Grandma Young

Okay. So, I am a very emotional eater. I got into the ice cream as soon as I decided to write this blog. Early this morning, my Grandma Young passed away. She had been very ill. Just dying really. I didn't know how painful that could be. But, for some unknown reason she was holding on. I was actually very relieved when I was given the news. So grateful that she doesn't have to suffer anymore and that she can finally be reunited with her husband and the rest of her family. (I even have a secret hope that she was reunited with the spirits still to come to our little family!) She is the last of my grandparents to pass on. How grateful I am to have the knowledge of the gospel of Jesus Christ. To know that life doesn't end in death. To know that I will see her again.

As I put the kids to bed tonight I realized that they are sleeping on the beds we used to use for sleepovers at her house. She had this great trundle bed that us kids (and cousins) spent a lot of time on. When she was ready to move it out, I was the lucky grandchild that was around to claim it. (There are only 3 of her grandchildren still in Fallon.) Anyway, my children sleep on it now. Sarah on the low and Ben on the high. I have one other special piece of furniture. When I was pregnant with Benjamin I asked for her rocking chair. It was broken and she had put it away so it wouldn't get worse. On the bottom of the seat was a yellow sticky-note. It said "this belongs to Betsy Bake" and was dated in the mid 90's. I've rocked both of my babies in that chair and adore the picture of me rocking my sister in it when we were little.

When I was 8 and had my appendix taken out I got to stay at Grandma and Grandpa's for a week. We didn't live too close to the hospital and mom and dad were going on an anniversary trip. So, they left me there for the follow-up visit. I remember wearing her soft, white sweater to walk up to the road and get the mail each day, and just the special feeling of being there - just me. I have random memories of riding in their car and can remember the smell of it. I remember Grandma had gumdrops in her purse. She was a great one for games. As we got older we caught her cheating more. I think she really liked to win. We played Sorry, Rack-o, Skip-bo, Rummikub, and Yahtzee. Ben remembers that we took Candy land over to play with her about a year ago. I'm glad he has some memories of her - his great-grandma in the yellow house. She would have been 91 at the end of this week. We celebrated her birthday a month ago. On our birthdays she would send or give us a card. It was meant to be opened the morning of our birthday and always had a $1 bill in it. With 25 grandchildren that was what she felt she could afford. As we got older it didn't matter how much it was - we just loved that it was her thing. I kept the one from my 18th birthday and probably have a few more still in the birthday cards. She also had some neat Christmas presents. She often gave us all the same thing. We got flannel sheets and copies of old family pictures of her and grandpa as kids. On our 18th birthdays we were given a frame with coins from our birth year. She found and sorted the coins herself and framed them, too. At marriage we were given a quilt that she made. She had them all quilted before she couldn't quilt anymore. We were invited into the bedroom where she would lay them out and we would pick our quilt. Kannon and I were given 4 quilts when we got married and hers is the one we use most of the time. I love my grandma. I love that she kept a short journal and I was able to learn more about her through it. She always made me feel loved and I appreciate her work as a wife, mother and grandmother. She has truly affected my life, making me want to do better. To be worthy to see her again someday. (I hope Janet doesn't mind, but she wrote a neat little tidbit about her Grendma - I never called her that- on her blog Janet's writing)

All About Mom

Benjamin tagged:

1.What is something mom always says to you? No

2.What makes mom happy? when I give her a hug

3.What makes mom sad? when I disobey her

4.How does mom make you laugh? I don't know

5.What was mom like as a child? you played dolls (this is after I told him a bunch about me, last night)

6.How old is mom? 33 - Is it really (No) 32, do it 32

7.How tall is mom? I don't know - just skip that one to never do it

8.What is moms favorite thing to do? sometimes you read books

9.What does mom do when you're not around? I think, I'm guessing alright, I think you do the clothes

10.If mom becomes famous, what will it be for? play the french horn

11.What is mom really good at? loving us

12.What is mom not very good at? driving at night time

13.What is mom's job? to wash Sarah

14.What is mom's favorite food? those noodle things

15.What makes you proud of mom? I don't know

16.If mom were a cartoon character who would she be? I like this one - you figure it out, I want it to be on Scooby-Doo, there are only 2, Velma or Daphne (okay, Velma, she's smart) I'm smart too, so I'll be Fred.

17.What do you and mom do together? read stories

18.How are you and mom the same? I don't know

19.How are you and mom different? cuz we are

20.How do you know mom loves you? you be good to me

kidney quilts

http://kidneyquilts.blogspot.com

Just wanted everyone to know about a fundraiser going on for my cousin Jen. She needs a kidney transplant and has had the blessing of finding a donor in my other cousin Margaret. There is a definite need for funds to help with all of the expenses. They are having an auction in Utah and an online raffle for some fun quilts.

Sarah, too!

Not to be outdone is my beautiful Sarah! One of her "talents" (so I use that word liberally, how many 2-year-olds really have talents!?) is walking in heels! She probably does it better than me! She has always loved shoes. It was one of her first words. And she's particular about what shoes she wears each day. I have soooo many of these pictures.

These are the cute play shoes I got her for her birthday. She wore them outside (and left them outside) so much that they are worn out now. She was still trying to walk around in them yesterday even though one shoe is kind of broken.
These are mommy's heels, Sarah admiring herself in the mirror. I often find my shoes (and Ben's or Daddy's) scattered around the house and think, "I didn't wear these?!" Only to realize where they came from.
I know, I know, eating should not be considered a talent. And I don't know why I have so many pictures of her eating!? Maybe because she still gets so messy! Here are the powdered donuts - Daddy's favorite treat!
Uncle Nathan was teaching her how to dip and lick the frosting. Her lips and fingers were so blue!
Sarah is a great one for making me smile. She has always been a happy girl. Even as an infant she would grin at me as soon as she saw me each morning. Now I get the addition of hearing "I love you" too. Tonight as we were leaving Grammy and Papa's house I caught her giving Papa a real kiss, those are pretty rare. Lucky him!
And who knew you could be this talented! Two binkies at once! (She calls them "binkins". I think she got it from me saying something like, "put your binkie in.") In this picture you can also see her pink blankies. She has three of them, they are just little bitty things, but she has to have one whenever she has her binkie in. She throws a fit if she sees me washing them!

Benjamin's Talents

I decided to brag a little, (everyone's doing it!) Benjamin just finished his swim lessons for this summer. He did so well! We kind of got a late start this time and just barely got him in the last session. He didn't shy away from anything they asked him to do and passed with flying colors. We swam some more that day and it was fun to watch him diving for rings. He also wanted to jump off the diving board. I was in the water to help him if he needed it, but he swam all the way to the side by himself.

So, this is him jumping in with this floaty thing. See his great teacher - they had so much enthusiasm, I was really impressed with the outdoor pool (we did indoor pool last year).
I tried to get a picture of him jumping off the diving board when they were testing out life jackets. He was so quick! I got a picture of him running down the board, the next turn I got him as he landed in the water. He had no fear!

So, here we are with soccer. Last year was a trial. I guess that word "trial" can be used two different ways here, and it fits either way. It was pretty bad. I didn't think he'd ever be able to do team sports. He cried whenever someone else got a chance to kick the ball, or score -even if they were on his team! I loved how they had the games. We'd go on Friday eves to practice and scrimmage. Then we were done til the next Friday. They were late telling us when it started and we went on vacation, so we ended up only doing about 6 of them. I guess I have selective memory, because we decided to try again this year.
We're on our 3rd week of soccer, we've had one game. They put the kids on teams of 5, and told us "we don't have a coach for your kid yet." (1st time I wanted to get a refund and call it quits.) There ended up being 3 different dads willing to assist, so we have 3 "coaches" now. The first 2 practices we joined with a couple of other teams. At the 3rd practice I didn't see the "coaches" but Ben was there and practiced. When I showed up for the 4th practice, the lady in charge told me that our team switched their practice time. (Wanting to quit again!) So we went to Walmart for an hour (looking for shin guards, again!) and then back to the field for our practice. They had their first game on Saturday. Ben's team lost, but he was okay with it. On Monday when it was time to get ready to go, he told me he didn't want to do soccer anymore. I made him go anyway and he had a great time. He would really like to try gymnastics, even more now that he's seen it on the Olympics. I'll still try to work that out for him later on this year or next year. We've got games every Saturday (except 2) until the end of October! I had no idea it was so long! I don't know how mom's do that with more than one child all year long! To me that's a little crazy. (And hopefully I don't go crazy before it's over!)
Okay, so this isn't so much a talent as it is something he just loves to do. Whenever I pull out the camera for pictures he automatically makes a face. I've deleted sooo many pictures off my camera because we already had enough goofy ones! So, no he's not just sucking the popsicle, he stopped to pose this way. I've got him posing blowing out a marshmallow, with his tongue out, cocking his head to the side, falling down, with his fingers in his ears, one leg up, etc., etc., etc.
I think Ben is so bright (I'm not biased or anything!) He learned rather quickly how to write all of the upper-case alphabet and then started sounding out words (thank you leapfrog!) This was a message for me that he did back in May. If you're struggling it says: FOUR MOM THIS IS U TRAIN FOR MOM. I probably told him how to spell train, but the rest would have been him. It's fun to see how he sounds out some words. One day he wrote down as many B words as he could think of. BUKIT =bucket, BRICK, BELT, BLONE =bologna, BUTR =butter, BRED =bread. My challenge is teaching him why it's not the way it sounds. Like wut is spelled what, but phonetically should be spelled like watt. For those of you who don't know yet, I've decided to give homeschooling a try. You can see what I'm up against! I don't know how to explain it to him other than to say, "that's just how it is, it doesn't make sense."

Our Weekend

We really enjoyed having Daddy home for a few days. He got back on Friday and I think we just hung out at home doing errands and normal friday stuff. We spent Friday evening at my friends' house watching the Olympic opening ceremonies. We really enjoyed the company, the food (we all brought something to snack on - I made spinach dip and apple dip, YUMMY!), and the show. It was fun to visit during commercials (yeah, they're good for something) and we all marveled at the fabulous job of designing and performing the program.
On Saturday, Kannon told Ben we were going to do something as a family. So, I made a list of things we could do in town that were free or super cheap. From the list it was a unanimous decision to float down the river. We had to wait until Sarah woke up from her nap. We borrowed tubes from my parents and went around 2 or 3. The water was so perfect! Not too cold, but cool enough to keep us comfortable with the sun shining on us. Benjamin wasn't sure he would like it, he kind of wanted to swim instead of float, but we convinced him it would be fun. I sat in my tube and we tossed Sarah on top. And then we just floated. It was so peaceful and relaxing and we really enjoyed being together. I enjoyed the nature, and wished I had a water-proof camera. We even saw some ducks along the way (Sarah would say "quack quack" and even started singing the "Happy Song" from the primary music!) Sarah kept saying she wanted to get out or go home, but wasn't willing to move from her spot on my lap. She told Kannon that she had fun, when it was all over. Ben wanted to do it again, right then. So, I'm hoping we can go again this week or next with my mom, who loves to float down, too.
We had to send Kannon off to work again right after church on Sunday (we get out at 3:30). So, here we are on our 2nd week without the man!

Just a quick entry here - I did win a prize in the fair this last weekend. I had entered my three pics and got a 5th, 4th and 3rd. The 3rd place was Sarah on the chair. It was a champion and I won $15! Woohoo for me! There is another photo contest in conjunction with the Cantaloupe Festival. It's a themed one. I'll have to see if I can figure something out for it. Anyway, it was a fun experience and super-exciting to win a prize! Ben was jealous of my ribbons, so he is going to make a recycled art project for the Festival. I'll let you know how it goes. Oh, and we survived our first few days without Dad. He's home now and we're happy. At least he has work! And my weight-loss thing's not going so well. I've not eaten like I should lately and still haven't figured out the exercise thing. I'm still not pregnant and feel like I'm part of the cause - really NEED to lose weight to make it work. Keep me in your prayers. I'm trying!

We had a real tender moment this evening. On Monday Kannon was laid off. They actually asked him to take a week, maybe 2, off. But, we can't afford to do that so he asked them to lay him off. The way it works in the union is that when you get laid off you go on a list and the next hires come from the top of the list. The company he's worked for the past 6 years just didn't have enough work. I know they'll be sad to lose him. He really wanted to get another spot in Reno so he could continue to teach the welding class (Tues and Thurs nights to the apprentices). But, he didn't want to feel like he was betraying this company by going to work for their competitors. So, today he decided to take a position in Wendover, NV (or UT - depending on which side you're on!). He called me about 1 with that info and I agreed. It's actually the idea that had been in my head since we found out all of this on Friday. He will work 4 - 10's and they asked him if he could start tomorrow. The kids were napping while Kannon and I discussed this on the phone. When Ben got up I explained to him what was going on. We had kind of prepared him for this by talking about it a few days ago, letting him know it was a possibility. Benjamin is a daddy's boy. He wants to spend all of his waking hours with dad and gets pretty upset when he doesn't feel he's had enough time with dad that day. So when I told him that Dad would be leaving tonight for a few days he got a little teary. From then until Kannon left he would cry off and on. That was hard for me. He doesn't usually get emotional like that. He cries when he doesn't get his way and whines a lot, but this was a "my feelings are hurt" kind of cry. It was sad. And I'm a little sad too. (Sarah just liked all the loves and hugs going around!) Kannon spent almost the first 2 years of Ben's life working 4 10's out of town. I loved having the 3 days off together, but by the time it ended I could tell how much Ben missed his Daddy. They said this job will be at least 3 months, maybe more - but it won't be years like the other one was. Looking back I should've moved with him. It was just really important for him to see his Dad every day. I think we'll kind of feel this one out. Maybe make some changes if it gets tough. We do have family close to this job and I'm sure they'd help us if we chose to go there for awhile. This day has been a testimony builder, though. When he first told me of the lay-off I had faith that we'd find what we needed to take care of our family. On sunday we fasted for that need to be met. I'm not really surprised how quickly it's worked out and know that it's an answer to our prayers.