tithing to church with them. Adam remembered that when he first tried to teach them this concept, he accidentally showed them the wrong verse and taught them that they had robbed God instead of teaching about tithing. He felt really badly because they became so upset. They did not want to rob God. HaHaHa. We can laugh about it now. When they finally had to leave France because their visas were expiring she said, "We really love France and want to stay, but now we have to leave. But, I am not upset or mad. We are going back to Bulgaria and we are going to teach all of our family and everyone we know. We are going to be great missionaries. " And they are doing just that. A few weeks after they left, our time was up and we left too. It was not an accident that we were there almost the whole time they were because I was their needed translator. They were blessed because they found the gospel and the church and I was blessed because of their great example and their love and friendship. The Lord knows what He is doing. Oh how she cried when Bertrand went home. "My Bertrand, I will never see you again in this life." she sobbed. After that, she always remembered him in her prayers. We also had a very tearful farewell. It's amazing how much you grow to love people through the bonds of Jesus Christ.

These awesome young returned missionaries are all doing well. They're studying and working and still keeping up their good habits, morals, etc. It was great for me to see how well they're coming along. I will always love them and I'm sooo glad that they love me too. I know they do because they tell me. What a blessing for us to have met them and worked so closely with them.

Oh what a wonderful time we had on our mission and what wonderful, lifelong friends we have made. I am a blessed woman.

They asked John to play his harmonica for them and he did. That was lots of fun too.

Cornbellys

2011-10-20T18:24:00.000-07:00

As usual, I've been soooo busy. There is always something to do. I made those 3 pairs of pants smaller for Jose. Then I made the apron for Val for her Witches week-end.

This adorable little guy came to visit with his parents. Their trip from Oceanside, Ca was wonderful, but too, too short.

Some of us went to Cornbellys at Thanksgiving Point. It was really a lot of fun, especially for the kids. Above are Anna with Joneaux, JaNee and Dani with Tatum. What a lucky Mommy, Grandma, and Great-grandma I am.

First we ate dinner at a little cafe there and then we found out we could have gotten all kinds of yummy food at the Cornbellys place. We decided that next year we will go again and indulge in all the fast foods that looked and smelled so good.

We had to wait in line for quite a little while and meanwhile Amadeo helped all of us get a discount by buying our tickets online. He is Mr. Technology along with Anna so whenever they come they fix all of my technological "stuff" and Anna gives me a lesson on how to do more things on my Mac and my iphone. She also often gives me technological support over the phone. I really appreciate that.

There were lots of fun things for the kids to do. There was a dress up place with this wonderful Cinderella castle. Of course, everyone had to have a turn.

This photo is so dark, but I loved the little Tinker-belle at the top of the castle.

There were horsies to ride.

There were tons of blow up bouncy houses and slides.

There were pig races, several mazes, trampolines, face painting, a house full of corn to wallow in and get your clothes full of corn kernels, and lots of other attractions. We decided that next year we will go earlier in the day so that we can see everything better and also spend more time.

After we got home. JaNee made these delicious apple pastries. She just whipped them out and they were gone almost as soon as they were done.

Can you tell that these two cuties got along just fine. :)

Fall Outfit

2011-10-09T22:45:00.000-07:00

Fom This

To This

And finally THE BEST to THIS

Saturday I made this little Fall Dress for my darling, little great granddaughter. She loved it because it can twirl and of course will wear it with matching tights and t-shirt.

Reggie's Utah 1st Birthday Party

2011-10-06T19:55:00.000-07:00

Em and her family had to leave for California, so Talia got to be the first one to try out the bouncy house.

I'm pretty sure she loved it and we loved watching her.

My fall decorations were up and we were ready for a big shindig for Reggie's 1st birthday.

Handsome Reggie with his Dad getting ready to great the guests.

Flavia and I are the two happy grandmas.

Dani and Sierra were ready to celebrate too.

Reggie's little 6 yr old cousin from Brazil loved to hold him and play with him the whole time.

Andrea made yummy cupcakes.

Our pretty Dani is always so much fun to be around.

These are Brazilian cheese balls and boy are they good. Andrea and Flavia made a ton of them and they all disappeared very quickly.

Cohen, Sam, and Erica on top and Mike and Dani below.

Andrea with a lot and lot of help from Diogo and his Mom made a ton of yummy Brazilian food. The dish above is called Farofa.

Little Tatum loves parties. She is a cute, active little party girl.

There were lots of guests with lots of babies. Yoho's grandma and aunt and the aunt's little granddaughter came from Brazil and that is one of the reasons they had the party a few months after Reggie's actual birthday.

This un-welcome guest was in our tree. I had one of the boys capture it so that I could show it to Michael, my entomologist son. He knew right away what kind of spider it was, but I have already forgotten the name. When he was just a little boy, he already knew all about many, many insects.
One time when he was about 5, he came home with a baby food jar full of sand. He proceeds to dump it out on my counter and tells me to look for the Ant Lion. I had never heard of an Ant Lion. "Just wait, Mom" he says. "It will come out looking for food." Sure enough a few minutes later the tiniest little insect does come out of a little volcano that it made in the sand. I was surprised and asked him how he knew about it. "Oh, I read about them in my insect encyclopedia." was his reply.

Another time he has me go to the backyard to look at his "pet spider". We walk into the backyard and he catches a fly out of the air with his hand. We walk up to a broken brick and he holds the fly above the crack in the brick. Sure enough a spider comes up and he lets go of the fly. The spider catches the fly and there you are, a pet spider.

Once when he was a teen-ager he shows me a jar full of (seems like hundreds of newly hatched spiders). Turns out they were baby black widow spiders. He had another "pet". I was horrified. I did not want baby black widows all over. I mercilessly froze them.

Pao De Queijo and Cochinha both very delicious.

Feijoada in the crock pot is a black bean dish with baby ribs, sausage, and bacon. I really liked this bean dish a lot and plan to learn how to make it.

Of course, every birthday boy needs cake.

First he wanted to play with the fire.

Then he clapped for the birthday song or I should say songs since he had the traditional Happy Birthday and then the Brazilian birthday song.

He actually blew the candle out.

And then ate the cupcake.

Miss Tatum could hardly wait for the singing to be over. I did see her sneak some little tastes of yellow frosting with her tiny fingers while the singing was going on.

These little chocolate and strawberry balls are traditional and delicious. Andrea and Flavia made them too.

My son Michael came after helping someone move all day, so he was in his work clothes. That was just fine with us.

Lots of presents were opened and everyone shared the toys. All in all it was a very successful 1st Birthday Party. Happy Birthday Reggie. We love you.

Mini Fete with Returned Missionaries and Girl's Night during Priesthood

2011-10-04T20:17:00.000-07:00

Well, I found this adorable photo of Kenzie with Tal, so I thought I'd begin my post with those 2 cuties.

Saturday I had a little bar-b-que for some of the returned missionaries. They came right after the first session and then we had hamburgers and hot dogs. They were supposed to bring all the sides, but almost everyone forgot. I told them all that they were in big trouble. They were so cutely sorry and said they would invite me over next time and I wouldn't have to cook anything. I think that's a pretty good deal. Well anyway, John and Brady drove to Wally world and bought chips, dips, watermelon, cookies and a few other goodies. I had already made a huge peach dessert. Val came to the rescue and quickly made potato salad. We had plenty of food. We ate and had fun reminiscing. Then we all watched the afternoon session. Of course after conf. we had to play a few rounds of Loups Garu.

Here are a few photos after several of the guest had already gone home.

I absolutely loves conference. It is always such an uplifting time to listen to the wonderful talks and to hear our leaders and the apostles and the prophet speak. When the prophet announced that the burned down Tabernacle in Provo would become a temple, everyone was sooooooo excited. It just feels right. It probably didn't have quite the same effect on people who don't live in or near Provo, but it was such a great announcement for many of us. It was so sad when the Tabernacle burned down and now we have such exciting news. The first Provo Temple is always so busy, especially because all of the MTC and BYU and UVU students go there. This new temple will be great and will provide a great service. Then to top it off Pres. Monson announced a temple in Paris. It was a very emotional moment for me. I knew that the temple would be announced soon, but the actual moment was very exciting. I know the people in France are rejoicing and I'm sure they jumped for joy when they heard the news. I know many a tear was spilled. When we were still there, on our mission and awaiting conference all the people could talk about was a temple being built in France. When the announcement didn't come, they were so disappointed and so sad. Now they are probably all partying. Of course we are thrilled for the other temples to be built too.

That evening while the men went to Priesthood, Andrea had a little girl's night. Dani and Dani and Sierra came over and we all had dinner together and then watched a movie and just talked.

The cute babies played and played.

When Papa came home from Priesthood, he had some very interesting things to share with us. Dani and Tatum listened very carefully.

Catch-Up

2011-09-28T15:33:00.000-07:00

What a great way to take a nap. So soft and comfy and two people get to rest.

Valerie has the best garden. She has been growing and enjoying so many yummy veggies and she has the best recipes. This tomato was used by Tanner for a little fun.

It's so funny that these two tomatoes grew noses and Tanner just hurried and made them into friends.

Here are Billy and Julia with Tanner. Ha!

I love when Jenna and Sierra come over to visit. This night they were able to stay over.

Tal is all ready to go out.

Baby Jakob likes to sleep amidst all of the commotion.

Having family over is the best.

Yoho and Reggie love it when Reggie gets thrown up into the air. He goes really high, but it's soooo fast that I didn't get a shot. I love to hear little Reggie laugh. It's the cutest sound.

Tal wants to get in on the action.

Jose is so sweet and tender with his little boy.

Flowers and a busy week

2011-09-23T23:04:00.000-07:00

Many times during the year John brings me flowers. It is just what he has done all these years we have been married. He does it because he loves me and I love getting the flowers and especially I love him. I think it is so nice and I always enjoy the lovely bouquets that he brings me. Each time he does it I am pleasantly surprised. He gave me these beautiful roses a few weeks ago.

I have been soooooo busy. I hardly have time to sit down at my computer. I'm still dealing with the flood mess. Who knew it would be so complicated and time consuming to call restoration people, have adjusters and inspectors come in, talk to insurance company, try to choose new carpeting etc. etc. For some reason I am having a hard time deciding which carpet to pick. I finally have it narrowed down to two. One of the is kind of like shag and the other is a low pile. I will have to make my decision by Monday.

While we were on our trip to California, at the reunion, I received a phone call from one of the counselors in the Bishopric. He wanted to know if he could talk to me the next day. "Sorry, no, I'm in California," I told him. I don't even know why I answered the phone while at a party, but I did. As soon as I hung up, the thought came to me that I was going to be called as a counselor in Relief Society. Brother Ward called 2 more times to set up dates and each time I thought the same thing. I knew that one of the counselors just had a baby and I just knew that I would be taking her place. I didn't even know which counselor she was, 1st or 2nd. I then thought of excuses why this was not the calling I would be getting. Maybe we would be asked to give talks? I was barely called to be a R.S. teacher and only taught 2 lessons. Maybe we would be asked to work at the temple? When we finally got home and Brother Ward came over, I was totally not surprised when he said that they wanted me to be 1st counselor. And yes, I did take Julie's place, but it was an entirely new presidency. While we were gone, the made lots and lots of changes in the ward. So, I am in the presidency now and it's very, very busy. Just last week we had a young woman tragically die. We had the funeral on Monday. We had 3 older sisters who fell. One fell down the stairs after helping to set up for a wedding. She broke her arm and shattered her wrist. I feel so bad for her. She is about 83 and had surgery yesterday. The other sister is 89 and she fell and hit her head. Then a 3rd sister, also quite old, fell and broke her nose and has 2 black eyes and lots of bruises. I just feel so badly for them all. Then we had 2 other sisters that had major surgeries this week too. Next week has got to be better. I don't mean better for me. I didn't mind doing any of the things that had to be done. In fact I loved doing them, but I feel so bad for the sisters with the problems.

We also attended 2 weddings, fixed a late lunch after church for everyone here on Sunday, made a main course and had dinner and FHE with Val and family on Monday, which we always love to do, went out with Michael and JaNee on Tues, which was wonderful, fixed dinner for a family who just had a new baby, on Wednesday, had presidency mtg and did visits on Thursday, as well as make a casserole for the homeless shelter, and of course all the regular routine stuff. This afternoon we got to have some fun with Andrea and Emily and their families and go to the Fall Festival at Thanksgiving Point. John and I ended the evening by watching Jane Eyre. It was a very good movie. I love all those books and now movies by the Bronte sisters.

Deliciousness

2011-09-20T16:00:00.000-07:00

Just had to post these shots from our trip to Southern California. I could cover him in kisses and eat up this yummy, sweet boy.

I am so blessed to have this lovely young woman for my daughter. She and her hubby A are the best cooks. They are real connoisseurs too. She fixed us the best Boeuf Bourguignion.

Kristie and Cody

2011-09-19T10:36:00.000-07:00

Thursday was the wedding of one of our returned missionaries. Cody is an awesome young man and he served a great mission. He worked with us at the Young Adult Center and was always very helpful. We love him and were so happy to attend his wedding to Kristie. They got married at the Draper Temple and then had the reception at beautiful The Woods on ninth. Everything was so nice and we are so happy for this wonderful young couple.

The candy table was cute. Each different candy was a favorite of someone;

President and Sister Staheli came too and we were so GLAD to see them. They have been home for 2 months now. We had such a great visit with them. They also just had a water heater burst just like us and have been dealing with a flood just like we have. They did pay us a most wonderful compliment too. After we left our mission there was no couple to replace us to run the Young Adult Center. After a while the Pres asked the Stake President if they now wanted to have another couple assigned to their area. Their answer was no they did not want anyone else except us. They went on to say that the center was set up so well and everyone trained so well that now they didn't need anyone else. That is a great thing for us to hear. We are so happy that the Center is up and running as it should be. What a wonderful result for our labors. We couldn't be more pleased.
As a side note we now have 3 more young adults with mission calls. One young lady is going to Salt Lake Temple Visitors Center. Another is going to Canada. One young man is going to Africa. A few others are getting ready. Sooooooooo exciting.

I loved the Wedding Cake. So pretty.

The entrance.

Sat. we went to our neighbors daughter's wedding, but it was raining and I forgot my camera. We didn't know the young couple, but their parents are in our ward do we wanted to go to support them.

She PASSED NATIONALS!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

2011-09-16T23:04:00.000-07:00

So, this morning Emily went to school for what she thought was a practice test. Apparently when she got there, she discovered it was the M.A. National test. She took it an aced it. We are soooooo happy and so excited about her accomplishment. She has been working really hard at going to school. On top of that she is a Mommy to Natalia and brand new baby Jacob. She's also been working. That is a lot to do. A LOT. Now all she has left to do is her externship and she will be a full fledged Medical Assistant. Way to go Em. The whole family is excited for you.

Oceanside

2011-09-13T22:07:00.000-07:00

When we were in Northern California in Aug, we couldn't not go down to Oceanside to visit our sweet Anna and her family. So, we happily took the long drive down. We had a wonderful visit with our dear family that we miss so much. Our visit was so much fun, but oh sooo, soooo short. I just am so sad that we live so far apart.

One evening we went to visit the Mormon Battalion Monument. It is actually not just a monument, but a large building (kinda like a museum). It has been recently renovated and there is an interesting tour that recounts much of the history

Baby Joneaux loved looking and climbing on everything. We loved looking at and playing with him.

He is such an adorable little guy. He is so interested in everything. He is sweet and loving and the best little guy.

I could just eat up that sweetness!

He looks soooooo much like his Mommy with the build of his Dad. Such a winning combination!

I don't know how the pioneers ever crossed the plains and went west in such tiny wagons. They endured so many hardships and were so faithful and courageous. "Blessed, honored pioneers"

Tatum's B'day Party

2011-09-09T20:40:00.000-07:00

My very first granddaughter had a birthday party for her very first little daughter. It was held at the park and all of the guests were little people. Her other grandparents and we got to attend too. Justin Beber, as you can see, was the guest of honor and lots of the Mommies took pictures with him. Tat is crazy about Justin and she and her Mommy watch him and dance to his music all the time.

Auntie Sierra and Auntie Jenna got to come and help supervise.

Everyone got to make a necklace out of fruit loops or some similar cereal. It reminded me of one of the projects my Kindergarten class did on 100 day. Did I ever mention that K was my favorite grade to teach. I JUST LOVED it.

Ang was Reggie and Tal's helper. Actually, she always helps everyone and is always concerned that everyone has a good time.

There's Mommy Dani in green, her favorite color.

Tat's Dad, Greg, had his hands full of 2 very busy little girls.

It's so hard and so much fun to blow out two candles.

She did it.

Cupcakes are just the right size to eat and enjoy. What a fun party.

JoJo's B-day

2011-09-08T16:02:00.000-07:00

My little granddaughter called and asked if we could have a birthday dinner at our house. Of course I said yes. Their family went to Trafalgar and had a fun excursion and then they came over.

We enjoyed a nice dinner dinner together.

Opened presents.

Of course we had some dancing.

And wrestling.

Even Tal had to wrestle which you can see by her great hairdo of the moment.

Then JoJo got to have her cake made to order just the way she wanted it; chocolate with pink frosting.

Happy Birthday cute little 9 year old.

Alexandre

2011-09-07T12:33:00.000-07:00

I've probably written about Alexandre, but he's so awesome that I must write about him again.

Alexandre was taught by the missionaries and he studied the gospel for about a year. He was already a University graduate at the time and was working for a company that was owned by some young brothers who just happened to be Latter-day Saints. In fact one of those brothers became the Bishop of Lille Ward while we were there and the oldest one became the Stake President shortly before we left our mission. Anyway, Alexandre was very impressed with the life style of these men. They were hard workers. They lived a good clean life not smoking or drinking, but they also had a ton of fun. They liked to play and enjoy life. They had a great sense of humor. They also answered lots of questions that Alex posed to them. They never pushed him or were negative with him. When he asked specific gospel questions they answered him in a straightforward, non apologetic way. They told him the truth. Alex studied and pondered and prayed and he was shown the truth. He wanted to be baptized into the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. Alexandre is an awesome guy. He is a very bright, handsome, hard-working, kind guy. He had been a smoker and a drinker as are most Frenchmen, but he gave that all up. He also was in a relationship with a girl. He told his girlfriend that she should learn about the church and study the gospel that it was so great and would be such an asset to her. She refused and in fact told him that he would have to pick between her and the church. Alex told her that he would pick the church. Alex was baptized and has been a very faithful member. He participated in all activities and soon became the president of the Institute which calling he faithfully and wonderfully fulfilled.

When Alex started attending Institute most of the young women wanted him for a boyfriend. He was that nice and fun to be with. The young men all liked him too and befriended him right away. This great group of youth had a great time together. Now, among this group of young women was one Virginie. She was the girl all the boys wanted for a girlfriend. Virginie is pretty, smart, and nice and of course everyone likes her. Not too much time passed before Virginie and Alex started going out together and pretty soon they fell in love. BUT Alex told Virginie he needed to go on a mission. The following day Virginie gave him a present----- Preach My Gospel a wonderful book that explains the gospel plan and teaches people how to be good missionaries . Their plan was for him to go on his mission. 6 months after he goes she will go on a mission and they will return about the same time. Then they will be married. I love their story. I love that they are both so faithful. I love that they will be married for time and all eternity.

Several months ago Alexandre was called to serve a mission in Australia. We and all of his friends and especially Alex are soooooooooo excited. He will be an awesome missionary.

These returned missionaries did lots of good, hard work. Alex often went with them on splits.

We had too short of a visit because we needed to go home and have JoJo's Birthday party. We loved seeing Alex and the other returned missionaries. The guys went on to take a quick tour of Salt Lake Temple Square and then they went out to dinner. After that Alex had to report to the MTC. I later got the report that they had a great time at dinner. Alexandre was so surprised that he could have refillable drinks. He was also so surprised at the huge portions that were served. Just right for a hungry boys, don't you think? I remember how much those young men loved to eat. :)

Cameron has been sending him Youtube clips of Steve Irwin so that he can practice his "Australian" Ha!

Alex said that he will be the first missionary to baptize kangaroos. HaHa. We all laughed. He said he's going the be the animal missionary. Ha Ha again. In fact he is one of the first French missionaries from France and he's so excited for that.

Oh my, but we loved our missionaries. Here I am with returned Elders Brody Carpenter, Alex, Cameron Harper, and Mike Clauson. They were the best. We had sooooo much fun with them. They are such fine young men and are continuing being awesome.

Happy Birthday Michael

2011-09-01T19:27:00.000-07:00

36 years ago I gave birth to my 3rd child. Michael was our second son and he was born on labor day, Sept 1, 1975. In the top photo he's at the beach with his beautiful wife and the lower photo is of him with Dad and his brother Alec.
Oh my goodness, I was so excited when he came into our family. He was a darling little blonde bundle of LOVE. Michael was a very curious little boy. He was always so observant and wanted to know everything. He was a great teen-ager and has grown into a wonderful man. He has always been enterprising and self-reliant. As a kid he was always making money one way or another. One of his first jobs was a newspaper boy which he did with Alec and his Dad. At a paper throwing contest at Magic Mt. he won a bond for $100.00 Not bad for a little kid of about 11. He had a gardening business which he ran and hired other boys to work under him. He was very fair to the customers, but also made sure his boys did a good job. He would also take the boys on hiking and outdoor adventures which they enjoyed a lot. In fact, many of the boy's Moms would tell me how much they appreciated that Michael would take their sons because they would have an adventure, but then Michael would tell them stories from the scriptures and compare them to some the awesome young men from the scriptures such as the 2,000 stripling warriors from The Book of Mormon. He always told them that they should use those young men as an example. He once has me take him to a turkey farm and picked out just the right pheasant. He fattened up the pheasant and one day he went hunting with his dog, a rifle and the pheasant. What the pheasant didn't know was that he was to be the hunted. He came home from that hunt and made fishing flies out of some of the feathers and sold them to fishermen. He sold each of the wings to dog trainers to use for training their hunting dogs. He went out on party boats and worked helping the older people bait their hooks and other fishing things. He started working at The Outdoorsman and one of his tasks was to help the Taxidermist. Before long he became an unofficial apprentice and learned how to do taxidermy. He sold several of his projects to the Outdoorsman for display purposes. He was always doing interesting things.
I love my boy who is now a man but will really always be my boy. I pray that all of Heavenly Fathers choicest blessings will to be upon him some day. Happy Birthday Michael.

Flood

2011-08-30T21:35:00.000-07:00

Sunday after we came home from church, Emily came rushing up from the basement saying that something was leaking downstairs. I hurried down and found water pouring our of the hot water heater. The entire hallway and 2 of the bedrooms are soaked. Of course John was just leaving to make some visits to his Sunday School class students and I couldn't catch him on time. Luckily Andrea and Yoho were just coming home from their camping trip. Yoho hurried and was able to shut off the water. That was just the beginning of an unwanted adventure. I called our home warranty company because flooding is considered an emergency. However, because we still had cold water they no longer considered it an emergency. Monday morning I had to call the insurance company 4 times before the they finally called a plumber although each time they told me they would do it. The plumber came and said that it definitely was our water heater broken from the inside. However, there is also an expansion tank above the regular one. The home warranty insurance would not cover that. In fact, if that tank was the cause of the problem, the home insurance would not cover it either. After several phone calls it was determined that it water tank would be covered. So, we had to pay for the aux. tank. Then we had to pay to have the water softener moved and then put back and we also had to pay a fee to have the old tank moved and taken away. All of this was an extra $250.00. Today the restoration guy came and tore up the carpet, set up the fans to dry it, removed the padding, ripped off the baseboards, and did several other things to try to dry up, clean up, and prevent mold from forming. I had several more phone calls from the insurance people an now am waiting for an appraiser to come. What a hassle. It took many hours and it has just begun. This will probably take 4 days to dry. Meanwhile Ang and Em and their families have to move out of their rooms. What a mess!!!!!!!!! Also we have a $1,000 deductible. I'm not too happy about that because I was saving that money to buy a piano. Oh well, I guess the piano will have to wait.
Last week we had to have our garage door mechanism replaced. That took 4 visits from the repair men.

Last week I also bought a BBQ grill. Val went to pick it up to bring to us and the guys dented it trying to load it up into her suburban. I guess that's 3 things now. I'm ready for some smooth sailing now.

The photo above is not mine.

Leo's BBQ/Reunion

2011-08-28T22:55:00.000-07:00

On Saturday, August 6th, John and I went to Santa Rosa, Ca to our good friend Leo's BBQ/Reunion. Every year for the past 17 years Leo has been having this BBQ/Reunion for his/my friends. We have always been invited, but this is the first year that we were able to attend. I was kind of worried to go because I haven't seen so many of my old friends for about 47 years. The last time I saw some of them was at our wedding. So many years have passed by. I can't even believe the number. Where do the years go? How do they pass by so fast? Actually, Emily was scheduled to have her baby on the 8th and after I decided that I really did want to go I was wondering if we could actually make the trip and still make in back for the birth. As it turned out Emily was able to change the date for her c-section to the 11th and so we did go to his final party.

Oh my gosh!!!!!!!!!I'm so glad we went. I had the BEST time. Everyone was sooooo nice. Everyone was so excited to see me and I was so excited to see them. We talked and talked and laughed and reminisced. It was just wonderful. I can't even say how much I enjoyed the day. There were 115 guests. I knew many of them, but of course not all because Leo has made new friends over the years and they were there. But, there were so many of my friends from Jr High, High School and College.

When we were all kids in school, we had a great group of friends that spent lots of time together. Some of us went to school together. Some went to different schools. During high school some of us also attended Russian School after school twice a week and on Saturday mornings. We had parties, picnics, school dances, proms, church activities, plays, days at Russian River, sports, and service projects. We went to the movies, bowling, football games and had lots of good clean fun. We really had lots of fun together and did lots of things, but it was always pure and innocent fun. It was the late 50's early 60's. We were young and full of life. We had hopes and dreams and ideals. We lived a good life although for some it was not that easy. We did have our challenges. Many of us had immigrated to the U.S. not that many years ago. We were good citizens and we wanted to be good adults although by the end of high school we already thought we were so grown up and mature.

Many of my friends in this particular circle of friends are Russian. Some of them fell in love and married each other and many of them married other Russians. It was a blast to hear so many speaking Russian again. It really took me back and I enjoyed it so much. It just felt good to be speaking in my mother tongue. I recognized most of the friends, but I must admit there were some that I didn't recognize at all. 47 years is a whole lifetime ago. People change. Luckily everyone recognized me and was very kind to me. One person did say that they recognized me, but that I looked older. I guess that would happen over so many years.

Tania and Serge got married before I did. I remember the day of her wedding. We (bridesmaids) were at her house getting ready for the big event. Her dress didn't fit quite right and not tight enough around her waist, so I remember kneeling under her big, beautiful, full wedding gown and stitching her into it so that she could look just perfect.

One of my dearest friends was Natalie. She attended Mercy, a Catholic high school and we didn't meet her until later in our high school years. She is so nice and we all quickly loved her.

George and Walter.

Walter also came into our circle of friends later in high school. He remembered this story that he told several times during the day. "Do you know that this girl (me) helped me a lot when I first came to this country. Once I had to write a book report and I could hardly speak English. I was just learning. She helped me. This is how I wrote the book report. Natasha ( my diminutive name in Russian) told me what to write and I wrote it. I got an A on that report and later I used it again when I went to City College. (San Francisco City College) She helped me a lot and I have always appreciated it." I don't even remember helping him all that much, but somehow he does. We had a blast talking together.

This is George A. He became the Fire Chief of the San Francisco Fire Department. He married my good friend Lana. Both of them were members of my wedding party.

Natalie married Alex another great friend. We four, John and I and Natalie and Alex had a ton of fun together. After we got married we spent many wonderful times together.
One time we went to Lake Tahoe for a little trip. None of us had any money so we borrowed her father's old Rambler. This particular car has seats that fold down to make a bed. So we drove to Tahoe and at night we all slept in the car together. It was pretty cozy with the four of us. We were like sardines. When one turned we all had to turn. The first night we just giggled and laughed and couldn't fall asleep until early morning. Then they (John, Natalie and Alex) kind of pushed me down towards the bottom so they could have more room. They are all tall, 6 ft and over and I am 5ft. 2in. so I was at a disadvantage. The second night we were all so tired that we fell asleep pretty quickly. The two girls were in the middle and the boys were on the outside. During the night I heard some snoring so I quietly whispered shhh to John. No response. "Shhhhhh", I said a little louder. Finally I tapped him and said, "Shhhhhhhh, Shhhhhhhh." This time I got a response. "You've got the wrong husband." Of course, this got us to giggling again.

We also took a trip to Disneyland together. Alex found a great deal and we shared the hotel room. We went to her Dad's cabin in Sugar Pine and did lots of other activities together. When they bought their first house we helped them paint it. Alex is a commercial artist by profession and has his own business. I remember that first time we were painting, he put John into the closet to paint. He wanted to make sure that he would do a good job. Now, John went to painting school in France for 3 years in his teen-age years and was a professional house painter at the time. He actually painted every summer and during week-ends after we got married and all during college and university years after we were married. Anyway, John finished the closet and soon had the whole room painted while Alex was still carefully painting his first wall in another room. We laughed at that and continued painting.

This is my good friend Nick.

George M, Tanya's hubby and Connie F. or I should say Con.

I saw my old boyfriend George S. George was my first boyfriend and we were a couple during much of our high school years. He attended St. Ignatius and I attended George Washington (rival schools). It was wonderful to see him. I went to his Senior Prom with him. When we first saw each other he rushed over and gave me a big, big hug. "You don't even know how many times I think about you." he said.

George ended up being a very successful business man with his own company. He is now retired. He and his wife have 2 children and adopted his brother's 2 children when Richard and his wife were suddenly killed in a terrible car accident. All of 4 his children have become successful adults.
Later in the day we were sitting at the same table eating and George said, "This is the 2nd best day in my life. I am so happy to see Natasha again." I loved seeing him and talking to him. It was fun to remember our youthful days together.

Leo and John. Leo is my dear friend Helen's brother. He was the wild one of our group. He was the one who smoked and liked to be a little on the wild side. Leo and George A. once came to the hospital to visit me when we were all seniors. I was hospitalized for a week because of poison oak. They were talking to me and then Leo started to wheel my bed out into the hallway. They said they were going to take me to the White Ball that I was missing that night. They were just playing and teasing, but I remember being just mortified that the nurses would catch them wheeling me down the hallway and we would get into big trouble. Ha.

Leo was an usher at my wedding too. In fact we took a picture similar to this one, but I was in my wedding gown and he was in a tux because of being an usher. He later went to Viet Nam with the Navy during the war and met lots of Vietnamese girls there. Many of them wanted to marry him, but he would tell them that he was already married. They didn't believe him, but he would "prove it" to them by showing them our picture. Then they did believe him.
Leo married Vangie a Filipino girl. They eventually had 5 assisted living homes for old people. They took very good care of those people and always had a waiting list. Finally they retired and sold the homes. Now they have a home in Santa Rosa and also one in the Philippines. The one in the Philippines is actually a huge mansion with lots of acreage. They have built a school on that property and have sponsored about 42 children who attend there full time. The pay full tuition for these children and about 8 or 9 of them have already graduated from the school and Leo and Vangie are now giving them scholarships to attend college. The kids that attend the school have to work on Saturdays for them. They help maintain the grounds and do other jobs to help with their keep. Vangie told me that they tell the children that the thanks they want is for them to grow up to be good adults and then to help someone else they way they were helped. Just recently they have taken 4 children into their home and are raising them too. They are wonderful to do this and I do so admire them for it. They have also built a community pool in the barrio there near their home and they help the people there all the time. What a great way to use their money.

George S. Leo, me and Helen.

Helen and I have kept in contact all of these years. We have visited each other, talk on the phone etc. She was my BFF all during school and we still love each other.

Kapa is the woman sitting down. She is about 11 or 12 years younger than me. She remembered me right away and said that she was always so thankful that I was so nice to her when she was little. She said it several times and said that it really helped her with her self esteem. I don't remember any of that.

This is George S's wife. I never met her before. She is very nice and we had some good conversation together.

Lana, George A's wife.

Marina was the first one in our group to get married. My Dad always called her Nevesta (The Bride) and so that became her nickname.

We had a delicious spread prepared for us including a whole suckling pig roasted in the ground Filipino style. Almost everyone brought something to share as well, so there was a ton of food.

Helen with Mike, that all the girls loved to dance with because he was such an awesome dancer, and Natalie.

Nikolai Massenkoff is a famous Russian singer. He tours all over the world and gives concerts. Nikolai is a good friend of Leo's and happened to be in the country so he attended the BBQ and gave a little impromptu concert. He has a wonderful voice and sang lots of old Russian folk songs as well as other songs. I loved hearing so many of the beautiful songs that I knew and haven't heard in so many years. We were singing along with him and he would also have those who liked to come up and sing duets with him. It was all very fun.

This is Igor. He came to our Russian School when we were seniors. He was in a play with me. He was the Prince and I was the Princess--leading roles no less. He became an engineer and after many years left to become a ski instructor and translator for the government.

Gerrick is German, but was always with all of us. He became a teacher.

This is Helen with her Aunt Galya. Aunt Galya took Helen and Leo in when they came to live in the U.S. from Australia after their parents divorced and couldn't or wouldn't take care of them anymore. They sent those 2 little people all by themselves. I believe Aunt Galya took care of them until she married and then Helen and Leo's grandparents took them in and raised them. Both the grandparents and Aunt Galya took really good care of the 2 kids until they were grown. Galya recently lost her husband and being in her 90's can no longer be by herself so Helen has taken her into her home.

Helen and her hubby. George recently had a stroke and is in the process of recovery. He is doing therapy and is progressing quite nicely. I hope he will have a full recovery. Meanwhile Helen has her hands full. Add to that both George and Aunt Galya are hard of hearing. Helen has the patience of a saint.
Well, I've written quite a bit and will stop now. I will have more to write later. For now, I am just so happy that we went. John knew a lot of the people too, so he also had a great time.

Fancy Tea Party and Over-nighter with Spencer and Jordyn

2011-08-25T08:18:00.000-07:00

Just before we went to Maryland we got to have a fun over-nighter with Spencer and Jordyn. We spent the day together and in the evening we watched a couple of movies and had some snacks. In the morning we went to get our veggie basket and then my friend Jenny from Lancaster called and said she was visiting the area. We quickly invited her over for a "Fancy Nancy" tea party. Spencer told me, "But Grandma, we don't drink tea." I quickly explained to him that we would be having herbal tea and the difference between the two. So then the 3 of us set out to buy some special goodies to go with our tea. We bought some specialty cookies and candies. J and I made banana muffins and J set the table using all the pretty dishes that she got to choose.

We had a very nice time together practicing our very best table manners and enjoying each others company with fun and pleasant conversation and stories.

Later in the evening we had a quick dinner and Papa and I took the kids to a little local fair. They had a ball.

They got to pick out a few rides to go on and to eat some fair food.

Just before they took their last ride, it began to sprinkle. They still wanted to ride so Papa and I waited in the rain which got harder and harder. After their ride was over we ran to the car and went home to enjoy a nice rest of the evening together. I love spending time with my sweet grandkids. We always have a good time together.

Remodel

2011-08-23T08:42:00.000-07:00

My sweet Jenna has moved here to attend BYU. After a week or so they were having a dance and It this phone call. "Grandma, I bought a dress, but it's too short. Can you please make it longer for me?" Longer? That's a little bit hard, but I told her I would try. Fortunately I was able to find satin that matched perfectly with the trim satin.

I made a whole new trim for the bottom of the dress and she was very happy with it. Plus, she had a great time so this is one happy grandma.

Visit to Marie Jeanne

2011-08-17T08:29:00.000-07:00

The morning after we got home from Maryland we re-packed just a couple of things and left for San Bruno, California. There was a ton of construction all along the freeway and so it took us over 13 hours to drive there. Our trip took us to 3 places; San Bruno to see John's sister, Santa Rosa to go to my old friend's reunion with our friends from many, many years ago, and San Diego to see Anna.

The San Francisco Bay Area has a very large Basque community. Many of the Basques from France immigrated to San Francisco many years ago and many of them have since moved to homes all around the Bay Area. They have all done very well. They have raised their children to become good, moral, well educated people and good citizens. They have contributed to their communities. They have integrated their lives and are good Americans and they have also kept their cultural identities and language.
In 1982 a group of Basque families got together and built The Basque Cultural Center in South San Francisco. This center has 2 banquet rooms, a Pilota (hand ball) court, other small rooms and a wonderful restaurant. Marie Jeanne, John' sister, and her husband Arnaud were 2 of the founders. This center is very popular and the restaurant is very well know with visitors and patrons coming from all over. Each year they host the Pilota Championship games. The bench above was put their in memory of Arnaud. It has a plaque with his name (Arnaud Idiart) on it.

Whenever we visit the area, we always go there to eat.

We had Sweat Potato soup which was so delicious.

Some of us had Sweetbreads with rice. Very, very tasty.

Others had either Duck Confit or Duck a l'orange. Also very tasty. They make the best food there.

Our visit was bittersweet. Marie Jeanne who has always been a very vibrant, active, wonderful, loving woman is declining a lot. It was very sad for us to see her like this. She has 3 different care givers coming in to help her, but truth be told I don't really see that they are doing very much. We met Gloria, the girl who comes to help her with her medications and she was very nice and friendly and seems to be doing her job, but the other 2 who should be caring for her personal needs and her home do not seem to be doing their jobs. Her lovely home which was always in good order, clean and nice is in disarray and not clean. Her personal hygiene is also not being taken care of. It is soooooo very sad because M.J. was aways perfectly groomed, hair professionally done every Sat, clothes perfect, etc. It is totally not her fault. She is already 85 and she can't remember to do things anymore. Her short term memory is gone. She is lonely and discouraged. Luckily her son is coming to get her next week to move in with her family up north. I think this is a good thing. Her family will be taking care of her.
Life is difficult. People age and then they are often not themselves. It's worse when they realize it's happening, but have no control over the changes. I believe it is a huge test not only for the person, but for those who love them and are around them.
We loved seeing M.J. and talking about old times and looking at photos, but the general feeling was one of great sadness. M.J.'s children and grandchildren have made some beautiful photo albums for her in which they have written beautiful thoughts and sentiments for her. I read those aloud to her and she loved it. She remembered the events and really enjoyed hearing all the wonderful things about herself. I was happy to see her get so much enjoyment and so many laughs. We love her.

Baby Jakob is here.

2011-08-11T10:51:00.000-07:00

Well today was the big day. Emily and Jose left for the hospital at 5:00 this morning. I wanted to take this last being pregnant photo of her for her memories. I think she looked really pretty and really, really ready to have that baby.

John and I arrived home from San Diego around 11:45 last night. After unloading the car and putting a few things away we went to bed, but I couldn't sleep. I was too excited and nervous for today. I finally fell asleep around 2:00 a.m. and around 2:15 our smoke alarm went off. It kept beeping and chirping all night long. We couldn't get it to go off. I finally left the bedroom and tried to sleep on the couch, but kept hearing that darn noise and was awake all night. I finally got up and put some things away and then got ready to go to the hospital. Andrea and I met up with Valerie there. Sometime around 7:15 they took her in to get her spinal. Pretty soon Jose went in. We 3 gathered around a window which they had opened the blinds on and we could see into the operating theatre. Unfortunately we mostly saw the doctors and only a glimpse of the c-section. From the time the made the first cut to the baby being born took only 5 minutes. The doctors had to tug and push and pull pretty hard to get him out. In fact the doctor stood on his toes to get more force into his push. As soon as little Jakob's head came out, they suctioned him and he began to cry. What a very exciting moment.

This is Emily waiting for the c-section.

Jose is all gowned up and ready too.

The last few belly shots.

Walking into the surgery room.

Waiting again.

You can see on the board that they began the incision at 7:36 and baby was born at 7:41.

He's finally here. Cute baby Jakob Asher. Daddy gets to hold him and carry him to the little bassinet.

Emily immediately after being wheeled back into her room.

Mommy holding baby for the first time all by herself. The very first time she saw him she didn't really get to hold him but got to look at him while the nurse was holding him up to her.

Jakob is 7 lbs 8 ozs and 20 inches tall He is sweet and soft and just adorable.

Aunt Val holding him and enjoying the cuddling.

Grandma and Jakob.

Auntie Andrea and baby Jakob.

Last day in Maryland.

2011-08-09T15:44:00.000-07:00

Our last day in Maryland was so nice, but so sad for me. I didn't want to leave my sweet family because I don't even know when we will be together again. Yes, thank goodness for SKYPE, but it's just not the same. We started out with a nice pancake breakfast. H has become quite to good little cook. She made dinner and several other things for us and everything turned out really good.

Brother is a good little eater of certain foods. Pancakes are one of the things he likes to eat.

On the way to the airport we stopped for lunch at Sierra's restaurant or rather the restaurant where she works. Ha. We just call it her restaurant. I tried to get a good photo of her, but she was just moving around too quickly. The management loves her and she makes really good tips too. They are sad she will be leaving soon to move to Utah to go to school, but we are so happy to have her near us. She is a most wonderful girl. I actually can't wait for her to move.

We drove to the airport in the rain and then waited for quite a while for our plane. Our flight was great except for the extra 45 minutes that we had to circle Denver airport in a holding pattern because of a big storm. In fact, the entire airport was closed down for 45 minutes. We finally got off the plane and hurried to gateA26 where our next flight was supposed to take off from. We only had 15 minutes to get there. We ran and when we got there the flight was to Sacramento. We asked where our flight was changed to and they said another area clear on another side of the airport. We were rushing and I just knew we wouldn't make it. Fortunately a lady in a cart that you ride came by and we asked her for a ride. She very nicely drove us to the gate only to discover that they flight wasn't there either. It was going to Los Angeles. I asked the gate attendant again and was told another gate. Of course it was in a totally different area again. We finally got the the right gate and it was full of people. Because of the storm everything had to be changed. Then we had to wait for the people to deplane. After that we had to wait again for the crew to arrive. After about a half hour wait we were informed that the crew had gone to A26 where we were originally supposed to take off from. So we had to wait again for the crew to arrive at the correct gate and check in and do whatever it is they have to do. After this long delay we were able to board the plane. But could we take off then. Oh no. More delays. The row behind us and across had a seat full of vomit. The people who were supposed to sit there obviously complained. We did not blame them one bit. We then had to wait for housekeeping to come and clean the seat. AFter they guy finally came and cleaned up he told the stewart that he would have to call somewhere else to get a new seat belt. We waited and waited some more. The guy came and changed the seat belt and we were finally on out way. We arrived way late in S. L. C. and our grandson Greg was waiting for us. Actually Greg is married to our granddaughter, but we claim him as a grandson. We really appreciated his efforts of coming to get us in the middle of the night and driving us home. We got into our house at 1:00 a..m. Utah time which was 3:00 a.m. Maryland time. It was a long, tiring day. We were grateful that our actual flights went so well and that we had nice seat companions on both legs of the trip.

The next morning we got up. I got my hair cut by my granddaughter who so graciously came to my house to do it. I am so appreciative of her and she does a really good job too. After my hair cut we got things together and set off for California. I did take a little time to hug and love my little Tal that I am missing so much. Of course I took time to visit with Emily too. I can't believe that she will have her little baby on Thursday. We are so excited and can't wait to meet our new little grandson. We went to Ca to visit John's sister and to go to a BBQ/reunion with my friends many of whom I haven't seen for 47 years. We also drove down to San Diego to see our Anna and her family. It took us 13 hours to drive to San Bruno and then over 9 hours to get to San Diego because of all the horrible traffic on the coast. We have been doing a lot of driving and tomorrow we have about 12 hours to drive to go home.

Dinner

2011-08-03T08:35:00.000-07:00

For our last evening we had dinner on the deck with home made peach ice cream for dessert. It's so sad to leave family. I feel really sad. We had a wonderful time, but it has come to an end. Now it will be a long time before I see this dear family again. Now I have to end so I can go and dry my tears. :(

Chinese Lunch/ Boating

2011-08-01T20:07:00.000-07:00

Today was a relaxed, but very fun day. In the morning Lana had a presidency meeting at her house. She is the Young Women's President and she is awesome at it. She always has the perfect lessons and great activities. The young women just love her. In fact since we've been here so many people have told me how wonderful she is and how much they love her. Of course, I can only agree. She is awesome. After her mtg we went out to Chinese lunch. It was so yummy.

We were so full after we ate. We came home and Lana and the kids immediately changed and went to the pool. I took a little 16 minute rest and then joined them. The water was so refreshing and we stayed at the pool for a few hours.

In the evening we went boating. The Zawada family invited us to go out on their beautiful boat. E really, really didn't want to go because he wanted to go and practice soccer, so Papa ended up taking him. That was just as well because he really doesn't like water sports or even swimming very much. However when we first started dating so many years ago, he happily came to the river and swam and went to the lake and did all kinds of water activities. I tease him and say that he "tricked" me into thinking he loved water activities because I do, but if you ask him he will deny it. Anyway it all turned out quite well. He enjoyed his time with E. E was happy and we all enjoyed our time on the boat. Little G was scared to go tubing, but after she went she wanted to do it again and again.

Our time was cut short by an incoming thunder and lightening storm with a tiny bit of rain. We then went to the Zawada's and all had pizza, hot wings, and great company to finish out our evening.

Maryland Crab and other activities

2011-07-31T19:59:00.000-07:00

We have been so busy with lots of activities. We've gone shopping because Brother needed new cleats and then new regular shoes and church shoes. We also needed groceries. We've played games. I taught everyone how to play Loup Garrou, Phase 10 and Skip Bo. The kids surprised me by how quickly they caught on. We have watched 4 movies; Rango, a cartoon for kids which I only half watched because I was reading a book and Red Riding Hood, which everyone except me liked. I don't like scary movies and although this one wasn't too scary I still had a nightmare that night. And, I only half watched it too. Still reading my book The Crowning Glory of Calla Lilly Ponder by Rebecca Wells. Then we went to the movies and saw Cowboys and Aliens, which everyone liked and I thought was just OK. Finally, we saw The Princess and the Frog which I thought was really cute and really liked the music, but I did fall asleep during some of it. I haven't been a very good movie watcher lately and I usually love to watch movies.
We've been to get frozen yogurt and ice cream. We've cooked yummy dinners together. Last night we had Bee Bim Bop, a Korean dish. First G read the cute book to us and then we got the recipe, shopped for ingredients and then cooked and ate the meal. Yesterday John and I made our signature Beef Strogonoff which I put finishing touches on today and everyone enjoyed eating it tonight.
I got to help H finish off her requirements for her Faith in God award.

Friday for lunch we went and ate Maryland Blue Crab. I think it's just delicious. We had this huge plate full of crab and we had enough left over that I got to have some for lunch on Saturday.
Today at church John and I spoke to the young men and young women about our missionary experiences. I think they enjoyed it because some of them came and told me afterwards and I could see lots of smiles on their faces while we were giving the talks. The Bishop and Stake President both came and told us that the things we said were just the things that the youth of the ward needed to hear. I don't usually like to give talks and I always stress, but it's fun to talk about our mission. We have so many wonderful, fond memories of our mission, the young adults that we worked with, the young missionaries that we worked with, the people we came to love, the gospel that we loved teaching. Really we loved everything about our mission.
Tonight Lana invited quite a few families over for ice cream sundaes and spending time together after dinner. I think there were about 6 families who came over. The kids ran around, played outside and inside, laughed, ate, wrestled, chased each other and just had a great time. The adults also enjoyed talking and we really enjoyed meeting Lana and Rob's friends.
Our time here is passing too quickly. We are enjoying being with Lana and Rob and their sweet children. We are loving the area and the people have been so welcoming and nice.

Smithsonian and The Monuments

2011-07-28T19:38:00.000-07:00

We had a very fun, but very tiring day today. Here we are on the Metro going to the Mall.

The Mall is this HUGE place. It is a grassy, large rectangular area with all kinds of buildings on the sides such as all of the Smithsonians, Congress, the White House a few streets down, Monuments, the Washington Memorial kind of in the middle etc.etc.

This is the Washington Memorial from a distance. It is gigantic although it looks kinda small in the picture.

John on the path to the Smithsonian American History. That is the one we visited and we didn't even see all of it. I think it would take several days to see each of them.

In front of the building this guy was playing Jazz music. He was really good. Ethan gave him a good tip and then he talked to us and asked the kids where Big Bird, Ernie, Bert, Drac and other characters lived. Then he said they lived at 1600 Pennsylvania Ave. Ha Ha. He played Sesame Street music for us.

This is a statue of George Washington. I've never seen one of him like this before.

We brought our lunch and ate at a little table situated very conveniently by the cafe which is very expensive. $5.00 for a Hot Dog. We were glad we brought our own.

We saw all of the inaugural gowns of the First Ladies beginning with Martha Washington and ending with Michelle Obama. I was so surprised to see how tiny most of the first few First Ladies were. They were so, so little. They also had tiny, tiny feet. Mary Lincoln was especially teensy. Why I don't think she was bigger than a child. The gowns were so beautiful and it was really interesting to read all the information and fun to see all of the accessories too.

We saw Julia Child's kitchen. We had to look at it through glass and so the photo is quite bad.

There was an interactive area for kids which they all enjoyed so much. There just wasn't enough time to see and do everything we wanted to.

This is part of the World War II Memorial. It was very large also.

There were quotes all around which were great.

Beyond this Memorial is the Abraham Lincoln Memorial. I really wanted to go, but I just couldn't walk anymore and so G and I sat on a bench in the shade to wait for the rest of the group to go and see it.

We enjoyed our little visit together. G is such a sweetie and such a little chatterbox, just like JoJo.

We sat by Michelle who was waiting with her little boy for the rest of her group to go see the Lincoln Memorial too. Michelle and I had a very nice visit. She is very pleasant. She lives in Maryland and her little son Timothy who is 7 years old is struggling with reading. She asked for my advice and I was able to give her some pointers on how she can help him. We talked about lots of things and it sure helped the time to pass by quickly.