Are you ready for Halloween?

A few of the Halloween costumes are coming in...

Hailey the veterinarian

And the twins

Téa as Princess uh, so sorry, don't know my princess names

....and Spider-man AKA Jonas.

Hoping more pictures will come my way!

Jonas looks like he is leaning in real quick so his Mom can take a courtesy shot. 
He was probably off to play within a second of this picture.  
 

We went to another ward today

...to see our grandgirls in their Primary Program.

I want to tell you 2 of my favorite parts.
The first one:
A sweet 7 year old girl from Cami's class walked up to the microphone holding little Cami's hand,
and then proceeded to tell the congregation what an example Cami was to her  
of friendliness, love, and joy.
Then Cami's sister Elora came up to the microphone too, and coaxed Cami into saying, "Hi."

I was in awe, and in tears.

Then, or maybe it was before....a little girl, Taya, who is about 5, I think,
got up to the microphone to do her part but instead she froze with tears streaming down her face.
She just couldn't do it. So the Bishop's wife who was nearby, started crying too,
and said Taya's part for her....but she could hardly get the words out through her own tears.
Sweet empathy tears, for this woman to cry right along with this frightened little girl.

A special day. It always is.

Heading off to class.
Cami is often stopped by people along the way who want to touch her or hold her hand for a bit. 

 It looks like Elora is dancing here but she's not. Just trying to get back Cami's hand.

Violet slept through most of the program, so I peeked in on her after she got to the nursery

Those little pink boots of hers put a smile on my face!

Violet's teacher said she's always shy for the first minute or so, and then after that, loves it there.

I want to keep my eye on this wind map 

over the next couple of days, so I'm putting it right here.

A once in a lifetime experience

Yesterday Dennis and I attended the funeral for a woman who was 105 years old. 

I have never even known someone close to her age. 

Since I am married to a man who believes

"it is better to be a half hour early than 1 minute late," 

the Methodist church looked like this when we arrived. 

So to back track, about a week ago my Dad called to say that Marie Carnahan died. 

I had to think for a minute who he was talking about. 

Wasn't she a friend of Mom's? He said, yes, they had been friends since the 1940s. 

Then after emailing my Uncle Don, I learned that Marie was actually

close friends to my Grandma (who died in 1984) 

So after we hung up I found her obit in the paper and noticed that Marie Carnahan was 105 years old!! 

She became a widow in 1942. So she outlived her husband by 70 years! 

She also outlived her 2 children. And she never had any grandchildren.

I was interested in attending her funeral. 

I felt certain my Mom and my Grandma would have wanted me to. 

But I had one problem with that. The twins had slept over the night before, 

and Amy was counting on me to keep the twins all day since she was up at 6th grade camp with Macie.

 So, I sat them down and explained what a funeral was all about.

As it turned out, Kylie ended up being able to care for them.

I mean no disrespect at all by saying this, and I'm quoting my 3 year old granddaughter, 

and remember she is only THREE....

but when I told her about the change of plans,

and that she was not going to the funeral with us after all, she looked disappointed and said, 

"But I want to see the dead girl."  

For that reason, and many more, it's best she and her brother were not there. 

Much as I love them!

With all her children gone, and no grandchildren, she is survived by her son in law, Lloyd. 

When Marie's daughter was dying back in 2005 he promised that he would look after her Mom. 

And he did. There will surely be a special place in heaven for a man like this.

(I hope it is not my camera that is upsetting the woman in blue.)

My Uncle Don (see him standing in the midst below) spoke at the funeral 

about how he milked Marie's cows back in 1942 after her husband suddenly died,

 and she always remembered that kindness. 

Marie had been attending this same Methodist church since 1961, 

and lived right around the corner from it until she was 103. 

She spent the last 2 years in a care home with 3 other women.

This church is just a couple blocks away from my early childhood home 

so I wanted to take a picture of it also on our way home.

I'm not even sure now which house was ours, we whizzed by it so quickly.

I had never seen so many people who wanted to stand up and speak at a funeral before.

Here are a few things I learned about Marie:

1. "She was a bottomless pit of service."

2. Said one of her caregivers, "A week before Marie died, at age 105, 

she sang a song at the dinner table to welcome a new resident."

3. She was constantly in service, even washing dishes in other people's churches.

(I heard she always ended up helping in the kitchen where ever she went.)

4. Even though she loved hiking and walking, 

her most favorite thing EVER to do was talk with friends!

5. "No one understood better than Marie if you wanted friends you needed to be a friend."

6. She loved children with a passion. 

She once asked her pastor if he had any grandchildren and when he proudly said 5,

 Marie teared up.

She waited a long time for them, and they never came.

I kept thinking of what a giving, caring, and serving person she was

 in spite of life not turning out as she wanted.

Taken from her program:

Crockpot Steel cut Pumpkin Pie Oatmeal

A friend of a friend's cardiologist told her she needs to eat steel cut oats every morning. 

She was eating regular oatmeal and he told her that was not good enough for her. 

Ever since I heard that, I've been cooking steel cut oats in my crockpot,

but I really don't care for the flavor of them....until I started making it this way....

Picture, along with this recipe, taken from GreenLiteBites.com

What I love about this recipe is that it uses an entire 16 oz can of pumpkin to 1 cup of steel cut oats. 

It not only ups the nutritional value of this breakfast but I absolutely love the way it tastes. 

It takes me minutes before I go to bed at night to put it in my little crockpot.

and my house smells like pumpkin pie in the morning. 

One little recipe lasts me 3-4 mornings. 

Dennis doesn't like pumpkin in any form so he won't even try this.

I follow her recipe exactly except I leave out the nutmeg. 

I'm just not a nutmeg loving person.If you are, leave it in.

She says to let it cook for 8 hours but I've let it cook for 10 and it's not been a problem.

I add a little more maple syrup, and walnuts and raisins on top just before serving.

So hop on over to GreenLiteBites and check out the recipe.
Now wouldn't you love to wake up to a nice warm breakfast all ready for you?

However, If you don't like pumpkin or oats, you're out of luck.

4 Things to say to improve any relationship

...or so says John Tesh. 
I listen to him every afternoon while making dinner. 
Today he shared this list. He says by saying these things your relationship will improve. 
They all make sense to me except for #4.

1. "We're all in this together."

2. "You're better at this than I am."

3. "Please tell me what's going on."

4. "I'm angry."

I think #4 should instead say, "It's not your fault, but I'm angry."  
By simply saying, "I'm angry"...wouldn't that put your husband or friend or whoever it is, on the defensive? 

It was on my Dad's Bucket List

Last Tuesday while my Dad's wife was at the doctor's, 

he told me that he was planning a surprise for their 5th anniversary the following Saturday. 

During dinner at their retirement facility he had made arrangements 

to use the microphone from his wheelchair and announce their anniversary PLUS sing 

 "Have I Told You Lately That I Love You?"

That was a video moment if I ever heard one!

So I made plans to be there. 

I talked Dennis into hiding out with me in their large dining room amongst all the residents

(no small task...talking Den into it I mean), 

and then I would pop out just in time to catch his announcement and singing. 

So I called my Dad about 4pm that day to let him know my plan, 

and that's when he told me it already happened! 

I had forgotten that "dinner" at their facility means lunch. 

And "supper" would be dinner. I missed it!! I was so disappointed!

So that evening we went by to get the details. 

Susan said doing that for her was on my Dad's bucket list. 

She said it definitely was a video moment. DARN.

However, I must say, I got to watch my Dad practice while I was with him on Tuesday.

I think he only knows 3 lines of that song, but I got to hear him sing 2 of them.

Sweetest thing ever. 

On second thought I think this is even sweeter:

In the words of Kelly, (who is my Dad's sister's granddaughter): 

"I pulled out a book that I bought to write things down when

we went to my grandmother's. (Her grandmother is/was my Dad's older sister Leonie)

It is a kid's book and it's sort of the same concept as a baby journal.

It has questions and blanks to fill things in. 

One of the questions is
"What is your sweetest memory?"

I wrote down my grandmother's answer:  

"My father called my brothers and sisters for breakfast 

and told us that a new baby came during the night, 

 that was Richard."

My Dad and his 5 siblings.

(Dad is the youngest...being held in this picture by his Dad, Romeo.)

Will Logan show his muscles or will he not?

This is how 2 parents look after 

taking their 5 older children to a Weezer concert at the Fair. 

And no, this picture was not posed. 

Re-enacted maybe, but not posed.

But they perked up enough to pack up their babies and head home.

I think Amy loves Logan's muscles.

It's that time of year again!

Last Friday on our way home from getting Elora from school
I asked if she would get our mail while I waited in the car.

I had the car window rolled down and I could hear Elora say,  

"I feel sorry for your mailman. 

You can call this number, Grandma Honey,

and get on the DO NOT SEND list."

And just so you'll know, that was only 2 days worth of mail.

I think this must be peak week for Christmas catalogs.

Do you want to see a really cute announcement?

Check it out here on my niece's blog.

My camera and I were invited...

I wasn't about to pass up the chance to be with my grandchildren's Joy School at the park.
Especially since my camera was invited too.




Den and I are off to my Mac class tonight so I can learn how to make more sophisticated videos.
I'm excited about this 6 week course. I have the right computer now, just lack the knowledge.
But I hope to get there eventually. I don't even care if I'm the oldest one in the class.

Two grandsons on stage

I predicted a few years ago that Austin would land 
the lead in the school play when he was a senior. 
Well guess what? I was right!

Last night Den and I, along with Elora, got to see it for ourselves. 
I knew Austin would be good. I knew it. And he was! He fit the part perfectly of Pierpont Finch. 
Or is that Finch Pierpont. Whatever.  

Amy and Logan and all Austin's siblings, including the twins attended opening night on Thursday. 
Then last night Amy could not stay away so here she is coming in again, 

 this time with my sister in law, Kim.

I was able to capture a few pictures after the show.

Chandler was also in this play, his first time on stage, and he looked SO GOOD. 
He didn't have a speaking part but he danced and sang a lot 
and it was so fun seeing him. He will be back!

Chandler, Austin, Amy, and Kylie

Kylie worked one of the doors. She had the cutest shoes on 

but I think the heels were about 6 inches!

She was absolutely darling but this picture does not do her justice.

Chandler and Elora

It shows again tonight at the MET @7:30, 

and again next Thurs-Saturday (18, 19, and 20th)

Tickets: $12. ($10. for students and seniors)

Violet has learned to freeze!

The day Elora turned a decade old, (YES a DECADE!)
we got to see Violet show off her new talent.

Not what we expected

Do you remember the little car incident we had in the Sweet Tomatoes parking lot a couple weeks ago?  
How this older gentleman was not looking as he backed out, and ran into our car? 

So his insurance paid the $789 it cost to fix our car, plus they also covered the $97 for 3 days use of a rental car. 
Problem was though, the last day we had it I misjudged how far I should have driven our car into the garage by 1/2 inch. 

But I didn't know this. 

Not until later on that evening when Den came in the house to find me and announced, 
"I hate to tell you this, but when you closed the garage door earlier today, it scraped the bumper of the rental car." 

I had that instant I-wish-I-could-rewind-life feeling. How could I have done such a thing?

Then Den decided he was going to Lowes to see if he could find some auto paste of some kind. 
He thought possibly the car just had paint from our garage door and it could be rubbed off. 

A few hours later: Good try, but didn't work at all. 

Then I finally saw the bumper for myself. Oh no. Not good. It was scratched in several places. 
It looked worse than our car did in the original incident at the Sweet Tomatoes parking lot!

Dennis said since we hadn't purchased extra rental car insurance we would probably submit the damages 
through our home owner's policy. Well I love our home owners policy, 
but I think we submitted enough through them this year when they had to replace our wood floors 
because of that dishwasher leak over Christmas.  
No, not going to do that. We would just pay it out of our pocket. 

So the day of reckoning comes. 
The body shop calls and says our car is ready to be picked up. 
So while I stayed home.....Den took back the rental car.
Of course he told them straight up what happened and showed them the damages. 

Here's the shocking part. Den was told there would be no charge for the rental car damages. 
He was thanked for his honesty but told "the damages did not cover sufficient area of the bumper to be reported." 

I know, we could hardly believe it either.

Dad and Susan's new place

I said I would show pictures of it and here they are! 
(Thank you Susan for taking all these and letting me borrow your camera card.)

 You can enter through the main door at this facility, 

or you can knock on one of their outside patio doors 

(Dad and Susan have 2 !)

And now, let's go inside...

They have lunch and dinner in the main dining room 

with all the other residents,

 but they like to have breakfast right here. 

Dad taking a break from the game to change his pressure points. 

Susan use to do this for him every 30 minutes but now 

with this new electric chair, he can do it by himself.

Susan and Dad with Corinne (Sue's sister) 
who drove from southern Ca to help with the decorating!

Hope you enjoyed the tour!

Susan Komen Breast Cancer Race

My Daughter in law Erin along with her Mom, Lynn, and her friend Kristy,
will be running in the Susan G.Komen Breast cancer race in just a few days on October 20th.

As you can see above, they have done this before. 

The same race this month will have even greater meaning to all of us, 

since it marks TEN YEARS Lynn has been cancer free!!!

If you would like to donate, feel free to visit their I LOVE LYNN page.

This is what we have been doing today and tomorrow...

And LOVING it!

Pregnancy...and a free lunch

When Dennis asked me what the monthly lunch/lecture was about this month in Hanford
I said, "Oh it doesn't matter what it's about, but we are going right?" He said sure.
Of course he did.

But a few days before, I finally did tell him the lecture was by an OB doctor, all about pregnancy.
He wasn't interested, so then I said,
 "Look, we have adult children having babies. We need to keep up on the latest." 
His response?  "No we don't. That's their business, not ours."
He's right, but I still wanted to go, so we did.

And it wasn't just for this lunch...which is always wonderful there, and free I might add.

 Dennis likes to pile it on. Chicken Alfredo, manicotti, salad and cookies.

So we learned a few things.

Did you know that pregnant women are not suppose to eat cold cuts unless they are steamy hot? 

Something about the bacteria needs to be killed.

I thought tuna was out these days for pregnant women. 

But no, this Dr said they can now eat 12 oz of it a week. 

I ate fish nearly every single day I was pregnant with Tyler. I craved it.

They no longer say that women should eat for 2 while pregnant.

This Dr says the new rule is they should be eating for 1 and 1/6th of a person.

I would have totally blown that new rule out of the park.

Massages are best to avoid during the first trimester 

because they could increase the risk of miscarriage.
Really??

Flying while pregnant increases the risk of blood clots.

The airlines are not suppose to let a woman on the plane who is over 37 weeks.

But the last baby this Dr heard of who was born on a plane was awarded free flying for life.

You should not get your hair permed, colored or highlighted while pregnant 

unless the place is well ventilated.

50% of US pregnancies are unintended. 

Okay, so that's my new pregnancy knowledge that I don't know what to do with.

And according to a survey from a bunch of pregnant women....

I can think of a lot worse complaints than those. 
How about all day nausea?

Then the Dr showed us this video.

I will always and forever be in awe of this miracle.

If you want to skip the talking like we did today, just go to 2:00.

Working on 2 of my many faults this week

We all have faults, right? There are several people I can think of who seem perfect to me, 

but since we are all human they must have flaws somewhere in them.

I have a mental list of my own, plus probably many more I am not even aware of. 

Like two that I found out about just this past week.

The first one came to my attention by one of my daughters in law. 

(And by the way, I did ask her if I can share it here.) 

She said when I answer the phone I sound uninterested at first 

or tired or like I don't want to be bothered. 

I do not want to sound that way AT ALL. I didn't even know I did! 

She says as we talk longer, then I cheer up.

So I thought back to our previous conversation and I said I was distracted when she called. 

She said, no, it happens a lot, not just that time. 

I told her I think I must have trouble switching gears....

like from what I am doing at the time to the phone ringing. 

And thinking about it later, I also think I brace myself for bad news. 

Maybe I shouldn't, but I think I do. 

Does this come from Den and I having 16 adult children (8 plus their spouses)
and 20 grandchildren between us? 

Or have I always been like this? I really don't know. 

But I'm sure if you have known me through all these years, you would know. 

I'm not sure I want to know that I've been acting like this all of my life.

But, I am thankful my DIL told me because I want to work on correcting this. 

She has a gift for being honest and tactful at the same time. 

A rare gift.

Then another fault came to light today in Target. 

I've been hinted at this by Dennis before but maybe it took a stranger telling me, 

for me to really get it. I was hurrying through the store like I usually do 

and I nearly ran into a man with my cart. I swerved and apologized, 

and then went on my way to the next aisle. 

About 30 seconds later this same man walked up to me and said,  

"You are a very assertive driver." 

I really think that was his nice way of telling me he was upset with me. 

I mean, he purposely walked over to tell me that. 

I just looked at him and said, 

"I am so sorry. I need to be more careful and pay attention to what I'm doing." 

He then gave a little courtesy laugh (because he was a gentleman) and walked away.

However, to my defense I will also say that I am not an assertive driver when on the road. 

I've never even had a ticket. Just with a shopping cart do I lack control.

So, if you call me I hope to be sounding perkier.

And if you see me at the store I will be walking a little slower.

Have you ever been told of something you were doing wrong that was news to you? 

The funeral

His daughter Emily:

"I remember someone telling me my Dad would never be a rich attorney 

because he gave way too much of his work."

"He got up every morning for 9 years before early morning seminary to fix us breakfast. 

He showed us how important we were and how important scripture study was."

 His wife Anna Leesa:  

"John would wake up every morning and say he loved Clovis. 

'Another beautiful day in paradise.' That's come to have great meaning for us."

His son Steven: 

"In many ways life is like a grand relay...

at this point my Dad has finished his leg and is handing off to the rest of us to continue this work."

Duane Matsungaga: 

"...Perhaps one of God's tender mercies, that John Barrus was allowed to linger with us 

as he again began to teach us. 

He turned our minds, our thoughts, and our hearts to the Savior. 

So typical of what he always did."

Doug Stokes: 

"He was concerned and saw the best in every person...

He looked to see not exactly what the person was doing with their life at that very moment, 

but what they could be."

Elder Trythall: 

"John Barrus as an attorney never checked his religion at the door. 

He was as much of an example of Christ in the law office as he was as a stake president."

We have so enjoyed having his daughter and their family stay with us this past week.

I have to say, we will especially miss waking up each morning with these 2 little people.


Side note: Thank you to those who sent me notes of concern because I have not blogged in a week...
I think it's the  longest I have gone since I started doing this in 2008.  
I have been smitten by Family History lately, thanks to my cousin's daughter Kelly. 
Not sure if anyone is as interested as I am, but I will share soon, a few stories I have learned. 
Like I always say, there is nothing more interesting than people. At least to me.