Happy Birthday Sweet Grandma!

1956

              February 27, 1925   ---   June  4 2009

Mom would have been 93 this year.  I can say with all honestly that mom was a friend to everyone.  When she was a young girl she brought extra lunch to share with kids who came with no lunch at all.  When another student threatened to tell the teacher that two girls were speaking Spanish at recess my mom told her that if she did that she would beat her up.  She just had a soft spot for anyone who was struggling.  She was an exceptional cook, a hard worker, and a wonderful grandmother.  In spite of her dementia she held tight to the memories of her past.  She loved my dad unconditionally and forgave him often.  They were blessed to have each other.

Quote

My goal in not to be better                                                               than anyone else but to be better                                                        than I used to be.
                                                                                                                                 Unknown Author

Special Visit

Amy had an appointment in Scottsdale with the kids this week.  As it turned out the office was close to the Veterans Cemetery in Cave Creek so they took a side trip and visited Grandad and Grandma's grave site. How proud they would be of all of their great grandkids!

Thank You!

The shooting at the high school in Florida has really weighed heavy on my heart.  I kept thinking of how horrendous it would be to send your children off to school one morning and find out that they would not be coming home in the afternoon.  How grateful I am for the knowledge that those parents will some day be able to see their children again.  Working at an elementary school was such a wonderful experience and I have to admit I loved every day of it.  Green Tree East was a unique school with probably 95% of the students living at poverty levels.  In spite of their challenges they were the sweetest kids.  And lucky for them they had some of the best adults guiding them towards something better.  With that in mind I wanted to do something for the staff at Green Tree East so I did what I do--bake cupcakes.  I spent yesterday baking and this morning I frosted over 60 cupcakes.  Scott and I delivered them before their lunch started.  I wrote a note thanking them for all they do for children who often don't have anyone to tell them they are great.  Teaching is a vocation (at least when you are a great teacher) and I always felt that the teachers that I worked with were doing the job because they loved children.  It was nice to be able to at least say "thank you" when there was little else that I can do..

Lemon-Blueberry Cupcakes

Chocolate S'mores Cupcakes

Churro Cupcakes

Happy Birthday Eden!

 4

Years 

Old

February 22, 2014

* Precocious 

* Funny

* Loving

* Smart

* Entertaining

Popcorn and a Movie

Looking forward to enjoying our new popcorn machine in the coming years!

Done!

The beginning of my shiplap wall

The first year in our house our sunroom had the flooring that we planned to put in the house.  Once that was installed I started thinking about what I would do with that space.  I wanted it to be a place for our teenage grandchildren to gather when they came to visit.  After thinking about what I wanted I decided that I would make it my garden room.  After a couple of weeks and help from Ellis I am so happy with the end results.

Quote

In the end, the number of prayers we say may                                                               contribute to our happiness,                                                                          but the number of prayers we answer                                                             may be of even greater importance.

                                                                         Dieter F. Uchtdorf

Back in the Family

I have spent a wonderful week scanning old family photographs that belonged to my parents.  Bless my sweet mothers heart for taking time to write names on the back of her pictures!  Once each picture was scanned I was able to then open the familysearch.org and insert them into the pedigree charts so that family who look will be able to see what some of their ancestors looked like.  For me it was wonderful to spend each afternoon enjoying fond memories I had of so many of them.

By the end of the project I had scanned in over 100 pictures.  In the process I made a discovery.  I had a beautiful picture of a girl named Ueral McGriff but when I went to add her to a family I couldn't find her on any of the family records.  Once I had completed inserting the pictures I closed that program out and decided it was time to find out where Ueral belonged.  I never met her but did remember my mom talking about her Aunt Ueral.  Fortunately I began a search for her and also fortunately she had such an unusual name that I only had about five possibilities.  Not only did I find her but I got her birth and death information.  I have her spouses name and their marriage date and the name of the daughter they had.   It was a wonderful feeling to be able to put her in with her parents and siblings on the family group sheet.  I hope there will come a time when she will have her temple work done.

Update

I thought I would give you an update on how dad is doing now that he has been taking an additional dose of medication.  He is doing so much better and is pretty much his sweet mellow self.  I have thought so much lately how awful for the Alzheimer's patient and their caregivers when they were experiencing extreme anxiety and there wasn't really anything that could be given that may have helped.  Just the couple of weeks dealing with dad and seeing him suffer so was extremely painful for both of us.  Although I know that there is no cure for this painful disease it is comforting to know that there are things we are able to do to make the journey a little less frightening for him and quite honestly for me. 

Wait for Aunt Neci

1892

If you ate at my parents table for any amount of time you would have heard, "wait for Aunt Neci" when you asked for food to be passed.  Apparently when my mom was a child this became a common comment when their "Aunt Neci" came for dinner.  Whatever you asked for she would say, "wait for Aunt Neci" and then she would put some of whatever you had asked on her plate before passing it on.  I never met her (she was my grandpa Hickey's step-aunt who as I understood it, he loved her very much.  Today I have been working on some family history and came upon two pictures of our famous guest that we have chuckled over many times when we ask for food to be passed our way.

Deborah Sampson

In Ava's class they did a program about the Revolutionary War.  Ava had the part about Deborah Sampson--the Woman Warrior of the American Revolution,.  When she was 11 she became an indentured servant which ended when she was 18.  After that she became a school teacher.  She had a desire to travel and see more of the world and decided that she would dress like a man and in 1781 she joined the Continental Army.  Shortly after, she was wounded.  She removed the bullet herself so they wouldn't discover her secret.  She was shot again 4 months later but it wasn't until she came down with the fever did a doctor discover that she was a woman.  She was honorably discharged in 1785.  She later married and had several children.  With the help of Paul Revere she eventually was given a General Service Pension in 1821.  Deborah said later that she found war to be "exhausting and terrifying."  I am sure that was true.

Ava's costume was made by her mom who did a phenomenal job and Ava recited her part to us when we picked her up from school.  She looked quite dapper in her uniform but in spite of that, no one would mistake her for a boy!