Oh What Do We Do in the Summertime?

I'm back from Michigan and have almost caught up on the laundry. And I'm almost used to the time in relation to how tired I am according to where the sun is in the sky. Random, Savannah and Scout are visiting while Amanda & Troy have a grand adventure in Malaysia & Singapore. (Be sure to check out their blog, it is great!)

Well, while Mom & Dad are on their grand adventure I thought it might be fun if the kids were able to report something other than "we watched t.v. and played on the trampoline." So today was defined as "Errand Day" and we went to the store to purchase some activities that the kids could do. We went to two stores, Toys R Us and Michael's and did great! That was two hours ago and the kids are still having a great time playing with some of the stuff they got and using their incredible imaginations.



The pictures aren't great but you at least can get an idea of what they're doing. Let's hear it for camera phones!

They don't stay little long!

Here's a comparison of baby Jasmine at 5 days old and 14 days old in her car seat!

Baby Jasmine

What to do?

Here I am in beautiful Sterling Heights, Michigan with a beautiful new granddaughter and two great older grandchildren. I am supposed to be helping. The question arises: What is "help" really? If I interfere with the routine of life, when I leave there could be the potential of chaos for the parents and children trying to bring their life back to "normal". And let's face it, there's enough chaos with life as it is and with a new baby I think that is just the perfect description of "chaos".

So it has been my goal here to accomplish something that has been on the "list" for a long time but has not been done because of the reality of life getting in the way. You know, things like children needing dinner EVERY day... running out of clean dishes... even laundry (you know you get every single piece of laundry clean and you move that pillow and WOAH! Where did that sock come from????!!!!! It's like a curse, once you find one you know that within minutes there will be 4 more socks showing up and before you know it there's another load of laundry! And ONE load of baby clothes takes you 5 hours to fold because there are 124 MILLION pieces of clothing!!!)

So, I have been going through the boxes and bags of clothes that have been saved for the next child. The evidence of a frugal person, overwhelmed with life, but trying to do what is best.

It has been fun for me, as I wish someone would do this with my stuff! It's fun and much easier for me here, because I am a "disinterested" third party. I have no emotional attachment to any of the stuff, so I can toss it without any remorse or concern. And I am happy to report that I have finished the basement task here!!! With 10 days left I am excited and I think that I can help with the upstairs closet and a few other little areas and feel that I have completed the task. (Which is a great thing for my personality "type".)

And once I figure out how to do a slide show on this blog you can see the results of my efforts. I took pictures with my little phone, of course not the best quality, and that's pretty good too! However I did not do the "before" pictures, just believe me when I say that this is improved. Not that anything was dirty, just cluttered. I did not find one single yucky thing, so good job to all!

Babies, Babies, Babies!

Okay, so to say the least I LOVE MY LITTLE GRANDBABIES!!!!!!!!!

Here I was trying to be so good, finally updating my blog AND adding pictures. So I looked at all the baby pictures I have and these three pictures are of my latest three granddaughters. Can you tell the difference?

A Testimony of Family History Work

As is obvious, I am not very good at updating or adding to this blog, so I'm using a double duty to add to it today. I was asked to write a brief testimony about Family History Work for our ward newsletter. This is what I submitted. It may be too long for the ward news letter :-/

Over the 30+ years I have been a member of the Church, I have seen many changes in the accessibility to genealogical research materials. From the days when access to the Federal Census Records required “National Security Clearance” (Brother Bryan actually received that!) to today when we can research those records online, at home, for free, the call to search for our kindred dead remains a constant call to the sons and daughters of Adam. Looking ahead I have been blessed to have a glimpse of the new program that will help to coordinate the efforts of others seeking the same ancestor, eliminating useless duplication of efforts, correcting errors, perfecting our knowledge and increasing the ability to extend the blessings of the gospel to all of those in the post-mortal world. Through all of those amazing and exciting advances in technology it is still those singular spiritual moments that continue to motivate me to seek out those precious ancestors. I have felt such love from them, I have learned from them though they had long since passed through the veil. And one day I look forward to greeting them and embracing them and thanking them for their gentle influence in my life. I have learned about a mother’s love, I have learned about priorities, I have felt strength and courage by looking in the faces of ancestors whose names I had yet to know, but knew that somehow they were my family. Participating as a proxy for some of these ancestors has brought me closer to them as if I could better understand their joys and sorrows. Allowing another sister to be a proxy provided a profoundly joyful experience as I was able to assist her through a portion of the temple experience during my training period as a temple worker. Just as missionary work and reactivation efforts are about finding the One who is seeking the Truth, so is family history work about finding the One. Occasionally we find entire families, and other times it takes us a long time to find a single name. But in the searching we are blessed time and again with peaceful feelings of assurance that help us to press forward. I have come to feel that Love is a lot like Gravity: it flows down. Our ancestors look down to their posterity already knowing us, already loving us. We have the task of turning back to look to them and to look for them. It is then when we are filled with that wonderful Spirit of Elijah and we find that the love has multiplied in our individual lives and that even the tasks of today that had felt so burdensome are somehow a little lighter because we know we are more loved than we knew yesterday. I believe that time is measured or felt differently in the spirit world. Our ancestors are able to wait patiently for us to find them, or perhaps that is one of their greatest trials. Nevertheless they do wait for us. Let us each try a little harder to find those moments when we can search for those who love us.

Jane Austin Character?

Take the Quiz here!

Hmmm, taking the quiz was difficult for me.

Least Likely

Oh, my. I am the person listed as "least likely to respond to the email" on those great "Learn about you" email spams, oh, I mean email inquiries. But here I've been "tagged" by my dear husband (who also coerced me into this blog. Did I say "coerce"?) LOL

I had to figure out what "tagged" meant so I went to the blog of a dear friend (http://honeygramandpapa.kay-family.org) and see that I'm supposed to answer the following questions:
1) What I was doing 10 years ago Ten years ago I was preparing to go to Provo to help Amanda with the birth of her oldest son, our first grandchild. And watching for police as my husband "stole" his own car (See http://chickensedan.blogspot.com/)

2) 5 things on my list to do today Add to this blog, watch Brooklyn & Jerred, finish laundry from yesterday, fix dinner, get Amanda's mail ready to get into the mail.

3) Things I would do if I was suddenly a billionaire Buy houses for each of my girls, travel with Paul from home to home of my daughters (LOL, evil LOL)

4) 3 of my bad habits I eat too much, exercise too little. Don't read my scriptures often enough

5) Places I have lived Seattle, Sumner, St. Louis, Bonney Lake, Puyallup

6) Things most people don't know about me. I have difficulty socializing in large groups, social events.

So, now I'm supposed to "tag" someone. Yikes, like the only people I know who read this blog are Paul and myself. Maybe Amanda, so I guess, due to the process of elimination, it's you, Amanda. No "tag backs" right?

In Good Hands!

Bishop Doutre stopped by last night to see how we were doing and to give us two pictures of "Bishop" Bryan and his son & daughter with Pres. McCombs taken the evening they were set apart (separate occasions).

He is a wonderful man (we've known that for a long time). He has a wonderful family (we've known that also!) Our ward is truly blessed to have him as our bishop!

We are in good hands!

To Blog or Not To Blog: WHEN is the Question!

So, here I am, nearly the “ancient of days.” When my peers and I get together we talk about our other peer’s illnesses, malfunctioning body parts and death. I cover my gray hair at a regularly scheduled appointment, ah, yes vanity! I have successfully raised 5 daughters. I claim “successful” because they all survived childhood and I survived teenagers, they are all adults and fully functioning as wives and/or mothers. You’ll have to ask them about that “successful” part individually….

Anyway, I have earned the “grandma” title but find myself being a “stay-at-home-grandma” something I never thought I would be. Come to think of it, for a long time I thought I’d never be a mother, so it’s all kind of a big joke. Because growing up I was NOT the babysitter. That was my younger sisters’ job! Nina was babysitting babies at the age of 8! She had a daycare for years with children other than her own. I was going to wait to have children until after Paul and I had built our careers. Then we found the gospel (or rather the gospel found us) and Heavenly Father taught us what we should be doing. So, as unprepared as a person could be we found that we were parents, and eventually figured out which end to diaper. And that was with CLOTH diapers—there were no tabs or indicators’ as to which was top, bottom, front or back. I was blessed to be a stay-at-home-mom and truly loved it although it was really hard!

I remember back oh, so long ago (no reflection on the age of my daughters, of course) and I still remember it being hard! If you ever look in the background of any of the snapshots of family events you will notice the chaos! It always looked as if a bomb had exploded in the house. My goal was to be organized. Goal: never attained! I was always blessed with the mega-large washer/dryer and so one load of laundry took me three weeks to fold because there were at least 40,000,000 pieces to fold and/or match. (Yes, I have a daughter who laughed at my ineptitude at sock matching, however, now that she has children she laughs a little less robustly!) Slowly, and it felt like an eternity, the pieces of laundry got larger and one by one the children grew up and were out of the home. A few have come back time and again, but that is another story.

A few years ago, with just one teenage daughter living at home, one of the girls commented about how “clean” my house was. It was a magical time to be sure. We weren’t home much and the 3 dishes from breakfast fit well into the dishwasher that contained the 3 plates, 3 cups and perhaps 12 other utensils (that included the serving dishes as Paul was bishop and rarely home for dinner) from the previous night. I vacuumed once a week whether it looked like it needed it or not. Once the room was picked up, contrary to the popular belief of my younger days, no one came in and messed it up. And although becoming organized was still on my list, it wasn’t 1) as urgent, and 2) as difficult to do.

Life moved on, and as always seems to happen, at least it seems to me, life changed. Now, I’ve done personality profiles on myself for a number of years and every one indicates that my personality type is resistant to change. I was relieved to know that there are other weirdo’s out there like me! And once the change has happened it takes me a while to adapt.

This time when life changed it really started with the hormonal imbalances that come with menopause. I’m hot, I’m cold, when I’m hot I’m crabby, when I’m cold I cannot warm up to quickly or I get hot… and crabby. I was tired all day, slept poorly at night during the brief hours I did sleep. Oh joy, NOT! It is a wise plan that Heavenly Father had us have children when we are young! I am NOT young any longer!

I had expected menopause, although menopause is kind of like labor. In that you “know” it’s coming but you ALWAYS think that SOMEHOW you’ll get out of the pain. (And even with a caesarean there is pain!) And you always wonder why someone didn’t TELL you how bad it was, even though they DID and you just thought either 1) they were a little crazy (true) and/or that 2) with “me” it would surely be different (not true.)

I liken menopause to “un-puberty.” Although you don’t loose all of the attributes (ok, the hair thing is weird—either you know, or just don’t ask!) your hormones fluctuate like a yo-yo. Hot, cold as mentioned above exacerbate the emotional roller coaster. You cry because the sun isn’t shining, you cry because it is and you can no longer go out in it because of the medications you’re taking. You cry because you’re getting older, then you cry because the thought of being young again puts you over the edge. When your periods are irregular you think “Oh! I might be pregnant” followed by “If I am pregnant I’ll KILL him!” And then you don’t have a period but you could swear this is the PMS week from HELL but can’t figure out why!

So, here I am, ancient of days, menopausal, a grandmother. That conjures up a myriad of pictures in my mind, most of which end with a brief visit of cherished grandchildren followed by the red tail lights of the car ushering the cherubs off to their new home.

The reality: I am still ancient of days, menopausal, a grandmother. However, there the picture ends. I am a stay-at-home-grandmother tending children. Tending babies—plural-- at this point. I keep my house temperature at sub-zero because when I am holding a crying baby and having a hot flash I am tempted to drop the child, which I MUST NOT DO! (My new mantra.) A few months ago I tended my 4-month old, and 12-month old all by myself for two (yes that’s 2) hours and nearly had a nervous breakdown. We were ALL crying! The next time it happened I called my visiting teacher to help me, thank goodness she came!

So a couple of weeks ago Paul and I were on a real vacation. It was great! He introduced me to “blogging” and made me set up my very own blog. Then I came home.

I want you to know that I love my grandchildren, every single one of them and wouldn’t trade my life for anything. It’s just NOT what I expected! It doesn’t come “naturally” to me. There are lots and lots of bottles and dishes and high chair trays to clean. We’re back to 40,000,000 pieces of laundry in a single load. I feel the need to keep the house tidy, the dog hair off the floor as much as possible which means it will be off the children as much as possible. And I am OVERWHELMED!

And I have 4 (yes, that’s FOUR) other adults in my home in the evenings to help. AND THEY HELP!

I read other blogs from GREAT mom’s who have 2 or 3 or 4 or more children. I love the blogs, I laugh at their great humor. But I have a greater question: WHEN DO YOU BLOG? How in the world do you manage? I am so impressed!!!!!!!!!

Well, the baby is now awake, I’ve fallen behind in dishes, laundry and dinner preparation. But the hot flashes aren’t so hot today and the sun is shining so even if I don’t go out in it I can enjoy the sunlight in the trees. I’ll still talk about failing body parts with my peers, but I look forward to making new YOUNG friends with whom I share a life style—staying-at-home-with-children.

And I wouldn’t have it any other way.

Close Encounters of the Almost Violent Kind

So, it’s the first Family Home Evening with my husband as a former bishop. You wouldn’t think it was any different than previous Family Home Evenings as even when he was bishop we had them. They were a “free” night. But somehow this felt different. Lighter, easier and we were enjoying ourselves. We needed to run a quick errand to a local hardware store for some sand paper for our grandson to work on his pinewood derby car.

Paul took us directly to the sandpaper section but we couldn’t find a “variety pack”. So a nice young employee offered to help us look. Fortunately he couldn’t find what we were looking for in that section (I say “fortunately” because there have been times I’ve been looking for something, ask for help and it has been right in front of me all the time—I hate that!) So we follow him off to another section of the store.

He passes another young man, also an employee, and fakes a jab to his stomach.

The young man dips his head and Paul replies “Oh, was I supposed to hit him? A nice jab to the jaw?”

Our helper responds “yes!”

Paul laments, “Oh, I’m getting old, I missed my opportunity, but, hey, Diane, you could have followed up!”

I responded “I know, but every time I hit them they cry!”

Diamond: New Beginnings

Yesterday President Ronald McCombs met with Paul and I to release him as bishop. It was a wonderful meeting, a miraculous meeting actually and I am eternally grateful for the reality of revelation.

Today Paul was released and we sustained Dennis Doutre as our new bishop. A kind man with a wonderful family. We are excited to sustain him and will pray for him and his family!

But I have a question: What am I to do with my husband? He's been "gone" for over 13 years on Sundays and usually 3-4 evenings a week, and a few Saturdays! That's over 38% of our married life!!!!!!!!!!!

Now I like him, we spent 10 days together last month and had a wonderful time... I love him more than words can say...

Let's have some suggestions folks! Perhaps we can come up with a "Top Ten" list of Things to do with Your Husband. (And remember, this is a "G" rated blog!)

Diamond: My Favorite Hymn

I find it so interesting the things you remember over the years. I remember the first time Bishop Bryan and I (although he wasn’t “bishop” and that thought would have been too weird) went to church. It was Mother’s day. I wasn’t planning to be a mother (but they gave me a rose anyway!) And we were early (no one was in the building, and we didn’t make that mistake again!) We met in the Seattle Institute building across from the University of Washington in the cultural hall, on folding chairs. It was a “married’s” branch which meant there were about 20 children aged 2-3, one five-year-old and about 10-15 babies. Folding chairs, a wooden floor, little children and babies meant it was a church meeting I had never experienced in my life: it was ALIVE!

We had to go to church before we were baptized. And we really did think we were going to a restaurant the first time the Elders told us where we were going to be baptized!

The day of our baptism arrived and I remember it being very sunny and beautiful. No member of our family would attend and the room was pretty full of strangers, and of course the Elders. I remember singing this wonderful hymn, “I Know That My Redeemer Lives.” And although I know that we sang at least one other hymn, it is this hymn that resonates in my memory. It captured every new idea I had learned about my Savior and even today, so many years later, as I sing this song I remember that day of beginning and the promises in this hymn have proven true every day. It thrills my heart to sing these praises.

Why "Alaska Diamonds"?

If you ask my dad where he was born he will always say "I was raised in Alaska!" And it took me almost 50 years to visit that beautiful state and come to a better understanding as to why he said that. Having learned at a very young age that I was not an Eskimo in spite of dad being "raised in Alaska" I was nevertheless always intrigued by "Alaska" and it's rugged frontier nature sparked many a daydream. When my sister, Lynnie, and I had the great fortune to fly to Fairbanks and meet Dad and his wife there it was a dream come true. We discovered why dad's love for Alaska was so strong, it is a beautiful, wild, rugged, friendly place. Well, the people are friendly, the land is obviously not. Not knowing exactly where Dad's fox-farm had been we made a journey 50 miles outside of Fairbanks. We pulled off the road at a spot where Dad knew he could walk back to the lake that had been behind his home. As I was recovering from a broken foot, I stayed in the car with Jo while Lynnie and Dad ventured back and found the lake. They came back with pictures of a cow Moose with her calf dining in the lake and I was feeling a bit saddened by my disability.

So, working up my courage we decided to do a little adventuring just around the area we had parked. The Lord was smiling on me that special day! In a moment of reverent quiet, surrounded by beautiful birch trees and evergreens that were dense and dark having survived many harsh winters we came upon the very fox pens that my father's father had made in 1925! Many were in the same condition that they had been left in when Dad had left this land in 1942. It was truly a sacred moment.

From the front of the property the Tanana river spread and flowed with promises of violent runoff in days gone by and days to come. Rising above the river in the distance the Denali mountains glistened like diamonds. The air fresh and clean, the sounds of leaves rustling in laughter at their own beauty, the rushing of the waters overwhelmed my soul and etched a sacred memory and love for a land that my father loved.

I can't say I was ever "raised in Alaska" or have any right to claim the land for myself. My heart belongs to another place. But forever, Alaska is a diamond to me. Proud, strong, valiant, the things I see in my dad.