Great Mothers in My Life!

I spent a lot of time working on this post on Mother's Day.  I intended to share pictures of my mother, Aloha; Steve's mother, June; and my Grandmother, Annie also.  However after a couple of hours of not getting the photos to load onto the sight, I was forced to take care of some other things.  Now it's been almost a week and I guess I'll just move on.  These three women impacted my life in so many ways.  I love them and miss them dearly.

These next women are the amazing and incredible mothers of my grandchildren.  I love each of them so much and think that they are FABULOUS MOTHERS.  Each has "upped the program" and each is doing a far better job than I did--I was blessed to have wonderful daughters and my sons married above themselves so that is good.  These brilliant, terrific children need special mothers and all of these mothers are doing exactly what they need to do.  With the help of the Lord and assistance from their husbands, they will succeed in raising a generation of valiant disciples in Christ.  Congratulations!  I am inspired by them and appreciate all they do for their families.

                               Tricia with her daughter, Jessica

                                                                       
                                           Liberty

                                         Tiffany with Abigail

                              Hilary with her baby, Jameson, and GG Ann

                               Heather with her youngest two, Elsie & Quinn

                                            Jenn with Baby June

My sisters are amazing women also and they mean the world to me.  Cathy and Jackie each have so many special qualities and a lot of love they continually share with me.  They are two of my heroes.

My friend Linda Burton is the ultimate example of motherhood and womanhood.  It is only fitting that she was called as the General Relief Society President.  I can't think of a finer example of a righteous Latter Day Saint woman.  I will say that she reminds me of my younger siste,r Cathy.  I think they were made out of adjoining molds.

He's Full of Ideas!

Steve has been full of ideas lately!  I can hardly keep up with him.  That is normally my job- "don't worry if you miss an idea, another one will be along in 15 mintes."  This week he's the Idea Man.  I think that he was tired of my perching my computer on the corner of his desk. So...he wanted to bring the little antique desk up from the basement.  Since he wasn't out of town on Monday, we started the day by disassembling his big desk, moving it and oiling it down.  Then we brought up the other desk.  This is how it looked.  Then we straigthened up the bsmt office and set up a table for my sewing machine.  Mission accomplished!  Whew!

 This week marks the year anniversary of my father's death.  I must admit I've thought of him often.  I think he has been busy and influential in his assignments on the other side of the veil.  I wanted to take Ann to lunch this week, so I was able to arrange for Steve K and Cathy to join Ann and me for lunch.  It was very pleasant  and a nice way to remember Dad.  After the lunch, Cathy and I followed Steve to see the house he is in the process of renovating for I Promise.  He and another fellow are painting, furnishing and fixing this place.  Their kitchen doesn't have a stove and some other amenities so for now, they are the only guys living there.  When it is finished, there will be room for 4 or 5 others and Steve will be the house manager. 

 This "hold the camera out and try to take your own photo" was partially successful.  We've looked better.

Today, I joined with several hundred campaign enthusiasts to meet with Dan Liljenquist and his campaign heads for instruction and committment to help him prepare to defeat Senator Hatch in the June primary election.  After all of my delegate work, I am convinced that it is time for a change in Washington.  It's time for Hatch to retire.

 This is Dan's wife and his youngest daughter, just 2 years old.  I am so appreciative of the sacrifice that she is willing to make for our country.  When I talked with her, I felt almost weepy and overwhelmed with gratitude.  What a terrific family he has!

 I met a new friend today named Deena.  She lives in Senator Hatch's condo building in the downtown area.  We both did a lot of research on his voting record.  I hope that we can repeat this photo at the end of June and our smiles will be just as big as we pose with our next Senator, Dan The Man.

Did I Do My Job?

Yesterday was the State Republican Nominating Convention.  It started at 7 am and continued until the business on the agenda was finished which turned out to be close to 9 p.m. I dropped off my fellow delegates and arrived home about 9:25 p.m. I was a bit tired.  I had spent a lot of time in the previous three weeks attending candidate's events to meet them and hear about their plans, ideas and passions. I asked a lot of questions and took a lot of notes.  I also wrote several blogs about the experience and the concerns I was learning about for the Deseret News/KSL delegate panel I had been selected for.  There was a lot of political rhetoric with some real heartfelt moments sprinkled throughout.  I attended over 30 events and 3 or 4 debates plus some on-line debates held in other areas of the state.  I believe that our biggest accomplishment as delegates was to require Senator Hatch to face a primary election in June. He spent over $5 million to avoid that.  But now the people can have their say.

I got such a kick out of this restroom situation.  I don't think I've ever seen the men's line exceed the women's but this one did.  All day long the men's line was consistently longer than the women's.  Maybe there were a lot more men there than women.  Regardless, I thought this was funny.

Here are the delegates from our ward.  Claudia, Pat and myself were from 2 different precincts but all from our ward.  I was quite succcessful in convincing them to vote my way.  Steve thinks I made the difference in the Hatch vote because he was only 32 votes away from victory.  He said he's sure I convinced at least that many people to vote for Liljenquist.  While I was gone all day, he rebuilt half of the planter box because it had some issues and put in the drip sprinkler system.  Notice our pretty pink blossomed tree we planted last fall.  We just love it!  We are so happy we planted it. 

Finally a Yard Project...

We have basically waited almost three years to do anything significant to our yard.  Last fall we planted a tree to give some shade and privacy to our bedroom window.  A couple of weeks ago, we bought some blocks to build a planter.  This week Steve worked on this project both before he left for Wyoming and after he returned.

 I helped a little with stacking the blocks to create the planter, but Steve did the large majority of the work.  I am so excited to have a planter box for our tomatoes, peppers, etc.  The neighbors have observed us without saying a word.  Finally Rod, next door, told us he thought it was great.  He asked if we got permission from the HOA and Steve said "No."  It looks so much better that I doubt anyone will complain.  If they do, too bad.  We have a beautiful new planter.  Hooray!

 While Steve was in Wyoming, I was busy selling a house, attending campaign presentations and a taping at KSL TV for selected delegates to share the experience of being a delegate.  It's been a whirlwind week as I have attended 2 or 3 presentations on some days and a state school board meeting on Friday. Then I have been figuring out how to blog and tweet experiences to the Deseret News/KSL group. Ah! The challenges of technology.  Somehow, I managed to squeeze in a book signing for one of my recent favorite books.  Ruta Sepetys, the daughter of a Lithuanian refugee, was in town signing her book Between Shades of Gray, which I highly recommend.  Because I came at the very end of the signing, she had time to visit and pose for pictures so I got one too.  I also squeezed in some visiting teaching and helping a neighbor.  Saturday, I got to tend Jameson while Hilary met with some geneologists on Steve's side of the family.  That brightened up a rather rainy afternoon!  Jenna was a great helper.  Adam was busy with soccer games which was good for me.

Not Eggsactly...

We had a lot of fun when Heather and Hilary and their families came visiting on Easter weekend, but mostly it wasn't about the eggs.  The kids did color a bunch of eggs, with Brinley and Jenna getting especially creative and helping the little ones enjoy the experience. 

 However, when the kids headed for the yard to find treats, there weren't very many eggs.  Mostly they found little bags of goldfish, chips, pencils, and a few taffies. Here's the stairstep photo Grandma June loved so much.

 The sleepover part with cousins is a rare occurence, but we managed to get everyone to bed at a somewhat decent hour.  The parents ducked out to Culvers for a treat with Grandpa so everyone was happy.
Sweet little Jameson is such a delight and spreads his joyful spirit throughout the family. Aren't we all blessed to have him?

 The next morning we all headed out to G-Grandma Ann's for the traditional lunch and egg hunt.  It would have been G-Grandpa K's 98th birthday and almost a year since his passing.  We wished him happy birthday.  It was a tender moment especially for me, and I think Ann.  I think he was happily observing the gathering of at least part of his large family.

 It was chilly and had snowed the day before so the 1-3 year olds had their hunt upstairs in the barn.  Here's a photo of the parents below.

 The rest of the children searched for their goodies along the cul-de-sac road that led to G-Grandma's house so as to avoid the cold, wet snow.

 We gathered for a picture with Grandma Ann and the members of our family in attendance.

 It was great to see and visit with cousins we haven't seen for a long time. Both Karlin's family and Riley's family were there after many years of absence.

 The sisters, Hilary and Heather, say goodbye at the end of the event.  Hilary's family headed for home as they had been gone all week.  Heather's family spent one more night at our house.   Lucky for us!

 Elsie, Quinn and Heather are skyping with Taylor, Jenn, Will and June later that same day.

 Easter morning, the kids gathered around for their Easter tradition of reading the story of Christ's death and resurrection by pulling scriptures out of eggs--one of the symbols of new life.

 While we all enjoyed the fun traditions of the Easter season, we are especially grateful for the true meaning of the Easter celebration.  Christ and His atonement are the reason for the season and we rejoice in the gift of His atonement and resurrection. As we think of our loved ones who have gone on before us, we are so very grateful for the hope and comfort Christ gives us that we will be with them again.  What a wonderful reminder Easter is of those precious blessings.

End of a Good Thing

Our last morning at the cabin near Zions, the buffalo came really close to our fence.  You can see that Steve followed the warning and stayed on our side of the fence.  The lone cow in the herd was rather outspoken but no one seemed to pay any attention.  I think watching the buffalo was one of Steve's favorite parts of the trip.

 We drove back through Zions so we could get some bumbleberry pancakes at Wildcat Willie's and then headed towards St. George.  I went crazy taking photos of Zions.  I guess I knew that it was coming to an end and I just wanted to capture it and hang on to all of the beauty.  Alas, my attempts were in vain.  I couldn't capture the majesty of the scenery with my little camera and very little skill.

We arrived home tired by happy on Thursday evening.  The next day I hosted a birthday lunch for my siblings.  Both Steve and Cathy celebrated birthdays in March.  We really enjoyed our brief reunion. 

That night Hilary, Adam and the kids stopped over on their way south for spring break.  They arrived just in time to get in on the skyping session with Taylor, Jen, Will and June.  Happy Birthday to Taylor.

Oh Jameson is so cute and growing like a weed.  He slept about 7 hours on Friday night.  Way to go, Jameson!!! Mothers everywhere are proud of you.