Life and Other Things.

I have been trying to get to this post for awhile. We have had a few adventures since Christmas started. It was planned for us to go to Ed"s and Judy's for Christmas eve and day. But then it started to snow and snow and snow! It stopped here, but continued in the Portland and Vancouver area for days, all through the holiday. So it was a choice, we could stay home, drive seven hours to Vancouver and maybe not make it. We would've only been able to go about 20 or 25 miles an hour after Salem. Sharon called and said why didn't we just come on down there and spend the holiday with them, so we did. There was some snow in the mountains, but it was just mostly rain. I loved seeing everyone at the coast and all in all we had a wonderful time. We came home, and got rested up and spent New Year's eve and day with Ed and family. By that time all of the snow was gone and the roads were clear and it was back to rain. I spent the day after new years with Debbie and Fairy. We went to lunch and visited. Judy had planned to come, but one of the dogs got chewed by the others and had to go to the vet, so that is where she spent her hours. I got wonderful presents from everyone thank you so much, you are all too good to us. It was a really relaxing new year. Grandpa and I got most of the decorations off the tree and everything is out in the shop now except for a few wrapping items. So we need to organize the totes and get them upstairs. I plan to do that tomorrow, and clean the rest of the house. I went to enrichment and helped to sew receiving blankets for the neo-natal unit at River Bend Hospital. We are donating them for the babies that are going home. They send them home wrapped in a new blanket if they have them. Cathy said that we made 35 of them. Not too bad I think for a small ward. I love making something like that so rewarding. We had a funny thing happen on Sat. morning. The kitty was outside and dad opened the garage door and looked out and he said there under the floor was the biggest rabbit he had ever saw, and the cat was staring at him afraid to move. The rabbit darn him had torn up my planter bed digging for something to eat I am sure. He made a big tunnel and a bigger mess. Grandpa was mad and I think that the rabbit was lucky to live. So he started to talk to the neighbors to find out where the rabbit came from and what he was doing in our yard. Turns out the O'Donnell next to us said that there were two of the rabbits and they had eaten up Chris's garden in the summer, and his wife was crying and upset about it. So we found out who they belonged to and they had escaped at the beginning of summer and they can't seem to catch them. Dad told them they better get them before we plant another garden or they won't be around to catch. I really don't want to do anything to the rabbits, but they need to control them, it is bad enough to keep the garden away from the deer here, now we have two tame rabbits to deal with that are the size of a small giraffe. Brother! I have such a great time with that small garden space planning and planting, it would be so disappointing to have it all dug up by them. I pray they will catch them or I will call the animal control and see what can be done. Well it is late and I need to go to bed and get rested so I can do all of the chores for tomorrow. I love you all and hope you all have a great new year.

The Story OF The Winter Easter Lily

Sometime around Easter Ed bought me a beautiful lily, it was covered in blooms and buds and really lifted my spirits. It bloomed for a month or more and like most house plants that I get I enjoyed it a lot. But it finished blooming and I watered it and one day I noticed that it was really wilted and I thought I think I'll throw it in the planter in front of the window in the planter box. I planted it there and chopped it off at the bottom of the stem. I haven't thought much about it for a long while, as I thought it was supposed to bloom in the spring. Now there are lots of plants out there Rosemary, Roses, Sage, and others so we water and feed those plants, and the lily has grown up over the height of the window and now it has 2 beautiful white blooms, and 4 buds, as if it doesn't know that it is Fall and almost winter. Since it is protected by the house the two freezes we have had haven't bothered it and it continues to look lovely. I can't believe it really, it has to be totally confused about when it is supposed to bloom, or maybe it thought I'll bloom now to give Janell a lift. It smells really wonderful too. I think it is wonderful how sometimes Heavenly Father creates something that does something unusual, and does something that it is totally out of character as is the case of the lily. I don't know why it chose to bloom at this time of year, but I will enjoy it's loveliness and be grateful for it blossoms. I have really enjoyed the fall this year, as it has really been beautiful, the trees have really had dresses of red and gold. The sun has been out most days, and it usually rains on Halloween, but this year it was pleasant. It wasn't cold as in past years, quite unusual also. I hope you all enjoyed the Autumn this year at your house. I have had my flu shot, and then one of my old crowns broke, I really shouldn't complain as it has lasted for thirty five years or more. Tom Elliott the first dentist I had here put it in and it was the first one I had. I hated losing it as it is so expensive to replace. I have to do it though, as it braces and supports my partial, and without that I wouldn't have any teeth to chew with. I tell you all don't get any older as it brings on all kinds of troubles, and pains. Not that I am complaining as I have it a lot better than most of the people with my problems. I can walk and do my own house cleaning and laundry, so I am thankful that I don't have false teeth like some of my friends do. I am grateful for all of you and your sweetness and love you all show for both grandpa and I, we love and appreciate you all. I especially appreciate my own children and their spouses ( I have had them the in-law children so long that they seem like my own) I am so blessed to have such caring and loving children. They have always been so good to me. I love them so much. It is a wonderful blessing to have been their mother. Well I need to go to bed so I can get up in the morning for church. Ed went to the Temple to do the spanish today, and he enjoyed being there, that is another thing I am grateful for. He rides with Brother Nebecker and his wife, and Pres. Jensen. He is fortunate to be able to go and not have to drive, as I don't think he would make it if he had to go by himself. It would be too hard and dangerous, as he would fall asleep. I went to Time Out For Women with Sharon, Judy, Debbie, and my friend Cathy. It was wonderful and I loved every minute of it. It was my birthday gift from Steve and Sharon. It was truly a special one and a lot about Joseph and the pioneers also on Friday night. Really wonderful! Catch all of you later.

I Love The Gospel Of Jesus Christ

We had an area Stake Conference broadcast for Oregon today, and I really got a lot out of it. I enjoyed Elder Uchltdorf"s talk and it started me to thinking of my roots in the gospel. As some of you know I joined the church when I was 11 years old, and was the first of my family to see the light so to speak. If I hadn't of seen that light I don't know where we would all be at this time. It is sobering of me to think about. I started to go to church with my great uncle Jeff Ricks, and his wife Susie my grandmother's brother on my mom's side. My sister Leona went sometimes, but she was 4 years younger than I so it was harder for her to be committed. Also I was the oldest of all of the children in my family and that makes you a little more mature than the others sometimes. I loved to go to church and we met over the union hall upstairs. It was just a small place as the church wasn't built at that time. It must have been in the works, as I was one of the first ones baptized in the new ward building. I just don't remember that part of it, and I don't know the year that it was finished. I had a teacher named Annabelle Jackson for SS and I truly loved the stories about Daniel in the Lion's Den, Adam and Eve and their Sons Cain and Able, Moses, Abraham, the book of Mormon stories, of Samuel, Alma, and all of the others she told. She had a big flannel board and told lots and lots of stories. Sometime later the missionaries started to come out to our house and teach the folks, I am sure uncle Jeff put them up to it, but I suppose they could of come because of me. They went through a few missionaries before they started to really get interested. We lived in a small house at Spicewood Springs( wish I had that 10 acres of land today, it is worth millions.) We moved to a place on Herrigot lane and the missionaries still came and taught the folks. My mom had a hard time quitting smoking, and for Dad it was the coffee. Dad worked most Sundays at that time as he worked 7 days a week at the Tally Ho restaurant. After we moved he went to work for Arkies's Grill and only worked 6 days of the week. All of this time I am coming to know more and more of the church and it's teachings. I am getting older and I watch someone get baptized and I think of it for myself. I start to pray for me to have the opportunity to get to know more, so I start to read more of the Bible stories myself. I don't have a Book Of Mormon at this time, I don't know why, maybe the missionaries thought I couldn't have read it? I become really more and more interested, and at about 10, I start to bug mom about getting baptized, each day my testimony grows stronger, and I continue for the rest of that year to ask mom if I can get baptized please, please. She always says the same thing, that she will talk to dad and they will decide, and once she said I could wait until I was 16, and I told her that I wouldn't wait that long, please talk to dad about it. By the time I was 11 I know the gospel is true and that I am a Child Of God(even though that song had yet to be written) I save my money to buy a white dress and mind you I didn't have much money at the time, I save anyway and continue to pray for the folks to let me join the church, as I knew that it was the only true church upon the earth and that Joseph was a prophet, I knew and no one was going to tell me differently. I was so positive I continue to talk to my mom, and she says she will speak with dad. One day I was walking with daddy or at the store with him, and I decide to take matters into my own hands and ask him myself. He asked me if I believed it to be true, and I said that I was positive it was. He then said he would speak with the missionaries and uncle Jeff and as far as he was concerned I could. I couldn't believe it!!!! I felt it taken so long for me to be baptized, however I had only been attending for two years. Time goes so slowly when you are that age, I wish it would go more slowly NOW! I have a great respect for time and how it is spent in our lives and I feel we need to use our time here on this earth more wisely and enjoy all of our moments. Savor all of the joyful moments, and the ones of trial also, as you will not pass that way again. I know that when the children are small or you are waiting to get some, it is hard. Stop and enjoy, as time goes by on wings of lighting and enjoy to trip. I can truly say I have loved my life and I would not change anything or the way I have grown from my trials and all of the joy I have experienced. I will say that I don't think it would have been as wonderful without the gospel in my life. I joined the church of August of that year and I have been going in it ever since. Just 3 months after my eleventh birthday I joined The Church Of Jesus Christ Of Latter Day Saints. What a memory that is to me and as I said in the beginning, think of all of my family, it is the most wonderful thing in my life. I am so grateful for all of my four children, 19 grandchildren, and now the cute little 8 great ones. Not to mention my good husband without whom none of this would be possible. My parents joined about 2 years later and all of my sisters and my one brother. Four of my sisters have temple recommends and are active in the church. Of these my sister Leona has a daughter that will be married in the temple she has 5 sons also that were raised in the Catholic faith. Marie has 7 children of these 5 have been sealed in the temple and 3 of her boys served missions. Sherry has 4 boys one deceased and one single holding a temple recommend one sealed in the temple and 2 that served missions. Linda has 7 children and only one has really embraced the gospel and she has 8 children and of those 7 are sons and will probably serve missions and be sealed in the temple, my other siblings aren't active in the church. I have one son that has served a full time mission and all 4 have been sealed in the temple. I have several grandsons that have served full time missions and 8 grandchildren that have been sealed in the temple. It is a great blessing to me to look at all of you and think that it all started with a 9 year old's dream of getting baptized. I think also of all of the converts that have been baptized by all of the missionaries that have served in our family and I am humbled by the work of a wonderful Heavenly Father who knows and sees all and his Son Jesus Christ who gave us the ability to repent of our sins through the Atonement and become like Him. What a blessing and a privilege it is to have lived in this time when so many wonderful things are happening on this earth. How richly blessed we are to have this most precious thing in our lives and to be able to know that He Loves Us and Cares For Us. On another note Mike and Amy came to our house today and had dinner after the broadcast and we so enjoyed having them. It is a wonderful blessing to have grandchildren. I appreciate them so much and I love how they are so interested in the things that are happening in our world and the sane way that they all look at it. Abe came yesterday and took his voting ballot with him after he took the time to vote. I love you all and pray for all of you that you may have all of your needs met. Love Grandma aka Nonnie

CANNING LOST PURSE & LIFE!

It has been so long since I last posted, and most of you won't check for awhile, so I may have to wait for the comments. I have canned fruit for the first time in about 3 years. I just haven't had the energy and it has been too overwhelming for me. But with Ed's help thank goodness I have peaches 21 pts. pears 21 pts. and apples lots of apples on the tree this year, so we have frozen 12 pie fillings, and canned 22 pts. Plus I have made a lot of jam from the peaches and pears. I am so grateful to be done now. I need to clean the floors, and I will get help with that, so it won't be so hard. I have also been working at the beauty shop some. They are slow this week so I was able to finish the canning. I am so grateful that Ed made me a place to can out in the shop, so we doesn's heat the house up, and that has been wonderful. I do make the jam inside, but all the jars of fruit was cooked outside:) Wonderful! Ed also put a new motor in the car, and we have had the dings of paint fixed. So we have a nice running car, thanks to the genius of Ed. I have to tell you about losing my purse, I went shopping in Trader Joe's last week and as I finished, I got my keys out in the store, and put the sacks in the car, got in the car and drove home. I didn't notice that my purse wasn't in the car until I got home :( and when I looked for it to go into the house, it wasn't anywhere to be found!!! I left it in the cart. Oh brother, I thought I will have to cancel all of the credit cards, debit cards, etc and not to mention the gift cards, plus the $60. cash in it. We had just changed banks and all of the debit cards and checkbook were there. I couldn't believe I had done such a careless thing!! Besides the fact that I loved that purse, I knew it would be gone for sure. So I started to cry as I went into the house yelling for Ed and was so upset. I called TJ's and explained the situation to him and he asked "what color is it"? I said blue, and he said "I have it here" I couldn't believe it! Truly amazing. We went back and picked it up, and everything was there, so very honest soul had turned it in. Thank God!!! I was never so grateful in my life, I thanked Heavenly Father all the way home and for days after, I was so thankful, I later realized that my Temple recommend was there also. It would have been so hard to replace all that was in that purse. It has renewed my faith in people, and I feel so blessed by Heavenly Father, for this and I am so grateful for having more enegry and other blessings. I am so thankful I can read the blog each night and share a little of your lives with each of you. I love hearing about each of you and all of the things that are going on with you. I am joining a book club with some of the sisters of the ward, I think it will be wonderful. We have just finished reading our first book, The Giver by Lois Lowery. It was interesting, and has a lot of food for thought in it. It is a book for young adults, and is very well written. I plan to try to find a watercolor class for this winter. I don't seem to paint unless I am with a class for motivation. I will try to post more often, to let you know what is going on with us. Love you all

Summer Time Activities & Little Things

I haven't posted for a long time, because I have been too involved in other things and reading your blogs. We have been kinda busy also, and at times I think about it but it is too late or I have other things to do. I enjoyed my birthday a lot. We had a wonderful time and everyone came it was great. The 4th was really exciting as all of the grands were here and it's always fun to see them all together and to have fun with them. Jess and Crystal came from Portland and brought a lot of fireworks from Washington. Wow that was a blast in more ways than one. Grandpa is as big of a boy as the younger ones. He had a lot of fun throwing some small balls that exploded and lit up. All I did was watch the show and it was quite something. The neighbors really thought it was great. They all commented about it the next day. My garden grows and I am going to post a picture but I keep forgetting to take one. I have harvested a lot of lettuce, and there are peppers that are getting bigger each day, and tomatoes also. We went to Portland this past weekend to see the body building show that Ed Jr is in. It was really something to see as he won the masters in his age of men over 50 and then went on to take the trophy for the best all round master from 0ver 40 to 0ver 60. He is going to the east coast for nationals this week on Friday and if he wins that he gets money I think. I hope he wins. It is a lot of work for the short time he is up there competing, but it seems to make him happy, so I guess that is the most important thing. Grandpa has been going to see doctors for a pain that is in his calf muscle, and today they are thinking it has to do with the hip bone pinching the sciatic nerve and is causing all of the trouble, translated it means that he is probably going to have another hip replacement. What a pain for him, I pray it will go as well as the first one did. Abe is staying with us for awhile and he has been helping grandpa and looking for a job. Abe went to church yesterday, and had a wonderful time. It has been awhile since he has attended so it was good and he really enjoyed being there. I am glad for him, tonight he went to a family home evening social at some one's house for root beer floats I am doing well and trying not to fall again, as I had a small set back early in the month when I fell on my hip and knee on the kitchen floor. Somehow I caught my toe on the hem of my pants and lost my balance. I spent the next several hours getting ex rays and RX to help with the pain. The meds were hardly worth it as I only took one pill. Nothing was broken, but I was sore for a few days. It set me back for my walking a while, but I am working on it again. I am working at a small beauty shop really part time, and get my cuts, and perms free. Cindy the owner is a good friend, and Friday she is going to put some gel nails on me for practice. So I am just doing trading really. It is nice as I have sold some of my BeautiControl. Good for me, gives me a reason to get things more organised. That is about all of the news I can think of so I guess I will catch all of you later. Love you all

Mother's Day and Feeling Better

Well I have learned a lot in the past few weeks. I saw Donna the nurse practitioner that knows all about this device that I have in my chest. It was informative and interesting to say the least. They have a little machine that they put over it and it reads everything that has happened to my heart since I have had it. Truly amazing!!! It shows when the heart has went into bad rhythm and corrected it. All and all I think it is something that is really great for people like me. I am walking a little each day as much as my legs will allow me and I rarely get out of breath, but I don't push myself, so that I become overtired. All of the info goes to a computer and it tells them what they want to know about my heart. I truly feel much better, and people say I sound and look better, not so tired. I went outside today and planted some flowers and Grandpa plans to put me a bed on the edge of the patio and I will be able to put in a few veggies and lettuces and flowers. It should be easy to work in and will be 12 ft long and 1and 1/2 feet wide. I will be able to reach across it well. I think I will make some jam tomorrow with some berries that we have in the freezer. We are out pretty much and I didn't feel like making it in the summer last year. It is supposed to get warm tomorrow, I pray it does as I have been cold all spring. A wet and cold spring this year. Had a wonderful Mom's day, at Ed's and Judy's, the kids and Ed cooked on Sunday and we had a great dinner. On Saturday us girls went to lunch and shopping for awhile and it was fun. First time in a long time I looked in stores and really enjoyed it. Yea!! Fairy's birthday fell on mother's day this year and so it was fun to take her to lunch and embarrass her at Red Robin. Sat. night we went with Nicole and Crystal to a karaoke place and they sang their hearts out, all went and even Ed Jr sang a couple of songs. It was fun. I haven't heard the kids sing in a long time. I think I can start to sew a little now, I hope I can hold the ruler so I can cut the squares now. I am looking forward to work on the quilting again. Our High Priests have an outing planned, remember most of them are OLD for this summer. This is our new Group Leader and he planned it. He wants to take a bike ride up to a park 5 miles outside of Cottage Grove, and bring your own lunch!!!! Everyone is planning to do an outing so we can invite non members to learn about the church. I can't believe it, but he decided this all on his own without asking his other group leaders, which grandpa is one, about it. I and about two thirds of the ward don't plan to go. I haven't been on a bike in years, and to ride it for 5 miles on a highway is really silly. Most everyone I know doesn't plan to go. Oh well it takes all kinds to make the world go around. If you want to you can take your car up, you can, but who wants to go to a park without any tables and dusty gravel walks and no water. I shouldn't complain I suppose, I just can't believe it, nor do I think non members will like it. I suppose it is getting late and I have to do the dinner dishes still so I better get at it. I love you all and pray for you the best of everything. Love Grandma